Learn how to start, create, and finish your first document in Work Author.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- Starting a new document
- Using the document creator
- Intro to questions
- Answering questions
- Completing your document
- Downloading a document to PDF
- Publishing your document
Introduction
Creating documents in Work Author is designed to be easy. This article will walk you through everything you need to know to create your first document.
Starting a new document
From your dashboard:
1. Click the “+ New” button in the top right.
Note: If your organisation has assessments enabled, select “New Document” in the next dropdown.
2. In the Create Document window, select your template by clicking “Use”.
| 3. Name your document. | 4. Select “Create document” to start your document. |
 |  |
Note: By default, your document will not be linked to an existing one. To learn how to link to an existing document, click here.
Using the document creator
Now that you’ve started a new document, you’ll enter the document creator. The screen is split into two parts.
To create your document, you will answer questions on the left side. Your responses will then appear in the document on the right side.
Note: Your work auto-saves, so you can leave and come back without losing progress.
Navigate your document
You will see questions one at a time. As you answer each question, the next one will appear. When you finish all questions in a section, you’ll move to the next section.
On the left side of the screen, you can navigate through questions and sections:
- Next question: Answer the current question or save it as a draft.
- Previous question: Click on a question to reopen it.
Tip: You can also click on a previous answer in the document to return directly to the question.
- Next section: Use the section navigation arrows at the top.
- Previous/unlocked section: Use the section navigation arrows at the top.
On the right side of the screen, you can scroll to view your document.
You can also click on the section title to view all sections of your document and click on each title to navigate to the section that you want to visit.
To view your document, you can click on the arrow to expand and collapse the right hand side, allowing you to see just the document, and then return to the questions.
| To expand the document | To collapse the document |
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Whilst you are in the expanded document view, you can show or hide the answers.
| While answers are showing | While answers are hidden |
 |  |
Intro to questions
To quickly see the status of each question, check the progress indicator on its left:
| Indicator | Status |
 | Answered |
 | Opened but not answered, or the question has been shared |
 | Answer saved as a draft |
On the right of each question, you can see if there are comments and who it has been shared with.
Tip: Hover over a collaborator’s initials to see their full name
You may see questions with an "Internal Questions" icon to the right of it. These are questions that only internal users of Work Author will be able to see.
Question actions
Use the toolbar underneath each question to quickly:
| Icon | Action | Purpose |
 | View question history | See a timeline of who’s answered, updated, or shared a question. |
 | View guidance | See extra information about a question or answer. |
 | View guidance video | See extra video information about a question or a process. |
 | Share question | Share a question directly with someone in or outside of your organisation. |
 | View comments | Comment on a question or respond to other comments in a thread. |
 | View drafts | Save and refine your answers before submitting or sharing. |
Note: Not all actions are available for every question. You will only see icons for actions you can take.
Answering questions
To answer a question:
1. Type or select your answer.
2. Press ‘OK’ to save it and add it to the document.
3. If you want to save and refine draft answers, click "Save draft".
For more information on answering guided scoping questions, see here.
Draft answers
Users can save and refine their answers before sharing them. If an answer is in draft, this information box will appear underneath the question.
If the Drafts pop-up, you can see who has submitted the draft answer and when.
Click on an answer and click "Restore Draft" to replace the current draft with a previous draft answer.
The restored draft will be used as the submitted answer on the document once you click "Ok" in the main question box.
Note: When an answer is in draft, it's only visible to your organisation. When the answer has been added to the document, it will then be visible to everybody.
- Both internal teams and external co-authors can create and manage draft answers.
- External co-authors can create drafts visible to other external document users.
Using the rich text editor
Some questions need longer text answers and will ask you to “Open Editor.”
Clicking this opens a window where you can easily format your answer with lists, headings, or tables. You might see a partly pre-filled answer to complete, such as a table or introductory sentence.
Tip: To add or delete a column or row in a table, click, hold, and drag your mouse across a row or column. A popup will show options to insert next to or delete.
Completing your document
If you’re not ready to answer a question, you can save it as a draft it and come back later by clicking the "Save draft" button under it.
Note: You must answer all questions before you can complete your document. The system will take you to any unsanswered questions after you’ve gone through all of them.
Completing your document makes it read-only, which means you will not be able to make any more changes.
If you’re ready, click “Complete.” To keep editing, click “Continue Editing.”
Completing your document later
If you’re now ready to complete your document after clicking “Continue Editing”:
- Click the Complete icon at the top right of your document.
2. In the pop-up message, click “Complete.”
Tip: You can still view the document settings and properties on a completed document by hovering over the three dots at the top right of your document.
Downloading a document to PDF
To save a completed document as a PDF:
1. Click the Download PDF icon at the top right of your document.
2. Your PDF will download straight to the downloads folder on your computer.
Publishing your document
If your organisation has connected workflows like Docusign for completed documents, they will appear in the Publish Document section above your document:
Click Publish on a workflow to start it:
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