Siebel Correspondence, Proposals, and Presentations Guide > Proposals >

Defining Proposal Template Sections

After you create the Microsoft Word documents and a record for the template, define the structure of the proposal template. A proposal is made up of sections that divide and subdivide the proposal. A single section might contain multiple components or a single component.

The type of a section depends on the nature of the data it contains. For example, file sections contain documents, chart sections reference Siebel charts, and so on.

You define the structure of the proposal template by creating sections in the Proposal Templates view of the Administration - Document screen. Sections are associated with the template record you create for the template. You must create top-level sections. Optionally, you can add subsections to these sections. The proposal structure can include multiple levels of sections because a subsection can contain other subsections.

This task is a step in Process of Creating Proposal Templates.

Creating Top-Level Sections for Proposal Templates

You must create top-level sections to insert into proposal templates.

To create a top-level section

1. Navigate to the Administration - Document screen, then the Proposal Templates view.
2. Navigate to the Sections list by completing the following steps:
   1. In the Templates explorer, click the plus sign (+) next to the template name folder.
   2. Click the plus sign (+) next to the Sections folder under the template name folder.
3. In the Sections list, create a new record, complete the fields described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Name	Type the name of the section.
   Sequence	Type a number to indicate the order in which the section appears in the proposal.

4. In the Section Type field, select the type of section.

   The available section types are described in the following table.

   Type	Comments
   Chart	Inserts a Siebel chart. You can insert the chart in the left margin, right margin, or center of the proposal, and you can change the x, y, and z axes in the chart.
   File	Inserts the content of files in DOC or TXT format.
   Locator	Inserts documents from the Siebel Encyclopedia. The Add Sales Tools dialog box displays the content in the Siebel Encyclopedia. For more information, see Adding Components to Proposal Template Sections. For example, Siebel Proposals can dynamically insert documents from the Siebel Encyclopedia that relate to the products of interest for an opportunity. If you want to dynamically insert text related to the products for the opportunity, use a locator section type. The file types must be DOC, TXT, or RTF. If more than one document meets the locator criteria you specify, Siebel Proposals inserts each document.
   Organization Chart	Inserts organization charts for the account or opportunity associated with the template. Charts are automatically centered in the proposal.
   Report	Dynamically inserts a Siebel report, such as Siebel Quote. When inserting reports, the Proposal engine converts the Actuate report to HTML and inserts the HTML version as a table in your proposal. When designing reports to include in Siebel Proposals, you might want to review the headers and footers because HTML can crop headers and footers. You can include only Actuate reports. You cannot include Microsoft Access reports.
   Table	Inserts Siebel application data into a table format. You select the fields to include, the sequence of the fields, and the column lengths. Tables are automatically centered in the proposal. For a table section type, you can also create a related table section. For more information, see Adding Related Table Subsections to Proposal Templates.

5. Complete the fields applicable to the section type.

   For the Chart section type, complete the fields described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Condition	Type the condition, if any, to apply to the section. For information about conditions, see Using Conditions in Proposal Templates.
   Business Object	Select the Siebel business object from which the chart information is taken. The Business Objects dialog box shows all available Siebel business objects. For example, select Opportunity.
   Chart or Table Name	Select the name of the chart applet. For example, select Opportunity Chart Applet - Current Opportunity Analysis. To display records from a multi-value group (MVG), select a list applet, not an MVG applet. If the list applet that you want is not available, use Siebel Tools to create the list applet for the child business component in the MVG. You do not need to associate this new list applet with a view.
   Search Spec	Type the search criteria to use to restrict data for the chart. For example, if you want to include revenue greater than $500,000, type Revenue > 500000.
   Width	Type the width the chart in the proposal document. The default width is 400 pixels.
   Height	Type the height of the chart in the proposal document. The default height is 300 pixels.
   Category	Type the option to use for the X-axis in charts that provide multiple X-axis options. For example, in the Lead Analysis by Rep chart, type Sales Representative or Quality.
   Function	Type the option to use for the Y-axis in charts that provide multiple Y-axis options. For example, in the Lead Analysis by Rep chart, type Number of Opportunities, Opportunity Revenue, or Average Opportunity Revenue.
   Series	Type the option to use for the Z-axis in charts that provide multiple Z-axis options.
   Chart Location	Select the location of the chart on the proposal page. For example, select Left, Right, or Center. Any text components you include in the chart section wrap around the chart. For example, if you insert the chart on the left, the text component is inserted to the right of the chart.

   For the File section type, complete the field described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Condition	Type the condition, if any, to apply to the section. For information about conditions, see Using Conditions in Proposal Templates.

   For the Locator section type, complete the fields described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Condition	Type the condition, if any, to apply to the section. For information about conditions, see Using Conditions in Proposal Templates.
   Information Retrieval Method	Select the relationship to use to find literature. For example, select Oppty Competitor Literature for the literature about competitors associated with an opportunity.
   Retrieved Literature Category	Select the type of literature (for example, brochures or specification sheets) to filter the documents from the Siebel Encyclopedia that you want to include in the proposal.

   For the Organization Chart section type, complete the fields described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Condition	Type the condition, if any, to apply to the section. For information about conditions, see Using Conditions in Proposal Templates.
   Business Object	Select the Siebel business object from which the organization chart information is taken. The Business Objects dialog box shows all available Siebel business objects.
   Chart or Table Name	Select the name of the applet that contains the organization chart data. For example, select Opportunity Organization Analysis Applet.

   For the Report section type, complete the fields described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Condition	Type the condition, if any, to apply to the section. For information about conditions, see Using Conditions in Proposal Templates.
   Business Object	Select the Siebel business object from which the report information is taken. The Business Objects dialog box shows all available Siebel business objects. For example, select Quote.
   Report Name	Select the name of the report. The Reports dialog box shows all available reports. For example, select Proposal Quote.
   Link Spec	Type the data to insert in the report. The syntax of this field follows: <Parent Business Component Name><Comma><Parent-ID Field Name><Slash><Child Business Component Name><Comma><Child-ID Field Name> You can find Link Spec information in the Siebel repository. For descriptions of these fields, see Siebel Tools Online Help. For a proposal quote, the Link Spec is Opportunity, Id/Quote, Opportunity Id. The Child-ID-Field-Name depends on if the relationship between the parent business component and child business component is one-to-many or many-to-many. You can include only Actuate reports.
   Search Spec	Type the search criteria to use to restrict data for the report. For example, if you want to insert only the active quotes for an opportunity, type Active = 'Y'.

   For the Table section type, complete the fields described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Condition	Type the condition, if any, to apply to the section. For information about conditions, see Using Conditions in Proposal Templates.
   Business Object	Select the Siebel object from which the table information is taken. The Business Objects dialog box shows all available Siebel business objects. For example, select Opportunity.
   Chart or Table Name	Select the name of the applet that contains the table data. For example, if you want to include the products in an opportunity, select Opportunity Product Applet.
   Width	Type the width that represents the percentage of the space available between the template margins. A value of 100 equates to 100% of the space between the template margins. If this field is blank, the width of the columns in the table is based on pixels.
   Table Fields	Click the select button to open the Table Fields dialog box. For each table field, add a new record, and complete the following fields for the record: Field Name. Type the field name of the field. For example, type Product. Sequence. Type the sequence in which you want the field to appear in the table. Width. Type the width of the field column in the table. Column width is measured in pixels. The default (and minimum) column width is 100 pixels. You can also define column width by a percentage of the table width. When you enter a value for table width, column width equates to a percentage of total table width. For example, if there are three fields in a table, and the table width is 100, field widths of 25, 65, and 35 equate to 25%, 65%, and 35% of the total table width. If the table width is blank, the field widths equate to 25, 65, and 35 pixels. Alignment. Select the alignment of the data in the field. For example, select Left, Center, or Right.

Adding Subsections to Proposal Templates

After adding top-level sections, you can add subsections to them.

To add subsections to an existing section

1. Navigate to the Administration - Document screen, then the Proposal Templates view.
2. Navigate to the Sections list for subsections by completing the following steps:
   1. In the Templates explorer, click the plus sign (+) next to the template name folder.
   2. Click the plus sign (+) next to the Sections folder under the template name folder.
   3. Click the plus sign (+) next to the section name folder under the Sections folder.
   4. Click the plus sign (+) next to the Sections folder under the section name folder.
3. In the Sections list, add subsections in the same way you add top-level sections.

   For more information, see Creating Top-Level Sections for Proposal Templates.

   NOTE:  When a proposal is generated, a section is generated before any of its subsections and appears before subsections in the finished document.

Adding Related Table Subsections to Proposal Templates

After adding a Table Name section, you can add related tables that provide detailed information for the table. For example, if the tables subsection contains a quote record, the related table can contain the quote line items. The relationship between the information is essentially a parent-child-grandchild relationship; the opportunity is the parent, the quote table is the child, and the related table containing the quote line items is the grandchild.

To add a related table subsection

1. Navigate to the Administration - Document screen, then the Proposal Templates view.
2. Navigate to the Sections list by completing the following steps:
   1. In the Templates explorer, click the plus sign (+) next to the template name folder.
   2. Click the plus sign (+) next to the Sections folder under the template name folder.
   3. Click the plus sign (+) next to the section name folder under the Sections folder.
3. In the Sections list, make sure that the Section Type field for the selected section has a value of Table and that the Chart or Table Name field for the selected section has a table name.
4. In the Templates explorer, click the plus sign (+) next to the Related Table folder under the section name folder.

   NOTE:  The Related Table folder in the Templates explorer applies to only the Table section type. You can add related tables only for the Table section type.

5. In the Related Table form, create a new record, and complete the fields described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Business Object	Select the Siebel object to which this table is related.
   Table Name	Select the name of the related table applet.
   Field Name	Select the fields to appear in the table. If you select no fields, all fields appear. The width is interpreted the same way as the parent table section. If the width of the table section is set, the width of the fields is used as percentages instead of pixels.