Publish, share and archive templates

A template moves through three states: draft while you build it, published once it can be used, archived when it should stay in the library but out of circulation. Publishing is also where you choose who can use it, so the two decisions happen in one dialog.

Who can do this

The template's owner, a manager over that owner's team, or a workspace admin. Everyone else can use a published template that is shared with them, but sees no status or sharing controls.

Publish a draft

1. Open the draft from Templates. The strip at the top of the page reads "This template is a draft".

2. Click Publish. Anything that would break a send is checked first, and the first problem is shown with an Open editor button beside it.

3. Choose who can use it: Just me, Everyone in this workspace, or Specific team with one or more teams ticked.

4. Click Publish.

   

From the field editor there is a shortcut. Save & Publish in the footer saves your work and opens the same dialog, so you can finish a template and publish it without going back to the list.

Change who can use it

Open the template and click Manage sharing on the Sharing row, pick a different option, then Save sharing. Visibility can be changed at any time on a published template, and the change takes effect at once.

Each row in the templates list carries a chip showing where it stands: Private, Team or Workspace. The My templates and Shared tabs split the list along the same line.

Archive and restore

Click Archive on the template page, or pick Archive from the row's action menu, and confirm. An archived template drops out of the main list into the Archived tab, cannot be used to send anything, and has every action except Restore switched off. Restore puts it straight back to published with its old visibility intact.

Documents already out for signature carry on as if nothing happened. Signers keep their links, reminders keep running, and the finished PDF is the same. What archiving does stop is anything new: no fresh sends, no bulk sends, and any public link pointing at the template is switched off, which stays off until you publish the template again.

Archive rather than delete when a template has done real work. Deleting is limited to unused drafts anyway, and archiving leaves the trail readable.

Delete a template

Delete only appears on a draft you created. Open the row's action menu, pick Delete, and confirm in the dialog. If a document has already gone out from that draft, the confirmation never opens: a message tells you how many times the template was used and to archive it instead. Published and archived templates have no Delete at all.

If something goes wrong

• The Publish button did nothing except show a message. Something on the template blocks sending, such as a signer role with no signature field. Click Open editor, fix it, and publish again.
• "Publish the template before sending." The template is still a draft. Use template and Bulk send wake up once it is published.
• You cannot find a template a colleague mentioned. It is either still their private draft, or shared with a team you are not in. Ask them to set it to Everyone in this workspace, or to tick your team.
• A template you used before has dropped off the list. Somebody archived it. It sits in the Archived tab, and only Restore brings it back. Changing its visibility will not.
• Delete is not in the menu. Either the template is not a draft, or you did not create it. Archive is the route for a published one.
• An archived row has almost no menu. By design. From the list the only item left is Unarchive, which is the same action as Restore on the template page.