# Generate parade-day paperwork

> Build reusable document templates that fill themselves in with your parade's data and print as PDFs, one per unit, station, or role.

The Documents tab (labeled **Documentation Sheets**) is how you produce the paper your parade runs on: station instructions, unit signs, role guides, run-of-show. You write a template once with merge fields, and the app generates a filled-in PDF for every station, unit, or role, updating automatically as your parade data changes. No copy-pasting names into a hundred documents.

This works best once your [staffing](/help/staffing) (stations, roles, positions) and [lineup](/help/lineup) (units) are in place, since that's the data the documents pull from.

## The scopes

Every sheet has a scope that decides how many PDFs it produces:

- **Event Documents**: one document for the whole parade (a master run-of-show, a safety plan).
- **Station Documents**: one per station (packing lists, station instructions).
- **Unit Documents**: one per unit (staging signs, participant packets).
- **Role Documents**: one per role or position (position guides).
- **Map View Documents**: read-only, generated from views you save on the Map tab.

The tab groups your sheets under these headings, with a **Starred** section on top for the ones you pin.

![The Documentation Sheets tab](/help-media/documentation-sheets.png "The Documentation Sheets tab, with sheets grouped by scope and a Starred section.")

## Create a sheet

Click **Add** in the section you want, or use **Create New Documentation Sheet** and pick a **Sheet Type**. For station and role sheets you also choose a **Scope**: **All** (a single template that cycles through every station or position) or **Specific** (a template for just one). Then edit it.

In the editor you set:

- **PDF Style** (Standard, Compact, Spacious, or Display (Large)), **Orientation** (Portrait or Landscape), and a **Color Theme**.
- The **content**, using the toolbar's **Insert Field** button to drop in merge fields.

## Merge fields do the filling-in

Merge fields are placeholders that become real values when the PDF generates. **Insert Field** opens a searchable picker showing only the fields that make sense for this sheet's scope: a unit sheet offers the unit's name, lineup number, and participant count; a role sheet offers the assigned person, supplies, and reporting lines; and so on. List fields can render as bullets, checkboxes, or a table, and there are QR-code fields that drop in a scannable code.

Some fields insert a **map image**, like road closures, lineup lanes, or a coverage zone. When you download, the app captures those map views as images and embeds them into the PDF for you.

Because everything is a field, the documents stay current. Change a unit's lineup number or a station's hours, and the next PDF reflects it without you touching the template. For a template that produces many PDFs, use **Preview as** to spot-check how one instance looks before printing them all.

> If you started from a built-in template and your edits drifted from it, **Reset to Template** pulls the latest version back in. It replaces this sheet's body only, and doesn't touch your other sheets, so use it deliberately.

## Download and batch

For a single-document sheet, click **Download PDF**. For a template that spans many stations, units, or positions, the **Download** button offers three choices:

- **This Sheet Only**: just the instance you're previewing.
- **All Sheets as One PDF**: every instance combined into one multi-page document, handy for printing in a single run.
- **All Sheets as ZIP**: a separate PDF per instance, handy for emailing each station or unit their own.