This article explains how to solve the issues with the preview when you configure a document template. It also shows how to avoid the error messages that can appear when you try to upload a document template.

The preview does not display my document properly

The structure and display of the local document and the document preview in Personio are slightly different. The preview in Personio enlarges the document to a small degree, which means that all paragraphs are shifted. Additionally, when creating the document for an employee, the placeholders are filled with values. Thus, they use up more space than the placeholders themselves: e.g. {{street}} → Oxford Street.

To prepare your document, count in enough space for paragraphs, especially those with placeholders that will use up extra space when you will fill them with content. This way you avoid unwanted text breaks. You can also choose to place section breaks in your word document, at the end of a paragraph, to make sure a break will appear in your text at the place of your choice.

I get an error message after uploading a document template

Should you get an error message after uploading a document, this could be due to the following reasons:

• The placeholders are not drawn at all or not correctly
  Check if the placeholders are configured correctly, that the placeholder text is identical with the attribute name created under Settings > Employee Information or if it is a system attribute that has a different name when written as a placeholder.
• The gender variables are not drawn correctly
  Check whether the gender attribute is filled out in the employee or candidate profile (especially in the Recruiting module, the value might be missing) and if no pipe characters are missing.
• The text blocks for selection are not drawn correctly or the selection of an option does not work right
  Check the formatting of the text blocks, especially the right application of spaces and square brackets.

For document templates that have two columns, text blocks for selection can be challenging to configure. In case the text block does not pull the content as intended: separate each option you created for selection (e.g. yes or no) in a single box, connecting both columns.