How Do I Use a POD?

This article shows how to use PODs and the POD Bin. For more information about PODs, see How Do I Create a POD? and How Do I Load a POD?

The POD Bin

After a POD has been created and loaded, you may use it in your Template simply by dragging and dropping from the POD Bin.

In the following example, we have added a table and a chart to a Template by dragging and dropping them from the POD Bin.

To open the POD Bin after PODs have been loaded, click on the "POD Bin" button on the AutoTag tab of the Office ribbon.

Using a Data Source POD

  1. Open the POD Bin.
  2. Click the Data Source POD and drag it to anywhere in your Template.
  3. Close the POD Bin.
  4. Open the Data Bin. You will see that the data source referenced by the data source POD is now connected to your template. You can edit or delete it as you would any other data source that has been added to a template.

Using a Doclet POD

  1. Open the POD Bin.
  2. Click the Doclet POD and drag it to the precise place where you'd like the doclet (Tag, text, document, image, etc.) to appear in the Template.
  3. Close the POD Bin.

A few key notes about doclet PODs and data sources:

  • When you insert a doclet POD, it will add any data source(s) and/or variable(s) it uses if they exist in the POD file. But it will not overwrite any that already exist with that name.
  • If the doclet uses a data source and/or variables, and they are not specified in the POD file and are not already defined in the template, you must add them.

POD Usage Tips

  • The undo only undoes editing in the Template. So an undo will not undo adding a data source or variables to a template - just the Tags.
  • If you highlight a single doclet POD in the POD Bin and then press Ctrl-S, you will be prompted for a filename. It will then save that doclet as a DOCX, XLSX, or PPTX file.
  • When you drag/drop PODs into an already existing table cell in Word, if the drop point is to the right of the rightmost character in the cell, it will drop into the cell to its right. If the drop point is to the left or on the rightmost character (or insertion point if no characters), it will drop in that cell.

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