You can create templates in Outline to allow creating consistent documentation, or setup documents that often need to contain repeating information such as a set of tasks.

Creating a template

A template can be created from an existing document through the “…” menu, select the option to Templatize to create a new template from the document. The existing will be left in place. You can also create a new blank template directly from Settings → Templates.

Templates can “live” either in a collection, or at the workspace. This setting will decide which templates appear as options when creating a new document. You can change the location of a template through the Move option.

Placeholders

When editing a template an additional option appears in the formatting toolbar to convert the selected text into a “placeholder”. A placeholder acts like an input on a form, when users create a document from the template and type into a placeholder it will be replaced and can act as instructions for how to fill out the template.

Variables

There are a few preset variables that are possible with templates, they will be replaced when a document is created:

• {datetime} – Will be replaced with a formatted date and time in the current locale.

• {date} – Will be replaced with just the current date

• {time} – Will be replaced with a timestamp

• {author} – Will be replaced with the user’s name that created the document