Item Level from A-Z

This guide walks you through the full journey of an item-level document — from creating your template or using a predefined one to downloading, sending and automating your PDF.

An Item Level document contains the information of a single item from your monday.com board. Possible use cases: contract, proposal, agreement, certificate, invoice, letter, …

1. Create your template (.docx)

A template is just a regular Microsoft Word (.docx) file with placeholders where your monday.com data should appear. You can start from scratch or simply reuse an existing business document, such as a letter or contract.

1. Open Microsoft Word (or Google Docs) and create — or open — your document.

2. Write the document as usual. Everywhere you want to pull in data from a monday item, insert a placeholder.

3. Save the file as .docx.

Insert placeholders

To pull the value from the current item, use the prefix Item. followed by the column title, wrapped in double curly braces:

{{Item.ColumnTitle}}

You can also add general placeholders for board- or user-level data:

{{User.name}} – Name of the monday user {{Board.name}} – Name of the monday board

Here is what a simple letter / contract template could look like:

Dear {{Item.Contact Person}},

thank you for your interest. Please find the details for {{Item.Name}} below:

Project:   {{Item.Name}}
Status:    {{Item.Status}}
Due date:  {{Item.Due Date}}
Amount:    {{Item.Amount}}

Kind regards,
{{User.name}}

📷 Screenshot: a .docx letter/contract with {{Item.…}} placeholders highlighted

Tip: The column title inside the placeholder must match the column name on your board exactly. Browse our Placeholder Directory for a full list of available placeholders and formatting options.

2. Upload your template to DocExport

1. Open the DocExport view in your board.

2. Click Upload template and select your .docx file.

📷 Screenshot: the 'Upload template' button in the DocExport view

3. Generate & download your PDF

1. DocExport creates a real-time preview of your document.

2. Choose which item the document should be created for in the dropdown next to the preview.

3. When you are happy with the result, click Download in the top right corner to save your PDF.

If you want to make further adjustments (colors, fonts, layout), click Customize template to download or re-upload the Word file.

📷 Screenshot: item dropdown + preview + Download button

{% hint style="info" %} Quick path: If you only occasionally need a one-click PDF for a single item, you can generate it directly from the item card — without opening the DocExport view at all. See PDF Download in Item Card. {% endhint %}

4. Set up Actions: what happens with the PDF

By default, every document is saved in your list of reports. With Actions you can decide what else should happen with the generated PDF. Click Actions/Automations in the top right corner of the preview to define them.

• Save to a file column – store the PDF directly in a file column on the item.

• Send via email – send the PDF to the user who generated it, to addresses from a People/Email column, or to fixed addresses.

📷 Screenshot: the Actions/Automations panel with file column + email actions

Learn more in Actions.

5. Automate the generation

So far you generate the PDF manually. To create it automatically, there are two levels — it helps to keep them apart:

Option A: DocExport automation (what + when, inside DocExport)

Save your template and its actions as a recipe, then schedule it (e.g. every Wednesday). Give the recipe a clear name so you can find it later. See Automations.

Option B: monday automation (DocExport Action Block)

Here the trigger lives in monday's automation center, using the DocExport action block. Typical examples:

• When a button is clicked → generate document

• When a status changes → generate document

• When a date is reached → generate document

📷 Screenshot: monday automation 'When button clicked, generate Doc with DocExport'

Advanced

• Conditional Actions – run different actions depending on a status (e.g. Course A vs. Course B).

• eSignatures – send the generated contract out for signing.

Next step

➡️ Need a table-based report across your whole board instead? See Create a Board Level Document.