Introduction
Smart Automation in Massdraft helps enable users to automate document templates quickly and efficiently. By leveraging this functionality, users can streamline the process of generating and managing large volumes of documents with minimal manual intervention.
What is Smart Automation?
Smart Automation is Avvoka’s rules-based logic that scans uploaded .docx files and detects text that should be converted into placeholders in the template. This speeds up onboarding and makes Massdraft-ready templating scalable.
Step 1: Prepare Your Template
Smart Automation recognises placeholders based on their formatting in square brackets. Follow these simple rules:
Placeholders
Smart Placeholders are defined by enclosing text in square brackets with the first letter of each word capitalised. If you want an attribute to output in uppercase, write the placeholder in all caps, contained within square brackets.
Examples:
[Loan Amount]
[Number Of Units]
[Time Based Units]
Capitalisation Determines Output Style
[Company Name] → Outputs standard text
[COMPANY NAME] → Outputs in all caps
Microsoft Word | Avvoka Template |
[Company Name] |
Microsoft Word | Avvoka Template |
[COMPANY NAME]
|
|
This helps when formatting legal or financial documents where casing matters.
Be Consistent
Avoid extra spaces inside the brackets (e.g. [ Company Name ] will not be detected).
Avoid using punctuation and special characters. See the examples below to ensure your placeholders are correctly formatted
Incorrect
[Time-Based Units]
[Total # Units]
[$ Amount]
[CR Name]
Correct
[Time Based Units]
[Total Number Of Units]
[Dollar Amount]
[Company Representative Name]
Placeholder text should match your Excel headers if using Massdraft data uploads.
Docusign Tags
Enclose text with curly brackets two curly brackets each side
Add the field name followed by a hyphen
After the hyphen, add the Docusign field type type.
Example output - {{Field Name - Text}}
Below is a table detailing the different Docusign field types and the required formatting for automation in Avvoka:
Conditions
For detailed information on how to mark your precedents up so that conditions are Smart Automated, please see this article.
Step 2: Upload Your Template
To apply Smart Automation to your template, choose below option: "Click here or drag and drop docx, avvoka files here to upload", and you’ll be prompted to use the Smart Automation function.
Upload a .docx file
You will be prompted to select which how Massdraft will detect the different types of automation. For placeholders:
To apply the standard placeholder detection outlined in this article, select ‘Transformation detection’. This option will be ticked by default
As another option, ‘Advanced detection’ works to recognise placeholders that aren’t contained within square brackets
Optionally, also tick ‘E-signature tag detection’ if you will be leveraging our Docusign integration and have added the pre-prepared markup outlined above
If you want Conditions to be Smart Automated, tick whether Smart Automation should look for fields contained with square brackets followed by a footnotes, or with Avvoka mark-up. More information on these detection types can be found here
Click Import to process the template
Step 3: Manually applying automation (Optional)
After uploading your Smart Automated .docx file, you can manually apply further automation if required.
Click on the Edit button (pencil icon) beside your template on the left hand side on your page
Select the Automation tab
Insert placeholders for dynamic fields
Save your changes
Step 4: Assign Data to Your Template
Once your template is automated, you need to link it with data sources. Massdraft provides various ways to input and manage data:
Import Data from Previous Deals: Reuse data from existing Massdraft deals
Upload a Spreadsheet: Drag and drop an .xlsx file to populate document fields
Use Massdraft’s Data Form: Manually enter or edit data within the platform
Assign Attributes: Map uploaded data columns to the placeholders in your template
To map attributes:
Click on “Assign Attributes” in the Data tab
Select the correct column for each attribute
Click Save to finalise the data mapping
Step 5: Generate & Review Documents
After automating your template and assigning data, Massdraft generates documents automatically.
Navigate to the Documents tab
Review the generated documents grouped by your preferred attribute
Click on a document to preview it and make necessary edits in the template editor. Individual documents cannot be edited—only the template can be modified
Download individual documents or export all as a batch
Conclusion
Smart Automation in Massdraft simplifies the process of generating and managing document templates by automating repetitive tasks. By following these steps, you can improve efficiency, reduce errors, and streamline your workflow for bulk document creation.