Template Builder

Template Builder turns a Word document in your house style into a reusable template for formatted CVs and shortlists. You upload a .docx file, an AI agent works out which parts of it should be filled with candidate information and builds the template, and you check the result on a real candidate before publishing it for your team. Once it is on, admins and anyone whose role has the Manage Templates permission can use it. See managing access.

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Prepare your Word file

The agent works from a regular Word file. That can be either of these:

• A sample CV in your house style, for example a real CV that was already formatted the way you send them to clients. The agent works out the structure by itself.
• A template you prepared yourself, with placeholders and written instructions in the document.

What makes the result better:

• Use Word .docx. Not .doc, not Pages, and not a PDF of the template.
• Put every section in, in the order you want. The agent fills in text and does not change your formatting, so the layout you upload is the layout you get. Adding, removing, or rearranging sections is easiest in Word before you upload.
• Write your rules into the document. For example “only show this section when the candidate has certificates”, “when anonymized, show the region instead of the city”, how dates should read (Jan 2024 - Mar 2025), or whether a section is bullet points or prose. This is optional: when something is unclear the agent asks, and you can refine everything afterwards.
• Keep the layout simple. Single-column layouts work best. Avoid text boxes, floating frames, and SmartArt; tables and inline images are fine.

You do not need to describe the layout itself. The agent reads that from the document.

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Open Template Builder

Go to Settings → Templates and click Template Builder. The page has two lists:

• Templates in progress: templates you are still building with the agent. Open one to continue where you left off. This list is personal, so you do not see what colleagues are working on.
• Published templates: every live template in the workspace, CV and shortlist alike, whoever published it.

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Create a template

Click + New template and choose:

1. Template type
   • CV: a template for one candidate’s CV at a time.
   • Candidate shortlist: a template for one shortlist document that holds several selected candidates.
   Both types follow exactly the same steps.
2. Starting point
   • New template: upload one or more .docx files and build a template from scratch.
   • Existing template: start from a template you already have. See change a published template.
3. Click Start.

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Change a published template

A published template cannot be edited directly. To change one, create a new template with Existing template as the starting point, pick the template to start from, and describe under Instructions what should change. The agent works from that template, and you publish the result as a new version. The current template keeps working in the meantime, and you can go back to the previous version.

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Answer the agent’s questions

Clicking Start opens the Template Studio, where the agent reads your document and starts working. It first asks a few questions to understand what you want. It always asks how anonymized CVs should look, unless your document already explains that. Pick one of the suggested answers or type your own. Depending on the document there may be more questions. Answer them and send. They do not have to be perfect: you can be more specific once you see a preview.

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Let the agent build the template

Building a first version usually takes 2 to 5 minutes, depending on how complex your template is. The agent panel on the right shows what it is doing while it works. You do not have to wait on the page. Go back to your work and return later: the template shows as Running under Templates in progress, and nothing is lost.

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Review the template

When the agent is done, the Template Studio has three panels:

• Left, Settings and Components: the settings for the whole template, and every component in it, each with its own configuration.
• Middle, Template and Preview: your document with every placeholder highlighted. The tabs switch between the template and a preview.
• Right, Agent: a summary of what the agent built, and a chat box to ask for changes.

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Template settings

At the top left are two settings that apply to the whole template:

• Anonymization: the instructions used whenever a document is generated with Anonymize output ticked. The agent writes them from your answer to its question. Read them and change them if needed, by editing the text or by asking the agent.
• Verbatim: when this is on, every section copies the text exactly as it appears on the candidate’s original CV, so you do not have to repeat “use the exact wording” in every instruction.

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Components

Click any part of the document in the middle panel and the matching component opens on the left, showing how that part is filled. A component is either a single field, such as the candidate’s name, or a section that groups several of them. Every component has:

• Instructions: how the content should be filled.
• Verbatim: copy the text exactly as written on the original CV, for this component only. For example, keep education, experience, and certificates verbatim but let the profile summary be rewritten: switch Verbatim off for that one and describe in its instructions how it should read.
• Anonymization: extra anonymization rules for this component, on top of the template’s own.

A section also has a Conditional switch, so the whole section only appears when a condition is met. Write the condition as a sentence, for example “The source contains certificates or certifications.” A CV with no certificates then simply has no Certificates section, rather than an empty heading. Icons in the component list show the key settings at a glance: a filter icon marks a conditional section, and a quote icon marks verbatim content. Blocks that repeat once per item, such as one per position or per degree, carry a two-arrow icon.

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Dynamic sections

A candidate’s CV often holds information your template has no section for. A dynamic section, such as Additional Information at the end, catches it: Spott looks for anything relevant on the CV that is not covered elsewhere and adds each piece as its own section with its own heading, for example Skills or Languages.

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Work with the agent

Change anything by hand, or ask the agent in the chat box at the bottom right. For example, after switching Verbatim off for the profile, ask it to “update the profile instruction to be written in the third person”. It updates the instruction and explains what it changed. You and the agent can work on the same template: when you edit something yourself, the agent is told exactly what changed and does not overwrite it. Bigger changes work the same way, such as removing a section. When the agent is done, it renders the template again to check the result.

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Preview with a real candidate

Open the Preview tab, pick a candidate, and click Preview template. Any candidate in your database works, so choose one whose profile you know is complete. For a Candidate shortlist template, pick several candidates. The preview is the best check you have. If something is not right, tell the agent what to change straight from the preview, then preview again. That loop, preview, give feedback, check, preview again, is how a template gets good. When the template changes after a preview, the preview is marked stale. Run it again before publishing: Publish stays unavailable until the preview matches the template.

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What the preview fills in

Candidate information is filled from the profile, along with fields such as the date. Anything Spott has nothing for appears in brackets, for example (INSTITUTION) for a degree with no school on the record, or (CONSULTANT NAME) in a footer. That is deliberate: the document shows you what is missing rather than inventing it.

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Publish

When the preview looks right, click Publish at the top right. Give the template a name, optionally switch on Set as default template to make it the default for your workspace, and click Save. The template appears under Published templates and your team can use it straight away. To make it the default later, click the star next to it. To generate a document with it, see CVs & client documents.

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Quick reference