Introduction

In business applications, document automation is the process of creating, managing, and delivering documents without human intervention. Typically, documents such as invoices, reports, contracts, and correspondence are generated by automatically pulling data from multiple sources and populating predefined templates. Automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks saves time, reduces costs, and improves overall productivity. This article discusses the benefits of document automation and how TX Text Control technology can help organizations improve efficiency and productivity.

Importance for Businesses

For organizations that generate a large number of documents on a regular basis, document automation is essential. It helps organizations streamline how they create documents, reduce errors, and improve overall efficiency. Here are some of the key benefits of document automation:

• Increased Productivity:
  Document automation eliminates the need for manual data entry and document creation, allowing employees to focus on more important tasks.
• Reduced Errors:
  The automation of document creation reduces the risk of human error and ensures that documents are accurate and consistent.
• Improved Compliance:
  Document automation can help organizations ensure that their documents are in compliance with industry regulations and standards.
• Cost Savings:
  By automating the creation of documents, organizations can reduce the costs associated with the manual creation and processing of documents.
• Enhanced Customer Experience:
  Document automation enables organizations to create and deploy documents faster. This improves the overall customer experience.

Common Automation Scenarios

Document automation can be used in a wide range of scenarios across different industries. Some common automation scenarios include:

• Invoice Generation:
  By pulling data from purchasing processes in an ERP system or using data from an e-commerce transaction, invoices can be generated automatically.
• Report Generation:
  Reports can be automatically generated on frequent cycles based on data from multiple sources.
• Contract Generation:
  Legal applications can generate contracts or agreements based on predefined templates and up-to-date data.

TX Text Control for Document Automation

TX Text Control is a powerful document processing library for .NET developers that can be used to automate document creation in business applications. Developers can create templates for documents such as invoices, reports, contracts, and correspondence using TX Text Control. These templates can be populated with data from multiple sources, and the resulting documents can be saved in a variety of formats, including DOCX, PDF, and HTML.

MS Word Compatible

TX Text Control is compatible with Microsoft Word, allowing developers to import and reuse existing Word documents as templates. This makes it is easy to migrate existing document automation solutions based on MS Word to TX Text Control.

A powerful, customizable and programmable document editor for creating and editing documents in various formats is included in TX Text Control. The editor supports features like text formatting, tables, images, headers and footers, and more. WYSIWYG editing is supported, allowing users to see the document as it will appear when printed or exported to PDF. This makes it easy to create and edit documents without having to switch between editing and preview modes.

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TCheck out our live demos to see the Document Editor in action. The examples cover most of the typical tasks that can be performed with TX Text Control.est

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Mail Merge

By merging data from a data source into a template, users can create personalized documents. Mail merge fields can be inserted into the document template, and the data source such as JSON, XML, or business objects, can be connected to the document generation engine. In the following screenshot you can see the customizable document editor that can be fully integrated into your own application to create mail merge templates with data source access for the user to insert the available merge fields and repeating blocks.

Merge fields are populated with actual data from your data source by the MailMerge engine. The following is a sample JSON for use when data is to be merged into a template:

[
  {
    "company_name": "Text Control, LLC",
    "address":
    {
      "street": "1111 Text Control Way",
      "zip": "28226",
      "city": "Charlotte",
      "country": "United States"
    }
  }
]

The following code snippet shows how to merge the data source into the template:

// enable MS Word merge fields
TXTextControl.LoadSettings ls = new TXTextControl.LoadSettings() {
  ApplicationFieldFormat = TXTextControl.ApplicationFieldFormat.MSWord };

// load JSON data
string jsonData = System.IO.File.ReadAllText("data.json");

// create a temporary ServerTextControl
using (TXTextControl.ServerTextControl serverTextControl = 
       new TXTextControl.ServerTextControl()) {
  serverTextControl.Create();
  
  // load the template
  serverTextControl.Load("template.docx", TXTextControl.StreamType.WordprocessingML, ls);

  // create the mail merge engine
  using (MailMerge mailMerge = new MailMerge()) {
    // connect to ServerTextControl
    mailMerge.TextComponent = serverTextControl;
    // merge data into template
    mailMerge.MergeJsonData(jsonData);
  }
}

The document can be exported to a PDF or valid PDF/A (including electronic invoice formats such as PDF/A-3b for ZUGFeRD or XRechnung formats), used with the TX Text Control Document Viewer, or distributed for reviewing or redlining.

Forms Processing

TX Text Control can be used to create forms that users can fill. Forms can be created using the Document Editor, and form fields such as text fields, checkboxes, and selection lists can be added to the document. Users can fill in the form fields in the document editor, document viewer, or using Acrobat Reader when the document is exported to PDF.

To present the form to the end user for completion, TX Text Control provides a sophisticated document viewer that can be embedded in any web application that runs on any device and any browser.

Conclusion

Document automation is essential for organizations that generate a large number of documents on a regular basis. By automating the creation of documents, organizations can improve efficiency, reduce errors, and save costs. TX Text Control is a powerful document processing library for .NET developers that can be used to automate document creation in business applications. With features like MS Word compatibility, mail merge, and forms processing, TX Text Control can help organizations streamline how they create documents and improve overall productivity.