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Creating Proposal Template Documents in Microsoft Word

The first step for creating proposal templates is to create documents in Microsoft Word. These documents consist of one style document and multiple component documents, as shown in Figure 27.

Figure 27. Word Documents That Can Make Up a Proposal Template

The components shown in Figure 27 are only examples. You could have other components, such as a table of contents or a set of collateral, and you could omit the quotes or product descriptions, for example. However, a template must have a style document and one or more component documents.

NOTE:  See Release Notes on Siebel SupportWeb for information about which versions of Microsoft Word are supported.

To create the template documents, you perform the following tasks:

• Planning the template. Decide what components the template should have.
• Creating the style document. Create the document that gives all the template's components a standard format.
• Creating the component documents. Create a document for each component of the template.

These tasks are a step in Process of Creating Proposal Templates.

Planning the Proposal Template

Before you create the documents in Word, you must determine how the proposal should look and what type of information it should contain.

Begin by looking at previous successful proposals to see what sections they included. For example, did they all have a cover letter, an executive summary, and a quote? Also, look at the documents your company currently has on hand, and the customer questions these pieces answer. Then decide how to organize your information. What topics could be standard across all proposals? What topics are specific to certain proposals? What is the best order for the pieces in the proposal you are creating? Finally, decide what fields to insert to customize their proposals (for example, contact name, account name, and industry). You will use this information to create bookmarks in your Word documents.

As part of your planning, you should look at the sample templates that come with Siebel Proposals, which are described in Sample Proposal Data: Field Mappings and Templates.

NOTE:  Proposals use fields from only one business object. If you want to include additional fields, you must use Siebel Tools to add the business components that include these fields to the business object that is the basis of the proposal.

Creating a Styles Document

After you plan your template, you work on the styles document for the template. This Word document will define the layout of your proposal and may include such things as headers, footers, your logo, and special margins.

The layout options you specify will automatically be applied to all the components used in the proposal.

NOTE:  Do not type any content into this document. The content will come from the individual component documents that you will create later.

To set up styles for your template

1. Create a new document in Microsoft Word.
2. Set up margins, headers, footers, fonts, and other layout options for your template.
3. When you are finished creating styles, save the file:
   • Choose a name that uses only alphanumeric characters.
   • Use the .doc extension for Microsoft Word.
4. Close the file.

Creating Components for Proposal Templates

The next step in developing your template is to create components, which are the text pieces that make up the body of your proposal.

A component is a Microsoft Word document that includes standard text and personalized data. For example, a cover letter component includes your standard cover-letter text and personalized data such as the name and address of the contact to whom the letter is addressed.

To create a component, you type the standard text and then create bookmarks, or Microsoft Word placeholders for custom data. When a sales representative generates a proposal, these bookmarks will be replaced with data from the Siebel application.

NOTE:  The following procedures may vary slightly, depending on your version of Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word 2003 is supported for Siebel 7.5.3, 7.7.2 and 7.8. If you are using Microsoft Word 2003, begin with the procedure To create a component with bookmarks in Microsoft Word 2003. If you are not using Microsoft Word 2003, begin with the procedure To create a component with bookmarks in Microsoft Word versions other than 2003.

To create a component with bookmarks in Microsoft Word 2003

1. In Microsoft Word, create a new document and do one of the following:
   1. Select an item to which you want to assign a bookmark.
   2. Click where you want to insert a bookmark.
2. From the Insert menu, choose Bookmark.
3. In the Bookmark dialog box, in the Bookmark name field, enter or select a name for the bookmark.

   NOTE:  Bookmark names must begin with a letter and may contain numbers if desired. They cannot include spaces. You can use the underscore character to separate words.
4. Click Add.
5. From the Insert menu, choose Field.
6. From the Categories drop-down list, click Links and References, and then click Ref in the Field names list.
7. Click the Field Codes button.

   REF appears in the Field codes field.

8. In the Field codes field, enter the name of your bookmark after REF.

   For example, you might type Company for company name, so that the Field codes field contains:

   REF Company

   NOTE:  If the text inserted into a bookmark contains double quotes ("), the inserted text will automatically be preceded by a backslash (\). If you do not want the backslash to appear in the inserted text, change the double quotes to single quotes in the Siebel software.

9. Note the name of the bookmark; you will need it when you map the bookmark to a Siebel field name.
10. Select the Preserve formatting during updates check box if you want to maintain the format of the merged text.
11. Click OK to insert the field.
12. Repeat Step 2 through Step 11 to add bookmarks for every field you want to insert in the text.

    NOTE:  If the same field is being inserted in several places, you can copy its bookmark and paste it into other parts of the document.

13. Save the component document as a DOC file.

To create a component with bookmarks in Microsoft Word versions other than 2003

1. In the Microsoft Word document, enter the standard text that belongs in this component.
2. Place the cursor where you want to create a bookmark, and choose Insert > Field.
3. Click Links and References in the Categories list, and then click Ref in the Field Names list.

   REF appears in the Description field.

4. In the Comments box, enter the name of your bookmark after REF.

   For example, you might type Company for company name, so that the Comments box contains:

   REF Company

   The bookmark name must begin with a letter; it cannot begin with a number.

   NOTE:  If the text inserted into a bookmark contains double quotes ("), the inserted text will automatically be preceded by a backslash (\). If you do not want the backslash to appear in the inserted text, change the double quotes to single quotes in the Siebel software.

5. Note the name of the bookmark, because you will need it when you map the bookmark to a Siebel field name.
6. Select the Preserve formatting during updates check box if you want to maintain the format of the merged text.
7. Click OK to insert the field.

   In your document, the following message appears:

   Error! Reference source not found.

   This message is Word's normal bookmarking convention. The error text will be replaced by appropriate data at the time of draft generation.

8. Repeat Step 2 through Step 7 to add bookmarks for every field you want to insert in the text.

   NOTE:  If the same field is being inserted in several places, you can copy its bookmark and paste it into other parts of the document.

9. Save the component document as a DOC file.