Templater - Documents

Generate Documents Effortlessly

Templater is a library designed to generate documents from existing Word, Excel and PowerPoint templates. It lets you create professional reports, spreadsheets and presentations in a fraction of the time compared to other solutions.

Minimal Interface, Maximum Flexibility

Its minimal and stable API allows seamless integration into third-party applications, without requiring any custom coding. Designers and domain experts can work directly in Microsoft Office, boosting productivity and allowing end-users to customize templates easily.

Comprehensive Feature Support

Templater understands most Office features, enabling companies, non-profits and individuals worldwide to generate documents cost-effectively. Detailed examples and use cases are available on Github.

Proven and Mature

With over 15 years of development, Templater is a mature product. The change log lists updates and improvements over the years.

Easy Installation

Templater installation is done in two simple steps:

Grab the latest copy of Templater library →
Include it in your project…

…or just use it through package managers such as Maven and Nuget

Code sample

using NGS.Templater;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        using (var document = Configuration.Factory.Open("Spreadsheet.xlsx"))
        {
            document.Process(new { Teacher = "Elizabeth", Age = 30 });
            document.Process(new [] {
                new { Name = "Angelina" },
                new { Name = "Andrea" },
                new { Name = "Evelyn" },
                new { Name = "Addison" },
                new { Name = "Audrey" }
            });
        }
    }
}

import hr.ngs.templater.*;
import java.io.*;

class Program {
    static void main(String[] args) {
        try(FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("Template.docx");
            FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("Result.docx");
            TemplateDocument document = Configuration.factory().open(fis, "docx", fos)) {
                document.process(new Object() { public final String Tag = "a basketball"; });
        }
    }
}

import hr.ngs.templater.*

object Program {
  case class Student(Name: String)
  def main(args: Array[String]) {
    val document = Configuration.factory.open("Presentation.pptx")
    document.process(new { val Teacher = "Elizabeth"; val Age = "30" })
    document.process(List(
        Student("Trinity"),
        Student("Alexandra"),
        Student("Jasmine"),
        Student("Emily"),
        Student("Madeline")
    ))
    document.close()
  }
}

Full documentation

Templater provides a minimal set of methods to get started with processing your templates.

method IDocumentFactory.Open

Use the Open method to load your template.

Open(string path)

opens a document from the specified path
Templater will recognize the appropriate document format from the file extension

Open(Stream input, string extension, Stream output, CancellationToken cancelToken)

opens a document from the input stream
the extension string indicates the type of document in the stream
writes the document to the output stream
cancellation token to cancel the processing

Returns ITemplateDocument

method ITemplateDocument.Process

Method Process will replace tags with corresponding data.

Process(data)

modifies the ITemplateDocument file or stream by replacing tags with rules according to specific data types

Returns ITemplateDocument

Articles

Introduction to Templater explains the basics of Templater: how and why it works
Conversion to PDF shows how to convert documents into PDF
Beyond mail merge demonstrates advanced use cases beyond simple mail-merge
Business intelligence friendly guides integration with advanced features such as OLAP cubes
No for loops and if statements highlights major differences from other document automation solutions
Processing JSON shows how to work with JSON data types

Templater Editor

While Templater works without a separate editor, Templater Editor seamlessly integrates into Microsoft Office tools to provide a richer editing experience.

Tag listing can be managed by your application to expose domain-specific insights, explanations and examples
Tag detection and analysis validates the document, highlights potential issues and suggests solutions with helpful explanations
Debugging functionality allows you to track every step of Templater execution. Adjusting templates or modifying data becomes trivial with replay capabilities
The familiar Office interface requires minimal training and can even be used directly by end users

Videos

Explore these videos to see Templater Editor in action, understand how tags and templates work and learn how to quickly generate documents without complex coding.