Document Template

A single Admin settings screen where you set the branding — name, logo, accent colour, header, footer, cover page and an optional body skeleton — that Aegis applies to the documents it generates and exports.

When Aegis produces a document for you — the Word export of a policy, or a vendor or portfolio report as a PDF — it does not invent a look each time. It applies one shared template (a reusable set of branding and layout settings). This screen is where you set that template once, so exported documents carry your organisation's name, logo and colours instead of a plain default. It is a small settings page: there is no list, no table and no records to manage — one form, three cards, and a Save Changes button.

Who uses it

Only one role can open this screen.

• Admin can open, edit and save the template. The Document Template link is shown in the left rail only to an Admin, and the page itself calls requireAdmin() on the server.
• Manager, Contributor and Viewer cannot open it. If one of them reaches the URL directly they are redirected to /unauthorized. They still see the result of your work — the branding you set here appears on the documents they export from other screens.

What's on this screen

The page sits at /settings/document-template. Its header carries the title Document Template and the line "Define a company-branded layout applied to generated and exported documents", with a single primary action on the far right: Save Changes. Below the header the form is stacked as three bordered cards, each with its own heading and a one-line explanation:

• Branding — "Logo and accent colour used on generated documents". It holds Template name (seeded here with "Company Template"), Logo URL, and Accent color: a colour swatch beside a narrow text box for a 6-digit hex value.
• Layout — "Header, footer and optional cover page for generated documents". It holds a two-line Header text box, a two-line Footer text box, and a Cover page switch on the right-hand edge of its row.
• Default document body — "An optional Markdown or plaintext skeleton pre-filled into the body of new policies and procedures. Authors can edit or clear it freely." It holds a Load from .md or .txt file button above a tall, full-width text area. This third card sits below the fold in the capture below; scroll down to reach it.

In the capture the fields are mostly empty: the header and footer boxes show grey placeholder examples rather than saved text, the logo box shows https://example.com/logo.png as a placeholder, the hex box is blank behind a #1F2937 placeholder, and Cover page is switched off. That is the starting state of an unconfigured template — nothing has been saved yet.

Around the form is the usual Aegis frame: the left navigation rail with its groups, and the top bar with search, language, dark mode, help, notifications and your account. The numbered steps below trace the route to this screen on that frame, and match the callouts on the figure.

1. Select the Help button (?) in the top bar. The in-app user guide opens at the chapter for the screen you are on — this document.
2. Your account name sits at the top right, next to Sign out. Check it reads as an Admin account; if it does not, the Document Template link will not be in the rail.
3. Governance heads the left rail, under the Dashboard link. The eleven groups run from here down the rail; select a heading to expand it.
4. Documents, further down, expands to the read-and-collaborate surfaces — Compliance Documents and Collaboration. That is where published documents are read; it is not where this template is configured.
5. Administration, the last group in the rail, holds the tenant settings. Expand it and select Document Template to open this screen.

Set the branding

Work down the Branding card at the top of the form.

1. In Template name, type a label for the template — for example "Company Template". This is an internal name of up to 200 characters; it identifies the template and is not printed on the page. If you clear it, saving restores "Company Template".
2. In Logo URL, paste an https:// link to your logo as a PNG or JPEG. Aegis stores the address, not the picture, so the link has to stay reachable for the logo to keep appearing.
3. Set Accent color either by selecting the swatch and picking a colour, or by typing a 6-digit hex value such as #1F2937 into the box beside it. The two controls are tied together — changing one updates the other. The accent is applied to section titles in generated documents.

Set the page layout

The Layout card controls what runs along the edges of each generated page. Both text boxes accept up to 2,000 characters.

1. In Header text, type the line for the top of every page — the placeholder suggests "Acme Corporation — Confidential". Leave it empty for no header.
2. In Footer text, type the line for the bottom of every page — the placeholder suggests "Confidential — do not distribute".
3. Select the Cover page switch at the right of its row to turn it on. The switch turns blue and generated documents open with a branded cover page. Left off, as it is in the capture, documents start straight at the content.

Add an optional body skeleton

The Default document body card pre-fills the body of new policies and procedures with a starting structure. It is optional — leave it empty and authors start from a blank body.

1. Type the skeleton straight into the text area. The placeholder shows the shape that works well: ## Purpose, ## Scope, ## Responsibilities, ## Procedure. Markdown and plain text are both accepted, up to 50,000 characters.
2. Or select Load from .md or .txt file to read a file from your computer into the text area. The file is read in the browser and never uploaded; anything longer than the 50,000-character limit is cut off at that point.
3. Only .md, .markdown and .txt files that the browser reports as plain text are accepted. If you pick anything else the text area is left untouched and a red line appears under the button: "Could not read that file. Please choose a .md or .txt file."
4. Edit the loaded text freely before saving. Authors can also edit or clear the skeleton when they write a policy or procedure — it is a starting point, not a fixed wrapper.

Save your changes

Nothing is stored until you save. Every field on the form is saved by the one button.

1. Select Save Changes at the top right. While the save runs the button reads Saving... and cannot be selected again.
2. On success a confirmation appears reading "Document template saved", and the form redraws with the values as they were stored. Fields you left blank are stored as empty rather than as the placeholder text you can see.
3. If a value is rejected — an accent colour that is not a 6-digit hex code, or a logo address that is not a valid https:// address — an error message appears and a red line is added beneath the offending field in the Branding card. Correct it and save again.

If the screen will not load

The form is fetched when the page opens. While it loads you see the title and three grey placeholder blocks. If the fetch fails, the form is replaced by a red panel reading "Failed to load the document template" with a Retry button; selecting it fetches the template again. Nothing is lost — the stored template is untouched by a failed load.

Tips and limits

• The line at the foot of the form names the policy Word export and the vendor and portfolio PDF reports. The branding is in fact picked up by more exports than that line lists — among them procedure and management-review documents, board report PDFs, and the compliance, analytics and GDPR record exports. It does not restyle the on-screen interface, and it does not reach every document Aegis produces.
• There is one template per organisation. Saving overwrites the previous values; this screen keeps no version history and has no preview, so export one document after a change to check the result.
• The 50,000-character cap on the body skeleton mirrors the limit on a policy or procedure body, so a template can never be longer than a body field will accept.
• Changing the template does not rewrite documents that were exported earlier. Only documents generated after the save carry the new branding.

Where this connects

• Policies — the Word export picks up this branding, and new policy bodies start from the skeleton you set here.
• Procedures — procedure bodies use the same skeleton.
• Vendors — vendor and portfolio PDF reports are branded from this template.
• Settings — the other tenant settings in the Administration group.
• Roles overview — why only an Admin can open this screen.
• The left menu — the navigation rail the steps above trace.