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Format Values lets you control how a single placeholder renders in the generated document: currency with the right symbol and decimals, percentages, custom date formats, or custom labels for true/false values. The formatting is applied by DocsAutomator at generation time, so your data source can send plain raw values like 1234.5 or 2026-06-30.

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Supported Data Sources

For other sources (Airtable, Google Sheets, SmartSuite, ClickUp), format your values in the source itself for now — per-placeholder formatting for these is planned.

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Available Formats

Choose Custom… in the Format dropdown and pick a style: Leaving the dropdown on Default keeps the value exactly as your data source sends it (for Notion, as the Notion column displays it). Output follows your automation’s locale, so German renders 1.234,50 € where English (US) renders €1,234.50 — set it via the gear icon in the automation’s top bar, under Locale for formatted placeholders.

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Mismatched Values Print As Passed

Formatting never breaks a document. If a value doesn’t match the chosen format, it is printed exactly as your source sent it:
  • "N/A" with a currency format renders N/A
  • "free" with a currency format renders free
  • Empty values stay empty (and still trigger Delete Line / Row When Empty)

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A Date Format Needs a Complete Date

To apply a date format, DocsAutomator has to be able to read the year, month and day out of the value. A date that is missing its year cannot be formatted, and is printed exactly as sent rather than guessed at: This most often shows up with Google Sheets, where a cell can look like a date while holding text. If a date placeholder isn’t picking up your format:
  1. Select the cell in your sheet and check the formula bar. A real date shows a complete date (for example 2026-07-24); text shows exactly what was typed.
  2. If it’s text, set the column to Format → Number → Date and re-enter the value, or type the full date including the year.
  3. Prefer a real date column over free text. Then the format you choose in DocsAutomator controls how it reads in the document, in your automation’s locale.
If you want a specific wording that no format produces (for example a Spanish month name while the rest of the sheet is in another language), set the cell to plain text and type the date exactly as it should appear. DocsAutomator prints text values unchanged.

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Conditions Compare the Raw Value

Formatting is display-only. Show / Hide conditions, conditional styling, line item sorting, and grouping calculations all evaluate the raw value your source sent — not the formatted text. A rule like hide if greater than 1000 keeps working on a placeholder formatted as currency.

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Configuration

1

Open Placeholder Settings

Click the gear/settings icon next to the placeholder you want to format
2

Choose a Format

In the Format section, switch from Default to Custom… and pick the style
3

Fine-Tune

Set decimals and currency for numbers, the year/month/day/time parts for dates, or the label pair for true/false values — the live preview shows the result
Format Values works on line item fields too — open the gear icon next to a line item placeholder the same way.
Sending numbers? Pass them raw (1234.5, not "€1.234,50"). DocsAutomator handles separators, symbols, and locale — and conditions, sorting, and calculations stay reliable because they see the raw number.
Last modified on July 25, 2026