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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. Figure 1 shows these documents consist of one styles document and multiple component documents.

Figure 1. Microsoft Word Documents That Can Make Up a Proposal Template

The component documents in Figure 1 are examples. You can use other component documents, such as a table of contents or a set of collateral, and you can exclude some of these component documents, such as product descriptions. However, a template must have a styles document and one or more component documents. For information about the versions of Microsoft Word that are supported, see Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms on Oracle Technology Network.

NOTE:  Proposals can use the 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.

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

Planning Proposal Templates

Before you create the documents in Microsoft Word, you must determine the format of the proposal and the information to include in the proposal.

Begin by reviewing previous successful proposals to see the sections they contain. For example, do they all contain a cover letter, an executive summary, and a quote? Also, review the current documents you have on hand, and note the customer questions these documents answer. Then determine how to organize the information. What topics are standard across all proposals? What topics are specific to certain proposals? What is the best order for the parts the proposal? Finally, determine the fields to insert to customize the proposal (for example, contact name, account name, and industry). You use this information to create bookmarks in the Microsoft Word documents.

As part of planning, you can review the sample templates that come with Siebel Proposals. For more information, see Samples of Proposal Templates.

Creating a Styles Document

After you plan a template, you can create the styles document for the template. This Microsoft Word document defines the layout and formatting of the entire proposal. The layout options you specify are automatically applied to all the component documents for the proposal. This styles document can include headers, footers, logos, and special margins.

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

To create a styles document

1. Create a new document in Microsoft Word.
2. Set up margins, headers, footers, fonts, and other layout options for the template.

   For more information about completing these tasks, see the online help for Microsoft Word.

3. Save and close the file.

   Choose a name that uses only alphanumeric characters, and use the DOC file extension for Microsoft Word.

Creating Component Documents for Proposal Templates

After you create the styles document for the template, you can create the component documents. A component document is a Microsoft Word document that includes standard text and personalized data. For example, a cover letter component document includes 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 document, you enter the standard text in a Microsoft Word document and then create bookmarks, or Microsoft Word placeholders for custom data. When a sales representative generates a proposal, these bookmarks are replaced with data from the Siebel application.

To create a component document with bookmarks in Microsoft Word

1. Create a new document in Microsoft Word.
2. Enter the standard text for the component document.
3. Use the bookmark feature in Microsoft Word to add bookmarks to the locations in the component document to which you want to insert Siebel field data.

   For example, you can create a Company bookmark for the Siebel Account field. For more information about using the bookmark feature, see the online help for Microsoft Word.

   NOTE:  If the text inserted into a bookmark contains double quotes ("), the inserted text is automatically 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 application.

4. Note the names of the bookmarks because you need these names when you map the bookmarks to Siebel field names.

   For more information, see Defining Proposal Field Mappings.

5. Save the component document as a DOC file.