---
title: "Create your first template - Workflow Documents"
description: "Start from a ready-made invoice, packing slip, product data sheet, customer summary or a blank page, make it yours and save it."
canonical: "https://docs.workflow-documents.app/create-your-first-template"
---

# Create your first template

A template is the design of one kind of document. This walkthrough creates one from a ready-made starting point, checks it against a real order and saves it, so a Flow workflow can use it.

## Step 1: Pick a starting point

Open **Templates** and select **Create template**. The **New template** page lists the ready-made templates under **Start from**. Select **Use this** on the one you want.

| Template | Renders | What it contains |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Invoice | An order | Line items, taxes and totals of an order |
| Packing slip | An order | What to pack and where it goes, without prices |
| Product data sheet | A product | Description, options and every variant with SKU and price |
| Customer summary | A customer | Contact details, totals and the most recent orders of a customer |
| Blank | An order | An empty page to start from scratch |

The template is created at once and the editor opens. If a template with that name already exists, the new one gets a number, for example *Invoice 2*.

## Step 2: Look at it with your own data

The right half of the editor is the **Preview**. It shows the template with your latest order, product or customer, depending on what the template renders. On a store without any, it shows sample data.

Use **Preview with** to switch to a specific order, product or customer, and **Preview PDF** to open the real PDF. See [The template editor](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/template-editor.md).

## Step 3: Make it yours

The ready-made templates already use your branding. Before you change any code, open **Settings** in the app navigation and add your logo, colors, fonts and company details. They appear in the preview of every template. See [Branding your documents](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/branding.md).

Then adjust the template itself:

- **HTML** - the content. Change texts, add or remove columns, print more fields. See [Template variables and Liquid](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/template-variables-and-liquid.md).
- **CSS** - the look: sizes, spacing, table lines.
- **Branding** - colors and fonts for this template only.
- **Settings** - name, file name, paper size, margin and more. See [Paper size, margins and file name](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/paper-size-and-file-name.md).

## Step 4: Name it and save

On the **Settings** tab, check the **Name**. The Generate document action in Shopify Flow finds the template by this exact name, so choose a name you will not need to change later.

Select **Save** in the bar at the top. A template is only saved when it renders: if the Liquid has an error, the save is refused and the error is shown with its line, so a broken template never reaches a workflow.

> [!WARNING]
> **Renaming breaks workflows**
> Workflows and API calls name the template by its exact name. If you rename a template, update the **Template name** field of every Generate document action that uses it.

## Start from scratch

Pick **Blank** for an empty page. It renders an order. To build a document for a product or a customer instead, open the **Settings** tab and change **Renders**, then replace the HTML: the variables of the other resource apply from then on.

## Turn a template off

Clear **Template is on** on the Settings tab to stop a template without deleting it. While it is off, Flow and the API refuse to generate documents with it.

Deleting a template is permanent. Workflows and API calls that name it stop working, and the documents it generated stay in the history.

## Next steps

- [The template editor](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/template-editor.md) - the editor in detail.
- [Set up the Generate document action in Shopify Flow](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/set-up-the-generate-document-action-in-shopify-flow.md) - generate the document from a workflow.
- [Templates in several languages](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/languages.md) - add a second language to the template.