Custom Templates - Upload Your Own Word Template

Custom templates let you use your own Word document design instead of the default layout - your letterhead, your fonts, your formatting, with the AI-generated content filled in automatically. You build the template once in Microsoft Word, mark where dynamic content goes with placeholders in square brackets like [firstName] and [companyName], upload the .docx, and every cover letter from then on comes out in your layout.

Not the same as CV Maker templates. Custom Word templates control the layout of your generated motivational letter (cover letter). CV Maker templates are the built-in designs for your CV itself. If you're looking for CV designs, fonts, and colours, that's a different feature - see CV Maker.

Who Gets Custom Templates

Custom Word template upload is a Premium feature.

On other plans, the Templates tab in Settings shows a Custom Templates Not Available notice with an Upgrade Plan button, and the template dropdown at generation time shows the custom section as locked.

What Custom Templates Apply To

Custom templates format the motivational letter only. The application email, interview Q&A, and other generated documents keep their system layouts.

One watermark note from the app itself: paid plans remove the watermark from cover letters and emails; other document types always include a watermark.

The Two Built-in Templates

Everyone has two system templates, listed under Default Templates in the template dropdown:

• Standard Template - free to use on every plan, with a preparAItor watermark on cover letters and emails.
• Premium Professional - a clean template without watermarks on cover letters and emails. Requires a paid plan (Pro or Premium).

If one of these works for you, you don't need to upload anything. Custom templates are for when the built-ins aren't yours.

Where Templates Live: Settings → Templates

Open Settings and switch to the Templates tab. This is the management hub - on Premium you'll see:

• A Custom Templates section with a counter like 3/10 templates used.
• An Upload Template button.
• A Download Default Template button - downloads the default template so you can see the correct placeholder format, then customize it. This is the best starting point for your first template.
• An Available Placeholders reference you can expand - every placeholder the engine understands, with a description of what it inserts.
• A card for each uploaded template showing its name, a Default chip on your default, when it was Created, and how often it's been Used in generations - plus actions to Set as default template, Remove default status, or Delete template.

On your first visit, a Custom Templates Guide wizard opens automatically and walks you through the same steps as this page.

File Requirements

Validation runs automatically on upload. Your file must be:

• .docx format - Word 2007 or newer. Other formats are rejected; export to .docx first.
• 1 MB or smaller - the upload dialog states Maximum file size: 1MB. If you're over, the usual culprit is embedded images - compress or remove them.
• Macro-free - templates containing VBA macros are blocked for security reasons. Save as .docx, not .docm.
• A valid Word file - corrupted files or files that can't be read as a proper .docx are rejected. If that happens, open the file in Word, save a fresh copy, and re-upload.

You can also store at most 10 templates. At the cap, the app asks you to delete some templates first.

Placeholders

Placeholders are square-bracket markers the engine replaces with real data at generation time. Two things to know up front, straight from the in-app reference:

• Case-insensitive: [firstName], [FIRSTNAME], and [firstname] all work the same way.
• Empty address fields disappear: address fields (address, city, postal code, country, and the company address fields) are automatically removed from the document when empty, preventing blank lines. Put each on its own line and missing data won't leave gaps.

Required

The app is explicit about this one: your template must contain [applicationText] - this is where the generated cover letter appears. It already includes the salutation (e.g. "Dear Hiring Manager,"), body paragraphs, and closing phrase (e.g. "Sincerely,"). Do not add a separate greeting or sign-off around it - you'd end up with two.

Personal Information

Company Information

Job Details

Date & Content

That's the complete list - the same one shown under Available Placeholders in the Templates tab. Anything else in square brackets is left as-is.

A Minimal Sample Template

A bare-bones cover-letter layout in Word:

[fullName]
[address]
[postalCode] [city]
[email] · [phone]

[companyName]
[companyContactPerson]
[companyAddress]
[companyPostalCode] [companyCity]

[currentDate]

[applicationFor] [jobTitle]

[applicationText]

[signature]

Address fields sit on their own lines, so when the job posting has no company address, those lines vanish cleanly. Because [applicationFor] and [currentDate] are language-aware, the same file works for all four output languages.

How to Upload

1. Go to Settings → Templates and click Upload Template.
2. In the Upload Custom Template dialog, enter a Template Name - something you'll recognise later, like "Professional Blue Template".
3. Drag & drop your .docx file into the drop zone, or click to select it.
4. Click Upload Template. Validation runs immediately; on success you'll see "Template uploaded successfully!" and the template appears in your list.

If validation fails, the error tells you why (wrong format, over 1 MB, macros, unreadable file). Fix it and re-upload - uploading templates doesn't cost credits.

Default Template and Deleting

• Your first upload becomes the default automatically. The default template is auto-selected for every new generation.
• Change it any time with Set as default template on another card, or clear it with Remove default status.
• Delete template opens a confirmation dialog - deletion is permanent. If you delete your current default, the app warns you that another template will be promoted (the newest remaining one becomes the new default) or, if none are left, no default is set and generation falls back to the built-in templates.

Choosing a Template at Generation Time

In the generation wizard, template choice happens at Step 4: Generation Settings, in the Template Selection section:

1. Open the Document Template dropdown (Choose Template).
2. It's grouped into Default Templates (Standard Template and Premium Professional) and Custom Templates (your uploads).
3. Your default custom template is pre-selected; pick any other entry to override it for this generation only. Each generation can use a different template.
4. A Manage Custom Templates link in the dropdown jumps straight to Settings → Templates if you need to upload or clean up mid-flow.

Best Practices

• Start from the default. Click Download Default Template, open it in Word, and restyle it. You inherit the correct placeholder format for free.
• Keep formatting simple. Standard fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri) and single-column paragraph layouts convert most predictably; complex tables, text boxes, and heavy graphics are where layouts break.
• Don't wrap [applicationText] in a greeting or sign-off - it already contains both.
• Don't hard-code personal info. Use [fullName], [email], [phone] so the template keeps working when your details change.
• Test with a real generation. Upload, generate once against a saved job, open the result, and check every placeholder landed where you expect. Upload validation catches broken files; only a real generation catches layout problems.
• Name templates descriptively and delete obsolete versions - with a 10-template cap, "Formal DE letterhead" beats keeping v1 through v4 of the same design.
• Keep the source .docx on your machine. The uploaded copy is for generation; the master lives on your disk.

Related Guides

• Document Generation Process - the full wizard, including Step 4 where templates, language, and tone are chosen.
• How to Generate Your Application Documents - end-to-end generation walkthrough.
• CV Maker - the built-in CV design templates (a separate feature from custom Word templates).
• Subscription Management - what each plan includes, including the Premium custom-template allowance.

Custom templates are a one-time setup that pays off on every generation afterwards. Download the default template, restyle it in Word, add the placeholders you need, upload - and every cover letter you send looks unmistakably like yours.