Making a Template from a PDF
If you already have the contract — written by your lawyer, laid out by your designer, unchanged for years — there is no need to retype it. You upload it as a PDF and SalesControl extracts the text into the template sheet: from there you edit it like any other template. The PDF file is not kept: it only carries the text in.
This feature is available on the Professional plan and above. If you don’t see it in the app, check your plan in Subscription Plans.
Where the template starts from
When you create a template the question is “How do you want to create the template?” and there are two answers: Write the text (a blank sheet) or Upload a PDF (the sheet starts with the text of the PDF). Either way you end up in the same sheet editor, fully editable: the PDF is a starting point, not a constraint.
What makes it into the sheet, and what doesn’t
From the PDF you get the text with its paragraphs, the headings (recognised by font size), the bulleted and numbered lists — numbering intact — and bold and italic.
You do not get the exact layout, the images and the logo (put them back from the sheet, as in a written template), columns and tables (the text is there, the grid is not) and any PDF form fields.
The conversion throws away no words, but it simplifies the shape: where the PDF had a table or two columns, the sheet has lines of text. Before saving, read the contract from start to finish. The file limit is 10 MB; the page size no longer matters, because the text is laid out again in the sheet.
How to do it
In Contracts › Templates click New template and choose Upload a PDF: the file picker opens right away. You can also drop the PDF onto the box.
“Extracting the text…” appears: the work is done by your browser, and a long contract can take a few seconds.
The text is in the sheet: adjust headings, lists and line breaks, put the logo or the images back if you need them.
Text field, Date, Checkbox, Contract start date, Payment choice, Client signature, Agency signature: the usual ones, with the usual panels.
As for any template: without at least one linked service it cannot be sent.
From here on it is a sheet template like any other: everything in Creating a Contract Template applies.
Replacing the text of an existing template
On a template you have already saved — including one you have just duplicated, for example to make a version in another language — you can put the text of another PDF into the sheet. In the The contract section press Replace with a PDF (or drop the file on the button), confirm and choose the file. The same checks and messages as the upload below apply.
The text of the sheet is replaced; the fields to fill in (signatures, fields, dates) stay where they are, and the notice “The text has changed: check where the boxes sit.” appears. Move them where they belong, then save. Until you save, the template stays as it was: press Cancel and leave without saving to go back.
Templates made from a PDF before
Templates created when the PDF stayed “glued” to the model convert themselves the first time you open them: the text of the old file goes into the sheet and a notice at the top tells you so. Check the text and the position of the elements, then save: it is saving that makes the conversion final. Until you save, the template keeps working exactly as before, sending included. If the old file can no longer be read, the sheet holds the text extracted when it was uploaded — and a notice says that too.
If the upload does not go through
- “The file is not a PDF” — convert it first (a DOCX will not do).
- “The PDF cannot exceed 10 MB” — compress it or lighten the images.
- “The PDF cannot be opened” — the file is damaged or password-protected.
- “No text can be extracted from this PDF” — it is a scan, that is, a photograph of the pages: there is no text inside to take. You need the original PDF, or you write the text in the sheet.
- “The PDF was too long” — past 60,000 characters the text is cut at the last whole paragraph: check the tail of the contract and complete it by hand.