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Overview

Tela’s Document Templater allows you to generate documents from .docx templates by replacing placeholders with dynamic values from your workflow. You create a template once, and Tela fills in the data every time the workflow runs.

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How Placeholders Work

Placeholders are markers inside your .docx template that tell Tela where to insert values. They use curly braces with the placeholder name: 
{placeholder_name}
When the document is generated, each {placeholder_name} is replaced with the actual value you mapped in the workflow.

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Example

A template with: 
Dear {client_name},

Your invoice number is {invoice_number}, with a total of {total_amount}.

Best regards,
{company_name}
Will produce: 
Dear John Smith,

Your invoice number is INV-2026-001, with a total of $1,500.00.

Best regards,
Acme Corp

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Creating a Template

1

Create a .docx file

Open Microsoft Word, Google Docs (export as .docx), or any editor that supports the .docx format.
2

Write your content

Write the document content as you normally would — formatting, tables, headers, images, and styles are all preserved.
3

Add placeholders

Where you want dynamic values, type the placeholder name wrapped in curly braces: {placeholder_name}.Use descriptive names like {client_name}, {contract_date}, or {total_value}.
4

Save as .docx

Save the file in .docx format. Other formats (.doc, .pdf, .odt) are not supported.

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Rules for Placeholders

RuleExampleNotes
Use curly braces{name}Single curly braces only
No spaces inside braces{client_name}Use underscores instead of spaces
Case sensitive{Name} and {name} are different placeholdersBe consistent
Can repeatUse {company} multiple timesSame value is inserted everywhere
Works in tablesPlace {value} inside table cellsFormatting is preserved

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Using Templates in Workflows

  1. Add a Generate Document node to your workflow
  2. Upload your .docx template
  3. Tela automatically extracts all placeholders from the template
  4. Map each placeholder to a workflow variable or a previous step’s output
  5. Set the output filename
  6. Run the workflow — the generated document is available as output

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Tips

Keep placeholders simple

Use short, descriptive names. Avoid special characters other than underscores.

Test with sample data

Before using in production, run the workflow with test values to verify formatting.

Preserve formatting

Placeholders inherit the formatting (bold, italic, font size) of the surrounding text.

Use tables for structured data

Place placeholders inside table cells for invoices, reports, or forms.