Skip to main content

Legal

Tax & Accounting

Trade & Supply

Risk & Fraud

News & Media

Books

Developers

Clients

Editing client document templates in Microsoft Word

Due to differences between the text editor used in UltraTax CS and Microsoft Word, client document templates (like filing instructions, transmittal letters, engagement letters, and invoices) can't be edited in Microsoft Word. When the variables used in the UltraTax CS templates are copied into or from another text editor, the links to your client data are broken. There are, however, ways to edit portions of these document templates in Microsoft Word using copy and paste.
Do the following steps to edit portions of client document templates using Microsoft Word or another text editor and successfully copy the information back into UltraTax CS. You can also add special formatting to client document templates that's not easily attainable within UltraTax CS.

Items that shouldn't be copied from UltraTax to Microsoft Word or other text editors

The following items shouldn't be copied into Microsoft Word or any other text editor for editing. Doing so will result in information not pulling correctly into the client documents in UltraTax CS and unwanted text and symbols displaying on the client documents.
Variables will always be denoted by red text enclosed in square brackets.
If you copy variables into Microsoft Word or another text editor, they will no longer act as variables when copied back into UltraTax. For example, if the [salutation] variable is copied between applications, the text [salutation] will appear in the document instead of the client's salutation.
Edit word variable
The conditional statements for displaying the Spanish or English text will be denoted by light gray text enclosed in curly brackets for English and light green text enclosed in curly brackets for Spanish.
If you copy these conditional statements into Microsoft Word or another text editor, they will no longer act as conditional statements when copied back into UltraTax CS. Instead, the client document will display the actual conditional statements text and all of the Spanish and English text.
Items that shouldn't be copied from Microsoft Word to UltraTax or other text editors
The following items, if entered in Microsoft Word, won't copy over to UltraTax and won't display when the client document is printed out of UltraTax.
Client document templates in UltraTax can only contain black text.
Any non-text items entered in Microsoft Word won't copy to or print from UltraTax CS. This includes logos images, graphs, and other annotations.

Items that can be copied from UltraTax to Microsoft Word or other text editors

The following items can be copied successfully between Microsoft Word (or another text editor) and UltraTax CS.
Embedded content in the UltraTax CS client document templates is denoted by pink text enclosed in curly brackets and is typically used for the List of Returns or Optional Paragraphs.
While embedded content can be copied between applications, if edits are made to the embedded content, it may not copy back into UltraTax successfully. This includes the curly brackets and everything enclosed within them. Changes may prevent the content from pulling into the client document and result in the embedded content syntax displaying in the client document.
Print ifs are denoted by blue text enclosed in curly brackets and always contain "Begin if..." and "End if..."
While print ifs can be copied between applications, if edits are made to the print if statements, it may not copy back into UltraTax successfully. This includes the curly brackets and everything enclosed within them. Changes may prevent the print if statements from functioning correctly and may result in the print if syntax and the unwanted content displaying in the client document.
Items that can be copied from Microsoft Word to UltraTax or other editors
The following text formatting items (commonly used in Microsoft Word or another text editor) can be used in Microsoft Word and will be included in the client document templates in UltraTax.
Recommendations to fully utilize Microsoft Word with minimal error
Follow these steps to edit client document templates in Microsoft Word.
  1. Select
    Setup
    , then
    [[Entity type]]
    .
  2. On the
    Federal
     or state tab, select
    Letters & Email
     /
    Filing Instructions
     /
    Invoice
    , then
    Text & Format Options
    .
  3. Select the document you want to edit, then select
    Open
    .
  4. If you don't have any Spanish speaking clients and don't need client documents printed in Spanish, select
    Format
    ,
    Remove language
    ,
    Remove Spanish
    .
    If you need client documents printed in Spanish, it may be best to edit the client document templates using the UltraTax CS editor only. If you choose to edit portions of the templates in Microsoft Word, you'll need to copy one paragraph at a time into Microsoft Word, make your edits, and copy the paragraph back into UltraTax.
  5. Select the text you want to edit in Microsoft Word, then select
    Ctrl+C
     on your keyboard to copy the text.
    This screenshot was pulled from the 1040 Transmittal Letter.
  6. Open Microsoft Word (or other text editor).
  7. Paste the text using
    Ctrl+V
     on your keyboard or by selecting
    Edit
    , then
    Paste
    .
  8. Make all desired edits to the document.
  9. When finished editing the document, select
    Ctrl+A
     on your keyboard to select all text, then select
    Ctrl+C
     to copy.
  10. In UltraTax CS and return to the document opened in step 3.
  11. Remove the portion you selected in step 5 and select
    Delete
     or
    Backspace
     on your keyboard.
  12. Select
    Ctrl+V
     on your keyboard to paste the text.
  13. Select
    File
    , then
    Save
     to save the template in UltraTax CS.
  14. Close the UltraTax CS client document editor and select
    OK
     to exit the
    Product Information
     window.
  15. To view your edits, open a client with the same entity type selected in step 1 and preview the return.

This article applies to:

  • Product: UltraTax CS
  • Return type: 1040 Individual, 1120 Corporation
Chat now

error-icon

Triva isn't available right now.

Check out the support page for our phone number and hours

error-close