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Add tags with Microsoft add-in

The Portant add-in puts your source fields in a sidebar next to your document, so you can add tags to a Word file or a PowerPoint deck without leaving it. It replaces copying tags from the source table in a second window, which is still how Google Docs and Slides templates work.

The add-in covers Word and PowerPoint. Everything else about the workflow, the source, the automation and the sending, is unchanged.

Before you start

You need three things in place:

Install it from the Marketplace

The listing is Portant, HubSpot Document Generator. Click Get it now and follow Microsoft's prompts. It covers both Word and PowerPoint, so you install it once, and it is free.

Note: The first time you use a Microsoft template, Portant asks for permission to reach your files in OneDrive. The template guides above cover that step.

Open the add-in

Open your template in Word and open the add-ins list from the toolbar (search for "add-ins" in the search bar at the top of the window if you cannot see it). Once the Marketplace install is done, Portant is listed under My Add-ins. Click it.

The pane opens on the right, beside your document, titled HubSpot Data Connector, and lists your workflows.

Important: Allow pop-ups from app.portant.co. The add-in signs in through a pop-up window, and a blocker stops it from connecting.

Pick your workflow

Select the workflow whose template you have open. The pane then shows two tabs, Merge tags and Signature fields, and lists every field available from that workflow's source.

Each field shows the tag Portant will use, in the same {{Field name}} form as everywhere else. See tags for what the tags themselves can do.

Insert a tag

  1. Click in your document where you want the value to appear
  2. Click Insert next to the field you want

The tag lands at your cursor. You can also copy a tag with the copy button and paste it wherever you like, which is quicker when you are adding the same field in several places.

Because the tag is just text in your own file, you style it with Word's own formatting tools. Set the font, size, weight and colour on the tag and the merged value inherits it.

Add signature fields

Switch to the Signature fields tab for the places a signer needs to sign or date.

These work by copy and paste rather than by insert:

  1. Click Copy on the field you want, Signature or Date
  2. Click into your document where the signer should complete it
  3. Paste, and the signer field appears

Fields are grouped per signer, starting with Recipient 1, so add a recipient for each person who needs to sign and paste their fields where they belong. Date is stamped automatically when that person signs, so you do not fill it in yourself.

For how signing itself works, who signs in what order, and what the signer sees, see eSignatures.

Do the same in PowerPoint

The steps are identical for a deck. Open the .pptx, open the connector, pick your workflow, and insert tags onto your slides. Tags work in text boxes, tables and speaker notes.

What else you can put in a tag

The add-in inserts plain field tags. Everything the tag language can do still applies, and is set up in Portant rather than in the add-in:

If you want to... See
Use a shorter, friendlier name than the field name Custom tag names
Do maths, format dates, sum values Tag formulas
Show different content based on the data Tag if statements
Insert a value that applies in every workflow Global tags
Repeat a table row per line item Line items and tables
Catch a typo before you send Tag checker

If the add-in cannot see your files

Two things account for most problems: