Certificates - Create a Custom Certificate

If you need to create a new custom certificate for course completion, the following article will help you do that.

How to create a custom certificate of completion - Certificates - UniversitySite Community

If you need to pull out variables, insert others, and understand our certificate process more deeply, read on.

Our certificates are based on a Word (docx) template that you can edit, insert variables into, and then upload as a new or revised custom certificate.

To begin, click the green + New Certificate button.

If you are reading this it’s probably because you just downloaded a certificate template and want to create a custom template.

Global Variables

Global variables can be used anywhere in a Word document.  Variable names are case-sensitive.

Table Variables

Global variables can be used anywhere in a Word document.  Table variables must be used in a table. Variable names are case-sensitive.  The table must have a header row and one-and-only-one additional row.

To designate the first row as a header row, you must select the row and set the row option labeled "Repeat as header row at the top of each page" as indicated in the screenshot taken from Microsoft Word below:

Credit table example:

The following variables are available for use in a table in these template files (variable names are case-sensitive):

Agency-specific templates

You can create a template named the same as a Regulatory Agency name in UniversitySite. The following shortcut variables may be used so that you don’t have to add the Agency name as shown by “–XXX” in the table above. This makes it easy to create one template and then copy it for each Regulatory Agency without editing every variable name on the template.

How to add variables to Word documents

First you must add the "Developer" tab to your Ribbon in Word.

For global variables, you can add the "Plain text content control" anywhere in the word document that you want the results of that variable displayed. (Click on the developer tab that you added to your Ribbon in Word and find the "Plain text content control").

Once you have added the control, replace the placeholder text (“Click here to enter text”) with a single space by hitting the spacebar immediately after inserting the control.) You will then set the variable name (for example: Title) in the "tag" property of the content control you just added. You can edit the "tag" property by selecting the content control and then clicking on the "Properties" button in the developer tab section for content controls.

For table variables, you must add a table with only a header row and a placeholder row. Only one placeholder row is permitted. You will create columns in this table for each item in the table variable set and any additional empty columns you wish to be included in the table. For each cell in the placeholder row, you can add a content control and specify the table variable as the tag for that content control.

Tip: You can view the variable names by clicking Design Mode on the Developer ribbon.

Uploading your custom template

When you’re finished changing your certificate template, you can upload it to the place you downloaded it from.  The name of your template file is very important.  The template will derive its name from the name of your template file.

Keep in mind:

•        You can only upload docx files as templates.
•        The name of the template file is the name that will appear in the dropdown list for custom templates.
•        If you have already uploaded a template file with the same name, you will be prompted to overwrite the existing template.