Background

As ARN was already supporting quite a few types of templates like Email, PDF, Confluence, Webhook, and more as mentioned in Templates, we were also constantly receiving requests for MS Word template support and we heard it! ARN now allows you to create MS Word templates for your Automated Release Notes so the MS Word document can be simply attached with emails or downloaded to be shared with your audience.

Create a Word template

Navigate to the templates page on the ARN screen & click on the Create button.

Open

You will be brought to the template creation page where Email will be selected by default. Change the dropdown selection to Word.

Open

Default template will be populated. Make any required changes & save them to create a new template.

Edit a Word template

An existing Word template can be edited by clicking on the template name link from the list.

This will bring you to the template edit screen, which is the same as that of create - except, that data is pre-populated for the current template. Make any required changes, click on save and the template is updated.

Local level templates can always be edited right away. However, whether a global template can be edited in the given project depends on where it was created. If it was created within the current project, then it can be edited otherwise it cannot be.

Template that can be edited

Template that you can edit will have a Save button at the left bottom of the screen.

Template that cannot be edited

If the template was not originally created within the current project, then it cannot be edited here. Save button will not be available in this case. And an additional message is displayed indicating the parent project for the template.

Delete a Word template

An existing Word template can be deleted by clicking on the Trash icon from the list.

Local level templates can always be deleted right away. But whether a global template can be deleted in the given project depends on where it was created. If it was created within the current project, then it can be deleted otherwise it cannot be.

Template that can be deleted

Template that you can delete will have a delete button in the rightmost column of the template list view.

Template that cannot be deleted

If the template was not originally created within the current project, then it cannot be deleted here. Delete button will not be available in this case.

Preview a Word template

When creating or editing a Word template, it can be previewed immediately. Just click on the Preview button once desired changes have been done.

Once clicked on preview, select the relevant version and click on Preview again.

Based on the JQLs used in the Word template, you will need to input values. e.g. in the above screenshot, user is asked to choose 1 version since the template’s JQLs have 1 version variable in them.

This will generate the Word template preview in the template as shown in below image and also provide the Download option to get the Word file with release notes. Depending on your browser setting, it will be automatically downloaded or a confirmation will be asked from you.

Open

If what you see is the desired result, save the template.

Word template fields

• Template type

  • Here, MS Word option is selected since we are creating MS Word type template

• Template name

  • This is for internal reference & doesn’t show up in the actual release Word file to the end user so you can define the template name that can be easily identified internally.

• Level

  • Local or Global - Determines whether the Word template is available to be used in other projects across Jira.

  • Cross-project - For cross-project templates (which can be managed only from the cross-project ARN screen), this field is disabled from editing & is set to cross-project by default.

• ARN branding - To define whether you wish to show ARN branding in release notes.

  • For Free ARN app, it is default and cannot be unchecked

• File name -

  • This determines the name of the Word file that will be generated. You can use variables in this field similar to Email subject. Max length is ~100 characters, extra characters will be trimmed at the time of file generation.

• Word content -

  • The actual release Word content is generated within the Word body.

Further customization with advanced settings

Advanced settings in the Word template are for further customization. Clicking on the advanced settings link brings you options to customize the header & footer along with a few other options for your Word.