The document templates in Flowcase decides what data should be exported from the web application and how it looks. Flowcase supports multiple templates, and the design, content and structure of the templates are often an iterative process that can continuously be improved based on experience from proposals and the sales process.
As a starter, it is important to decide on the initial default templates for your organisation. In that regard, there are some template specific guidelines that should be followed.
Type of document
What kind of document do you want to export?
- Microsoft word (.docx) & PDF
The Word format is a dynamic document. Each page is set after each other in a floating pattern. If the text or image in the document reaches the bottom of page 1, it continues on page 2.
Recommended for: Multi page CVs / One pager CVs - Detailed case studies - The default company template
(The PDF files are converted from the generated word-file, so even though its a static page format, without the ability to be edited after export - the data will be laid out in the same fashion as the word-file)
- Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx)
The PowerPoint format is designed as a static page, all elements / text boxes in this format cares about its own position and its own content, but does not move in relevance to other elements on the page.
Recommended for: One pager CVs - One pager case studies - Presentations
Content
What do we want in our documents?
- What sections (education, project experience, work experience, languages etc.) are relevant for our proposal delivery? Sales / Bid team should decide what is needed to win bids.
- What content in these sections are relevant for our bids and proposal delivery?
- Sometimes the customer ask us to “include everything” in the template - This enquiry is not recommended, and will in most cases not create a good result. Some data are good for searchability inside the organisation, and some data is good for sales and external presentation.
- We recommend to create a content-manus for the designer, a clean document without any styles, that includes real examples on each content that you would like in your CV or Case study.
Structure
How do we want the content positioned and in what order?
- What content is most important?
- What content should be on the frontpage, and what should come first, second, third etc.?
- Should we have a two column layout on the frontpage?
- Should we use Flowcases’ highlighting functionality to highlight certain data from the CVs on the frontpage?
- Look at good bid deliveries for inspiration of a good structure
Design
How should the document look?
Read this part first
Decide - use an agency or design internally? The design of your CV's and Case studies are an important part of your brand, remember to follow your brand guidelines, and/or ask a design agency to design your templates.
We recommend to use an external design agency (or internal design department) for designing your templates. You can also ask Flowcase for a list of design agencies. The completed design can then be implemented by Flowcase to work with the application.
Design tips:
Images/graphic details: "Less is more" - The best designs out there use as little details as possible. When adding project experiences images, remember to design for different aspect ratios. It is not possible to cut or change the aspect ratio of images in Flowcase. Flowcase does not support automatically rounded profile images.
Tables: Think horizontal lines: If using a two or three column layout, try to retain the same column widths across the document. Try using top and bottom spacing on your tables, more spacing will make it easier to read and understand the tables. A table heading row can be informative, but in some cases it is unnecessary and can cause confusion (data being misaligned with the label).
Data flow: How should data flow across pages, should some content split across pages and some content stick together on the same page? We recommend to allow potentially large body text elements as project descriptions to split. Shorter text may be set to not split, but be careful as it can cause a lot of white space in some cases because of how Word works. Remember: When adding data-flow rules like this, word is very strict to abide by them.
Fonts: Use as few fonts/font sizes as possible, we recommend a maximum of two different font-types in a document. If you want every employee to be able to edit exported documents - try to keep inside the default Microsoft Word fonts. If using custom fonts, you have to send these to template@flowcase.com before they will work (It will take a week before new fonts are added and working - in the meantime, you will get fallback fonts when downloading CVs)
Headings / Labels: Use top aligned headings, left aligned headings will make less space for the body text and increase the length of the CV.
Body text: Try using the full width of the document for the largest body text fields as project experience descriptions. These texts can become very long if only using parts of the page width.
Example content: Do not use lorem ipsum text, try to use real data from a CV or case study when designing. Using real data will showcase how different lengths and different content works in a generated document.
Text-styles: Using line height on your text will give the reader a better experience reading the document. But don’t overdo it, the length of the CV increases.
Important: Look at your brand guidelines for the design! (Logo usage, colors, design elements, font and font sizes etc.)
