This is the last article in a series meant to highlight the mistakes or missteps we see most often in our OnePager support interactions. These are things we wish we could help everyone avoid, and do the proper way instead.
10 – Always Use The Default Templates
OnePager does “auto-magically” make you a visual from your source file, but it doesn’t read your mind. It uses Templates to control how your charts are rendered.
The wrong way…
When you create a New Project View, you always employ a Template. This Template is what tells OnePager how to render your visual. Without a Template, OnePager would not know what to do with your data.
Different Templates will give you different results in terms of formatting and organization in your chart.
When you first launch OnePager, after clicking New, in the OnePager Choices form, you have the option of clicking Change -> BROWSE FILES, and then selecting one of the default Templates we’ve given you with your download.
All of these Templates in the list, will have a different visual result, and you may use these default Templates, whenever you like.
The results that you receive with our default Templates, of course, may not be ideal for you.
For that reason we give you lots of flexibility to customize your chart, in order to get it to appear how you want and need it to appear.
You can use the default Templates every time you create a new OnePager, but if you never develop your own Templates, you’ll always have to make changes to the visual. After OnePager renders your initial result…there will always be additional manipulation needed beyond the automation the tool gives you.
The right way…
While the Templates that come with your download should give you a decent starting point, it’s the Templates that you create that will give you the most efficiency with OnePager.
All of the settings in the Project-View Properties (PVP) can be saved back into a Template.
Once you’ve modified the settings in the PVP to your linking, simply click the Copy to Template button (right next to the PVP button on the Home tab in the ribbon). Clicking this button is like executing a File -> Save As -> Template, in any other office application.
If you work with other OnePager users, then creating a shared folder for common Templates will allow new users in your organization to avoid having to use the default Templates, altogether, and instantly have the Templates that given them the ideal result.
Here is a video for a more comprehensive review of how Templates work.
Have another bad habit that you’ve eliminated or hidden feature that you found recently that helped you be more efficient with OnePager? We’d love to hear your comments!