Once your template is created, creating a merge document is as simple as selecting the template using the browse (...) button and clicking the Run button.
Let's review all your options though:
In the File Format dropdown, you have the choice between Excel and PDF.
In the Select an action groupbox, you are offered 2 choices: one to open the document (in Excel or your PDF editor depending on the file format you chose) and another one to not open the document.
Attachments
- If you select the option to open the document, to attach the document to the current record, once in Excel use the Save and Update ACT! history command (see the The Excel Add-in topic for its location in Excel)
- If you select the option to not open the document, just check the appropriate box to have it be attached to the current record or the current lookup of records.
There are 2 places where you can attach documents in ACT! under the history tab or the documents tab. The type of attachments is a template specific setting: you can set it under Options>Template Settings.
Bi-directional templates
If your template is bi-directional, to update ACT!, select the option to open the document in Excel then click the Transfer Mapped Data to ACT! button under the Exponenciel tab of the ribbon.