Keep these limitations and recommendations in mind to get reliable, professional results from Documents.
Field type must match the use case
- Use Template fields for documents generated individually from a contact's profile.
- Use Mail merge fields for bulk documents generated through List Builder.
- Using the wrong field type for the generation method will not suit that method, so decide the intended use before you start building the template, and keep the field type consistent throughout.
Empty field handling (individual documents)
- During individual generation, fields with no data are shown highlighted in the drawer.
- This makes blanks obvious so you can fill them before generating.
- You can manually enter or adjust values for any field — including ones that already have a value pulled in — so the finished document is correct.
Fallbacks (bulk documents)
- In the bulk flow, a fallback value applies uniformly to all contacts missing a given field.
- The same fallback fills the gap for everyone who lacks data for that field.
- Leave a field's fallback blank if you don't want any substitute value.
Output formats differ by method
- Individual generation downloads a Word document.
- Bulk mail merge downloads a combined PDF that covers every contact in the list (saved as a single PDF).
- Choose the method that matches the format you need.
Best practice
- Name templates clearly and group them in folders under Settings → Features → Document templates so the right one is easy to pick.
- Keep individual and bulk templates separate, since each relies on a different field type.
- Test before you scale — run a bulk merge on a small list first to confirm the template and fallbacks behave as expected.
- Review before generating — use the drawer (individual) or the Complete summary (bulk) to catch missing data and confirm settings.
- Use the audit trail — the post logged on a contact's profile after individual generation gives you a record of what was produced and a download link.
- Reuse efficiently — attach generated documents to emails via the attachments function rather than recreating them.