Follow these steps to generate a full document:
1. Open the document or template you want to work with.
2. If you are developing a new template, click File > Save As to save the template to a working directory.
3. When you are ready to generate, click SoDA > Generate Document.
4. Do one of the following:
§ If this is the first time you are generating a document from this template, click OK in the SoDA Generator dialog box. It is not necessary to enable any options in the dialog box.
If you have not yet identified the location of the source data in an OPEN command, you are prompted to enter that information.
§ For subsequent generations, select the generation options you need in the SoDA Generator dialog box. Click OK.
As document generation begins, the Word window is minimized and a progress indicator opens in the lower-right corner of the screen. If you want to cancel your generation request before SoDA has completed generating your document, click the Cancel button.
Note: While the SoDA progress indicator box is displayed, do not use Word or the Windows Clipboard / ClipBook.
When generation is complete, Word is maximized and the generated document is displayed.
§ The SoDA Generate Web Page command is a faster way to generate an HTML document using SoDA and Microsoft Word.
§ Generate Report is significantly faster than Generate Document.
§ Documents with tables will take longer than documents without tables.
§ To increase the speed of document generation, be sure that all other document windows in Word are closed. On the Window menu, make sure there is only one numbered document (your template).
If there are errors during generation, an informational dialog box displays the message: "Display error report?" Choose Yes to display an error report that describes the sections where errors occurred. Each entry in the report is a hyperlink to the source of the error. You can click an error to access the template or the generated document, with the cursor in the appropriate location.
Note: If a diagram defined in a template is not present for a particular object in the context of a REPEAT command, an entry is generated in the error report that indicates that the source has no such diagram. This is an informational entry only and does not represent an error in document generation. You can avoid this error by adding a LIMIT/Omit Command to the REPEAT for the diagram.
When you have completed document generation, your SoDA document will include repeated sections and displayed values according to the commands stored in the template.
As you browse through a generated document, you will notice several differences from the original template:
§ Displayed value placeholders have been replaced by actual values.
§ The template information has been hidden.
§ Repeated sections generated by SoDA have attached links, or pointers back to their sources.
It is possible that after you generate a document the first time you notice changes you want to make to the template itself. In this case, close the generated document, and be sure the template is open. Then follow the procedures described in Customizing a SoDA Template.
It is much easier to change a document template than it is to change template information within a generated document.