Create reusable Guide layouts in Templates → Guides → Templates. The editor saves layout changes to an advisor draft; Publish applies a practice template's changes to the shared version. Editing a Guide inside a client file offers different save destinations through Done.
How do I create a Guide template from scratch?
In Templates → Guides → Templates, an advisor can start with an empty practice template and build its layout manually.
Open Templates from the practice sidebar or account menu. The Guides section opens on its Templates tab.
Select New Template, then Start blank.
Enter a Template name, such as Annual Review.
Select Create template to open the editor.
Choose a household beside Preview to enable the editing canvas. If the selector says No clients, follow Adding Your First Client first. The new template starts without published components.
Add content, preview it with household data, and publish before assigning it from the template list. Creating a blank template does not assign it to clients.
For an AI-assisted starting layout, choose Build with Dora instead and follow Create a Guide with Dora. The same editor supports manual changes after reviewing Dora's proposal.
How do I start from an existing template?
In Templates → Guides → Templates, open a practice template to edit it, or copy a starting layout when you want to preserve the original.
Open a built-in Kerdora template to preview it.
Select Edit a copy to create an editable practice version.
Change the name in the editor’s name field and revise the layout. The copy starts with the original name; the template list shows your new name after Publish.
The template list also offers a copy icon with the tooltip Duplicate template for built-in and practice templates. Managing and Reusing Guide Templates explains that route. Published content in a duplicate is independent of its original layout, although linked snippets and component defaults can still be shared.
For a household-specific exception, open that client's Guides page and use Edit guide. Check the save destination before applying any changes to a reusable template.
During Plan Setup's Guide step, Browse templates opens built-in and practice templates. Edit current template, when shown, follows the advisor's last Guide selection for this household.
A practice template opens for editing; Publish applies changes to clients using it. A built-in template opens as a preview with Edit a copy. For a separate client Guide copy, use that client's Guides → Edit guide; the Plan Setup shortcut doesn't load that copy correctly.
How do I add, arrange, and remove Guide components?
In a Guide editor's Edit mode, use the Add panel to place components and select a block to edit its settings.
Select Add and search for a component or a saved snippet.
Click its card to add it at the current insertion point, or drag it onto the canvas.
Select the placed block. Use its Settings panel for the available content, filters, and style choices.
Drag blocks and rows to rearrange them, or use the selected block's Move up and Move down arrows.
Use the trash icon with the Remove (Delete) tooltip to remove a block.
The Outline panel helps locate and reorder content. Layout choices can include Width, Position, or Split, depending on the row. Removing a block removes its place in this layout; it does not delete the underlying client account, goal, or note.
Undo and Redo apply to editor layout changes.
How do I duplicate a Guide block?
In the Guide editor, Duplicate copies a supported block's title and settings onto a new row immediately after its current row. It copies a layout block, not the underlying financial account, goal, or note.
Open the Guide editor in Edit mode and select the block.
Select the copy icon with the Duplicate (⌘D) tooltip, or use Command+D on a Mac or Ctrl+D on Windows while the block is selected and you aren't typing in a text field.
Review the new block's settings and placement before saving or publishing the layout.
Text and Image blocks don't offer Duplicate. Add a new block of that type and enter the intended content instead. A duplicated snippet block can still refer to the same snippet, so don't assume copying a block makes shared source content independent.
How do I move a Guide block side to side?
In the Guide editor, Move left and Move right swap a selected block with a neighboring block in the same row. The side-to-side arrows appear when the block shares its row.
Select the block in Edit mode.
Use the Move left or Move right arrow where available. Option+Left/Right on a Mac or Alt+Left/Right on Windows performs the same move.
Check the resulting row before saving or publishing your changes.
An unavailable arrow means the block can't move farther in that direction. Move up and Move down work differently: a block sharing a row moves onto its own row, while a block alone on a row moves that row. These changes affect layout, not the household data shown inside the blocks.
How do I change a Guide's appearance?
In a Guide editor, selecting a component opens its settings, including Style when that component supports it. A style change made on the block stays with that block in this Guide.
Select a component on the canvas.
In its Settings panel, find Style.
Choose Border and, where offered, a Background swatch.
Use Use default to remove this block's style override and follow the practice default again.
Content, Heading, and Style have separate default controls. A block can retain its own content settings while following the shared heading and style, or the reverse. Check all three when two copies of a component look different.
These controls format supported components; they don't provide an unrestricted slide-design canvas. For firm branding, read Customizing Your Firm's Appearance (Logo and Colors).
How do I change or hide a block's heading?
In a Guide editor, a supported block's Heading settings control whether its heading appears. Type a heading on the block to give that placement its own wording.
Select the block in Edit mode and find Heading in its settings.
Set Show heading to On or Off.
Select Use default to return this block to the practice heading, or Update default to make its heading the practice default after confirmation.
A block with its own heading keeps that wording when the practice default changes. Returning to the default reconnects it. A snippet heading normally follows the snippet name; use Use the snippet name to restore that source. Finish the layout's save or publish workflow for a change to just this block; updating a practice default saves separately.
How do I change a component's default across Guides?
In Templates → Guides → Components, changes to Default heading, Default style, or Default content affect blocks that follow that component's practice default. These shared changes take effect separately from a Guide layout's draft and publication.
Open Templates → Guides → Components and select a component.
Edit its Default heading, Default style, or Default content controls, where offered. Under Default heading, change Show heading or type into Heading; heading text saves when you leave the field.
Review a Guide using that component after the change.
The same controls are available through Edit defaults… in a selected block's settings. Alternatively, Update default promotes that block's current content, heading, or style choice to the shared default after confirmation. Blocks with their own overrides keep those overrides.
Use Reset to Kerdora's original to reset a component's practice default after confirming the scope. Discarding a Guide layout draft does not undo a separately saved default change.
How do I find a component in the library?
In Templates → Guides → Components, use the area list or search to find a component before reviewing its defaults. The list groups choices under Planning areas, Building blocks, and Your practice.
Choose All components to browse everything, a planning area to narrow the list, or Notes and media or Layout for building blocks. Customized finds components with practice defaults, and Not in a template finds components absent from reusable templates. These filters help you find components; they don't change a client's Guide.
Search results are ranked under Matches and Also mentions when applicable. On a narrow screen, the same area choices appear in a dropdown. Open a component to inspect its preview and available default controls before making a shared change.
How do I add reusable text, images, or videos?
In a Guide editor, the Add panel lists saved snippets that can be inserted as linked content. The current library calls reusable template fields Snippets.
Open Add and find the Snippets group, or search for a snippet by name.
Click the snippet to insert a block already linked to it.
Select the block to check its content and heading.
A snippet heading follows the snippet's name until an advisor types a separate heading for that block. Use the snippet name reconnects an overridden heading. Changing a shared snippet can affect multiple Guides; use household-specific content for one client's recommendations.
Snippets and Template Fields: Reusable Guide Content explains creating snippets, editing their shared content, and maintaining client-specific values. On a household’s Guides page, advisor edits to Text Snippets and Image Snippets save household values immediately; they don’t wait for layout publication or change the shared snippet. Clients can currently edit those snippets on My plan, along with one-off Text and Image blocks and dates. Financial Objective, Values, Overview Goals, and Concerns blocks are read-only for clients, including in the built-in Overview layout shown when no default Guide is set.
Review household content after edits.
How do I create a one-page client plan summary with bullet points highlighting key data?
In a client's Guide editor, build a short layout using Text for household-specific writing and a few data components for the facts that support it. A short layout does not guarantee a one-page PDF; check its actual output.
Open the client's Guides, choose a template as the starting Guide, and select Edit guide.
Add Text and remove components that aren't needed for this summary.
Select Done. Save for (client’s name) only is already selected because Text belongs to this household. Name the copy and select Save.
In the saved Guide, click the text area and use its bulleted-list toolbar control to enter the summary.
If you started from a Guide under Created for client, Done offers only Save this guide, which updates that copy without asking for a name. Text values save as household content separately from layout drafts. A new client copy is visible immediately, so hide it with the Guide selector's eye control while completing the summary if needed.
Typed amounts need manual updates. For pagination and export, read Printing and Exporting Reports as PDF.
How do I preview a template with real client data?
In the practice Guide editor, the Preview household selector supplies household data to the layout preview. It does not assign the template to that household.
Choose a household from the selector beside Preview.
Select Preview in the editor's mode switch.
Check Desktop, Tablet, and Phone widths.
Return to Edit to correct missing content, long headings, or unsuitable component scope.
Preview is a non-interactive rendering of Guide content, not a signed-in portal session. It does not test invitations or all client permissions. Practice-template previews use shared snippet content; a client's saved copy of a snippet can differ.
Test more than one household before publishing a widely used layout. For Print preview, Open PDF preview, and PDF output, read Printing and Exporting Reports as PDF.
How do I save a draft or publish a practice template?
In the practice Guide editor, Draft saved means layout edits have been stored for the advisor; Published means the shared template has been updated.
Finish reviewing the layout and household preview.
Select Publish to update this template for households using it. Check that the status becomes Published.
Select Done to leave the editor.
If Done opens Save your changes, choose Publish changes and Save to apply the edits, Keep as a draft to continue later, or Discard changes to remove the layout draft. Save as a new template creates another practice template from the edited layout. The original keeps its published layout, but its unpublished draft is removed.
Publishing a template does not itself assign it to households. Shared snippets, component defaults, and client data have their own saves; the layout draft does not freeze or roll back those sources.
How do I save edits made inside a client file?
In a client's Guide editor, Done opens Save your changes when layout edits need a destination. Available choices depend on the source Guide and whether the layout contains household-specific content.
Open the client's Guides, choose the Guide, and select Edit guide.
Make and review the changes, then select Done.
Choose a destination and select Save. Supply a name when creating a copy.
For a template, Save for (client’s name) only creates a visible client copy. For a practice template without household-specific content, Update “<template name>” changes the shared template for every client using it. Built-in Kerdora templates can’t be updated this way.
For an existing client Guide, Save this guide updates that Guide without changing visibility. A linked copy may also offer Save, and update “<template name>”, which changes both.
Save as a new template creates a practice template and makes it visible to this household. These new-copy actions do not set the client's default Guide. Household-specific blocks or settings restrict shared-template choices.
Keep as a draft leaves layout changes unpublished.
What does Reset to a template do in a client's Guide editor?
A client's Guide editor can show Reset to followed by a template name when that household has an older set of layout customizations over that template. Selecting it clears those household customizations and returns to the template's layout.
Open the client's Guides, select the relevant Guide, and choose Edit guide.
If Reset to followed by the template name appears, check that you intend to remove this household's template customizations.
Select the reset button. The reset applies immediately and leaves the editor; it doesn't wait for Done or a separate confirmation.
Reset doesn't clear your saved draft. If edits were autosaved before you reset, the editor can offer them when you return. Choose Discard them or Start over from the current version, whichever appears, to keep the reset.
Resuming brings the draft's earlier layout back into the editor.
Reset appears only on a template with this household's older customizations. A separate client Guide copy never shows it.
Reset doesn't reset the household's financial records or undo all earlier changes. For an ordinary layout mistake in an editing session, use the editor's Undo action instead of treating template reset as a general recovery tool.
What should I do when a draft or template changed elsewhere?
In a Guide editor, a saved draft can be resumed, while changes made in another tab can require a decision before work continues. Read which version each choice keeps.
On reopening, Resume continues the saved draft and Discard them opens the saved Guide. If the source changed, Keep mine keeps the older draft. Publishing or saving over its source then replaces the newer version without another warning about those changes. Start over from the current version drops the draft and opens current source content.
A publication warning means publishing would replace newer template changes. Use Publish mine only after reviewing that consequence. If This draft changed in another tab appears, the latest edits in the current tab were not saved; Reload continues from the server's latest version.
A linked client copy may offer Update from the template. That replaces the editor layout with the source template's current rows. Review the replacement, use Undo if needed, and finish through Done and the intended save choice.