The following article describes how to create and then upload your certificate templates using Microsoft Word.
If you have existing certificate templates when you begin using Arlo, you will need to follow these steps to add the merge fields that Arlo will populate data to.
Creating certificate templates is a multi-step process.
If Step 1 is not completed, it is likely that you will not be able to see the merge fields you need to create your certificate templates.
- Open the Settings menu item.
- In the Courses section, select Certificate templates.
- Press Download sample merge data.
- Select Registration data if your certificates are for course completion or select Certification data if your certificates are for certifying attendees using our certifications feature.
- Save the file to your computer.
- Open a new document (or existing document if you are making a change) in Microsoft Word.
- In the Layout menu, press Size and select either A4 or Letter (US).
- In the Mailings menu, press Start Mail Merge and select Letters.
- Press Select Recipients and select Use an Existing List.
- Select the data file you downloaded and saved on your computer.
- Press OK.
- In the Mailing menu, press Insert Merge Field.
- Select the field you would like to insert from the menu and press Insert.
- Repeat this step for all merge fields you would like to show on certificates using this template. Remember to include spaces e.g. between 'contact first name' and 'contact last name' fields. See the full list of merge fields available.
- In the Mailings menu, select Preview Results to see an example of how the certificate will look with some actual data.
- Save the file to your computer or drive.
Learn how to save a certificate with special fonts.
Templates larger than 4MB cannot be uploaded. You can compress images on templates to make the file size smaller.
- Open the Settings menu item.
- In the Courses section, select Certificate templates.
- Press Add Template.
- Press Browse and select the file you previously saved to your computer.
- Enter a name for the new certificate template.
- Press Add Template.
- Repeat this process for any other templates you need to upload to Arlo.
- Open the Settings menu item.
- In the Courses section, select Certificate templates.
- Hover over the certificate template you would like to replace, and select Upload new version.
- Find the certificate template's word document which contains your changes, and upload the new version. Any certificates sent from now, using this template, will reflect the changes made to the template.
If you are using a special font, you may need to embed it in the file by following these instructions, so that it will render the font correctly when converted to a PDF.
- From the Word document, select Save as.
- Select Tools then Save Options.
- Select Embed fonts in the file
- Deselect Embed only the characters used in the document
- Select OK.
- Save the file to your computer.
Certificates will use Microsoft Word's default date and number format so you may wish to change these.
- Select the field containing a date.
- Press <Shift> and <F9>.
Change the text to one of the following to produce the desired format. To display dates as;
- 7 January 2013 change to { MERGEFIELD Event_end_date \@ "D MMMM YYYY" },
- 07-Jan-2013 08:30 AM change to { MERGEFIELD Event_end_date \@ "DD-MMM-YYYY hh:mm AM/PM" }
- 07-Jan-2013 change to { MERGEFIELD Event_end_date \@ "DD-MMM-YYYY" }
- 7/1/2013 change to { MERGEFIELD Event_end_date \@ "D/M/YYYY" }
- Select the field containing a number.
- Press <Shift> and <F9>.
Change the text to one of the following to produce the desired format.
- Round to 1 decimal place and only show the decimal place if the number includes a decimal change to { MERGEFIELD Event_pd_points \# #.# }, e.g. 10.0 is displayed as 10, 10.2 is displayed as 10.2, 10.46 is displayed as 10.5.
- Round to 2 decimal places and only show the decimal places if the number includes decimals change to { MERGEFIELD Event_pd_points \# #.## }, e.g. 10.0 is displayed as 10, 10.2 is displayed as 10.2, 10.46 is displayed as 10.5, 10.468 is displayed as 10.47.
- Round to 1 decimal place and always show 1 decimal place in the number change to { MERGEFIELD Event_pd_points \# #.0}, e.g. 10.0 is displayed as 10.0, 10.2 is displayed as 10.2, 10.46 is displayed as 10.5, 10.468 is displayed as 10.5.
- In the Home menu, use the standard Microsoft formatting tools to change fonts, add spacing, apply colours, and so on.
- In the Insert menu, select Picture to insert an image (e.g. your logo).
These fields cannot be copied and pasted onto certificate templates. You need to add them in Word by running a mail merge.
Custom course, contact, and registration fields can be added to registration data certificates.
To be able to do this, you must have custom fields enabled on your platform. Available fields will appear in your sample merge data, and will then appear in the merge field selection box.
Only custom single-line text fields are supported.
Read how to record CPD hours/points on a course that can then be displayed on certificates using the CPD merge fields.
Certification certificates can include only the following mergefields.
Certification certificates cannot include custom fields, or information about specific courses, registrations, or presenters. This is because certification criteria can be made up of multiple courses, which would result in incorrect formatting on the certificate.
