How to personalize your Systems2win templates

Who can personalize a Systems2win template?

Working documents - anyone.
Master templates - only the team leaders authorized to overwrite your master templates.

What can be personalized?

Pop-up help for row or column labels
For personalized pop-up help, or language translation.
User Defined Training sections
on the Help worksheet for each template
Green-bordered user-defined help textboxes
Their green borders make them easy to spot
User-defined rows, columns, formulas, formats, styles...
You've got all the power of Excel
Drop-down Data Validation Lists
Many templates have a DV worksheet - where you can personalize the data that appears in drop-down menus
Document header field labels and default data
Some templates have a special VC worksheet - to make customizing document header fields even easier.
See the Standard Work Combination Sheet and Visual Job Instructions, which almost always have personalized header fields
Revision Log
With the click of a button (in the RevLog template),
you can add a Revision Log worksheet to ANY Systems2win template
Your own pictures and shapes
It's easy to add your own custom shapes
Hyperlinks and Link Icons
perhaps to your own training documents, web pages, or videos
The Systems2win portal user interface
can even be personalized

How to personalize a Systems2win master template

Keep a back up of the original template as delivered by Systems2win.
(just in case you ever need to "start over again")
Copy the master template from your S2winPortal to a temporary working folder.
(so that you can make your changes in a safe sandbox - only overwriting the master template when you are 100% certain that everything is perfect)
If you have a newer template - that comes with the Template worksheet hidden...
1. You must first Unhide the Template worksheet.
  If unhide worksheets is grayed out, then you you need to follow these special instructions.
2. When you finish editing, remember to Hide the Template worksheet before saving.
When you have finished editing your new master template, use My Computer to overwrite the original template of the same name within the correct tFolder in your master S2winPortal.
(You must overwrite the original with the exact same filename so that the Portal hyperlinks remain functional)
Do a manual sync.
Systems2win menu > Setup & Upgrade > Sync Local Templates with Masters in our S2winPortal
If you have multiple users - each user's PC will sync their local templates with the master portal automatically within 7 days - or they can do a manual sync to update their templates right away
Make an entry in your Customization Log - which will make future upgrades so much easier.

Before overwriting a Systems2win master template

Make sure that you understand the default formulas, terminology, and approaches contained within the standard template.
ASK US TO MAKE THE CHANGE FOR YOU - FOR FREE - AS PART OF BASE CODE !!!

If you believe that your proposed way of doing things might be better for many other companies, not just your own, then ask Systems2win to make the change. If Systems2win likes your idea, we will do the programming for you - for free! Your change is incorporated into base code - so all upgrades will contain your change, and you won't have to pay your programmers to make the same modification each time you upgrade.

How can we distribute personalized templates to all of our users?

That's what the Systems2win Sync utility does.

Every 7 days, (or with the push of a button), your personalized templates are synced to every user's laptop -
so that they have your personalized templates even when they are working at home or at a customer site,
and don't have access to your company network.

Can we use S2winSync to disseminate our company's own (non-Systems2win) templates?

Yes. That's what the S2winSync folder is for.

Your own templates (developed in-house or provided by any of your consultants)
can be distributed using your S2winSync folder.
Excel or Word > Add-ins > Systems2win menu > Open a New Template > S2winSync folder

Simply store your personalized templates in the S2winSync folder
in your company's master S2winPortal on your shared server.

Your unique templates will now be disseminated to all other licensed users in your company the next time they sync with your company's master S2winPortal.

Can I personalize multiple versions of a Systems2win template?

Yes. Simply save them as different file names.

Where to store multiple versions of the same template?

Option 1) Save your personalized template on your own PC
where it won't be overwritten when you sync

Where to save your personalized file? You can either:

Save it in any folder on your PC where you will easily remember to find it

If you have Administrator privileges...
then you have the option of storing your personalized template in your default User Templates folder.
You can save your template right in the root of this Templates folder,
or create your own sub-folder, which will show up as a folder tab when you select Systems2win menu > Open a new template or Excel or Word > File > New.
Advantage: Your saved file is now a true "template" that can't be accidentally overwritten when you save changes to your working document.

Option 2) Save your personalized template in your S2winPortal
where it will be disseminated to every licensed user in your company

When you save your personalized template in your S2winPortal - your template will be disseminated to every licensed user the next time they synchronize.

To have your template show up in the Systems2win folder (alongside all other standard Systems2win templates) - save your file in any tFolder within your company's master S2winPortal.

To have your template show up in the S2winSync folder (alongside any other non-Systems2win templates that your company is synchronizing to all users) - save your file in the S2winSync folder within your company's master S2winPortal.

Can we choose to NOT distribute some of the Systems2win templates that we own?

Yes.

Can we personalize our Systems2win portal?

Yes, you can optionally personalize your portal - for free - but it's usually not necessary

These simple HTML pages were written using purposefully simple technologies, to make it easy to personalize your portal.

But just because you can easily personalize your portal doesn't mean that it's a good idea.
99% of our customers never change anything about their portal pages, even though they might do all of the following:

You can easily remove templates you don't want to distribute to your users.
(Yes you could personalize your portal to remove any reference to templates that you remove, but every portal page contains the user tip: "Links are active only for those templates your company has chosen to purchase and distribute to your users")
You can easily add your own Word and Excel templates - developed either in-house or by any of your consultants
(Yes you could personalize your portal to display your custom templates exactly as the standard Systems2win templates are displayed, but it is much easier to simply train your users to use any one of the other alternate ways to find and open your Systems2win templates to open your custom templates in their S2winSync folder)
You can easily personalize your Systems2win templates
(Yes you could personalize your portal to add additional links to variations of standard Systems2win templates for multi-language or special purpose uses, but it is often easier to just use your S2winSync folder)

If you personalize your portal...

Do NOT rename or move any files or folders (because hyperlinks will be broken, and sync will no longer work).
Unless you want to intentionally remove some templates that you don't want your people to have.
Ensure that the portal home page retains the Systems2win copyright notice and link to PDF training in the footer.
Use your Customization Log - to make future upgrades easy.

The top 4 things to remember to make it easy to upgrade from an old version to a new one

Use your Customization Log
Use your Customization Log
Use your Customization Log
And a few additional Tips to make it easy to upgrade from an old version to a new one

Your tools for continuous improvement should continuously improve, right?
Don't let your improvement systems "get stuck".
Whenever you personalize any Systems2win master template, use your Customization Log to make upgrades easy.

Add-in & Portal Home Page