Bring in your existing terms
When to use this
Use this guide when you already have terms and conditions, such as a Word document or a PDF you send clients today, and you want them in Terms Studio without retyping them.
Smart Import makes your terms into a new draft. It keeps your wording as written. It adds headings, and it turns details such as the client’s name and the event date into merge fields that fill in from each proposal.
No terms yet? Choose Start with a blank page instead at the bottom of the import sheet, and write your terms in the editor.
What you need first
- Your terms as text you can copy, or as a file: a PDF, a Word file (.docx) or a plain text file, up to 10 MB.
- The whole document. Smart Import needs at least 200 characters and takes up to 40,000 characters at a time.
- For a PDF: text you can select, and no more than 40 pages. A scanned page or a photo of a page cannot be read.
- A title for the new document, such as “Wedding terms”. Each of your terms documents needs its own title.
Step-by-step walkthrough
Open Smart Import
Open Terms in the navigation and choose Add new terms.
If Terms opens straight into a document, open the More menu (the three dots at the top right) and choose Bring in existing terms…. The arrow beside the document name opens a menu with the same item.
Name the new document
Type a name in Terms document title. This is the name of the new document in Terms Studio.
Paste or upload your terms
- To paste, stay on Paste text and paste the whole document. Headings, numbering and bullets can stay as they are.
- To upload, choose Upload a file, then drop the file on the box or choose Choose a file.
To guide the formatting, choose Add a formatting note (optional) and write a note of up to 500 characters. For example: “Keep Protea & Fern as written, it is our studio name.” The note never changes your wording.
Format your terms
Choose Format my terms. A short document usually takes under a minute. A long one can take a few minutes. The sheet shows each step and the time left.
You do not have to wait. Choose Continue in the background, or close the sheet, and keep working. The top bar shows the progress and a timer. Choose it to see the steps again. Only Cancel import stops the import, and then nothing is saved.
Open the draft
When the draft is ready, a message says Your terms are ready. Choose Open. If you kept the sheet open, the draft opens by itself.
If you leave Terms while the import runs, it still finishes. Open Terms again to find the new draft.
Review what changed
The draft opens with a card above the text: “Your terms are in. Here is what changed.” Depending on your document, the card tells you:
- How many headings were added. They become your client’s table of contents.
- Which merge fields were placed, and how many of each. Choose a field on the card to find it in the text, or choose Show me each one to step through them all.
- Which values stayed as written, and why. A fixed notice period, for example, is not a merge field.
- How many signature lines were left out. Clients sign in BloomBoard, so the document does not need its own.
- That a page footer moved into your footer. Change it under Header and footer.
- Any sentence that differs from your original. It is marked “Check this sentence”, with your original beside the draft.
Read the whole draft against your original and correct anything in the editor. The client preview beside the text shows your pages with sample details. Choose Got it to close the card.
Publish when you are happy
Smart Import never publishes anything. The new document stays a draft until you choose Publish terms. To publish and to choose your default terms, see Set up your terms and conditions.
Smart Import formats your terms. It does not review what they say or add anything that is missing. Read the draft before you publish it.
What happens next
- Each import makes a new terms document. The document you had open does not change.
- Merge fields fill in from each proposal when you send it.
- One import runs at a time. While it runs, Bring in existing terms… reads Formatting your terms….
- Smart Import has a monthly allowance. An import that fails does not count toward it.
- You can also attach your terms to the assistant as a PDF, a Word file or a text file, or paste them, and ask it to make them into a draft. It keeps your wording, and you review and publish the draft in Terms Studio.
If something goes wrong
| If you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| ”That looks too short to be a full set of terms.” | Paste the whole document, not one section. |
| ”Your terms are longer than we can format in one go.” | Paste the first 40,000 characters. Add the rest in the editor after the import. |
| ”Choose a PDF, Word or text file up to 10 MB.” | Check the file type and size. Save an older Word file (.doc) as .docx or as a PDF first. |
| ”This PDF has no readable text.” | The PDF is a scan or a photo. Copy the text from your original document and paste it instead. |
| ”The PDF has 45 pages. The limit is 40.” | Upload only the pages with your terms, or paste the text instead. |
| ”You already have a document called that.” | Choose a different title. |
| ”Something went wrong while formatting.” or “Your terms could not be formatted.” | Nothing was saved. Wait a few minutes and try again. |
| ”You have used this month’s Smart Imports.” | The message gives the date they reset. Until then, choose Start with a blank page instead and add your terms by hand. |