The Template Builder

The template builder is where you design your inspection forms, audit checklists, and report templates. It provides a visual, drag-and-drop interface for adding pages, sections, and fields — no technical knowledge required.

Builder Layout

The builder is divided into three areas:

Pages Panel (Left)

The pages panel lists all pages in your template. Click a page to switch to it, drag pages to reorder them, or click the add button to create a new page. Each page acts as a logical section of your form — for example, "Site Details", "Inspection Items", and "Sign-off".

Canvas (Centre)

The canvas shows the current page's content — its sections and fields. This is where you build your form by adding sections, dragging in fields, and arranging the layout. What you see here is a close representation of what your team will see when filling in a report.

Field Configuration Panel (Right)

When you select a field, the configuration panel appears on the right. Here you set the field's label, help text, required/optional status, conditional logic, and type-specific options. This is where you fine-tune each field's behaviour.

Working with Pages

Pages let you break a long form into manageable chunks. A simple inspection might have just one page, while a comprehensive audit could have five or six.

• Add a page — click the add button in the pages panel
• Rename a page — click the page name to edit it inline
• Reorder pages — drag pages up or down in the panel
• Delete a page — remove a page and all its contents (be careful — this cannot be undone)

The first page is created automatically when you start a new template and is named "Report Details" by default. Rename it to suit your form.

Working with Sections

Within each page, sections group related fields together. Every page needs at least one section before you can add fields.

Section Layouts

Sections can use one of three layouts:

Form layout — the standard vertical layout. Fields stack top to bottom, each with its label and input. Use this for most form content — contact details, site information, dates, signatures.

Table layout — fields become columns in a table. Each row is a repeatable entry, and your team can add as many rows as needed. Perfect for hazard registers, item lists, inspection checklists, and any data that naturally fits a tabular format.

Letter layout — a prose-based layout where fields are embedded inline within text. Designed for contractual correspondence like progress claims, variations, and extension of time notices where you need structured data within a letter format.

Section Options

• Repeatable — allow users to add multiple instances of the section when filling in a report. Useful for sections like "Inspection Item" where the number of entries varies.
• Section numbering — automatically number sections for reference (e.g. 1.0, 2.0, 3.0)

Adding Fields

To add a field:

1. Click the "+" button within a section, or drag a field from the field palette
2. Choose the field type (text, number, date, photo, signature, etc.)
3. Configure the field in the right panel — set the label, help text, and options

Fields are the individual data points your team fills in. Pasco Cloud supports 14 field types, covered in detail in Fields & Sections.

Reordering

Everything in the builder is drag-and-drop:

• Reorder pages in the pages panel
• Reorder sections within a page by dragging the section handle
• Reorder fields within a section by dragging the field handle
• Move fields between sections by dragging them from one section to another

Builder Header

The top of the builder shows key template metadata that you can edit inline:

• Template logo — upload a logo that appears on generated PDF reports
• Title — click to edit the template name
• Description — a brief description of the template's purpose
• Document number — automatically assigned based on the template type and scope
• Revision — the current revision number (increments when you create a new version)
• Status — the current lifecycle status (draft, for-review, approved, published)

Saving Your Work

The builder protects your work with multiple save mechanisms:

• Auto-save to browser — your work is saved to localStorage every 5 seconds, so you will not lose changes if you accidentally close the tab
• Auto-save to server — changes are saved to the API every 30 seconds with a debounce, so your work is backed up even if your browser crashes
• Manual save — click the save button at any time for an immediate save
• Draft restore — if the builder detects unsaved changes from a previous session, it will prompt you to restore them

💡 Tip

The builder auto-saves frequently, but it is good practice to manually save before previewing or sharing your template. This ensures the preview reflects your latest changes.

Previewing

The builder includes two preview modes so you can see your template as your team will experience it:

• Form preview — shows how the form looks when someone is filling in a report. This is the interactive view with all fields, sections, and pages.
• PDF preview — shows how the completed report will look as a printed PDF document, including headers, footers, page numbers, and your template logo.

Use previews regularly as you build to check that your form flows well and the PDF output looks professional.

⚠️ Watch out!

A template must be published before your team can create reports from it. While it is in draft status, only you can see and edit it. Change the status to "published" when you are ready for your team to use it.

What's Next?

• Explore all field types and sections in detail
• Understand sharing and visibility for your templates
• Follow the tutorial to build your first template step by step