# Generate and export documents

To allow others to generate new documents based on your template or a string variable, use the **Notepad: New Notepad Button** widget. You can also optionally choose to allow exports of these documents as PDFs.

## Notepad: New Notepad Button widget

The **Notepad: New Notepad Button** widget allows you to create and export Notepad documents from templates or Workshop string variables.

### Generate a document from a template

First, add the **Notepad: New Notepad Button** widget to your Workshop module. Then, from the configuration options on the right of the screen, choose the **Template(s)** option and then **+ Select**. From the filesystem view, browse for your Notepad template file to add it to the **Document templates** list.
Next, select the new template entry to open its configuration, then choose a **Template version**. If there is no version available, open the template in a new tab and [publish a template version](../templates-publish/index.md). Selecting a version will automatically load the template's required [input parameters](../templates-inputs/index.md) in the **Template inputs** section.

You can specify a **Menu display name** for your template if you choose. If you do not set a display name, the **Custom text** from the **Button display** settings will be used.

![The configuration panel for the Notepad: New Notepad Button widget and a selected Notepad document template.](../../../assets/bb0751c8e14673c2be9835e65442c9b4922680705ba4f34cfb83f51aabf4069c.webp)

### Template inputs

Depending on the template and its version, your Notepad template may consume multiple template inputs. For each of these inputs, link a [Workshop variable](../../workshop/concepts-variables/index.md) of the same data type (string, number, date, timestamp, object, or object set) that you would like to use as an input to the template. The current values of these variables will be used to generate your document from the template whenever the **Notepad: New Notepad Button** is selected.

:::callout{theme="warning"}
If your input parameter requires a single object, be sure to link it to a Workshop object set variable that contains one object.
:::

### Create a document from a string variable

To create a Notepad document from a Workshop string variable instead of a document template, choose the **String** configuration option from the panel on the right. The variable value may be parsed as Markdown or plain text, in accordance with our [existing Markdown features](../markdown-features/index.md).

![The configuration panel for the Notepad: New Notepad Button widget, with the option to parse a string variable value as Markdown or plain text.](../../../assets/54a00b67d6c68f8520298ceefd7bac54a955d4be878ffec79341e4453814fef0.webp)

### Save options

You can set the following options for the different document templates and/or string variables you configure for use with the Notepad: New Notepad Button widget:

* **Allow users to choose save location:** Allow users to select their own save location and file name before the document is generated. Any pre-defined **Default save location** is ignored.
* **Default save name:** Define a default file name for newly generated documents. The value is also used for the PDF file name when **Export generated notepad as PDF** is set.
* **Default save location:** Choose where new documents are saved. This can be configured by manually selecting a folder or by passing in a Compass RID through a Workshop string variable. By default, a document will be saved in the home folder of the user generating it.

### On-click options

The on-click options allow you to modify certain behavior when using the **Notepad: New Notepad Button**:

* **Export generated Notepad as PDF:** Documents will be automatically downloaded as a PDF after they are generated. By default, the generated Notepad documents will not persist in Foundry unless they are created from a string variable. Thus, all save options except the *Default save name* will be ignored.
  * **Save Notepad from PDF export:** When set, the generated Notepad document used to export to PDF will be saved in Compass as well.
* **Open generated Notepad in new tab:** Documents will open in a new tab.

Additionally, you can specify Workshop [events](../../workshop/concepts-events/index.md) or [actions](../../workshop/actions-overview/index.md) that should be executed when a document is created. For example, this can be used to persist the RID of the newly generated document as an object property by using the **Created document** output variable from the **Notepad: New Notepad Button**.

### Use a generated Notepad RID in an action

To pass a generated RID to an action, the corresponding parameter must have a configured type class. To do this, open the action parameter in Ontology Manager and add a `notepad:notepad_rid` type class in the **Details** tab.

![Add a type class to an action parameter.](../../../assets/a83e429f10efd743ffb8ce9ea373840b34bdab6e0c787fe20aa6c102112e3e91.webp)