Overview of Vitas and Templates in Vita Builder
This article explains where to find Vita Builder templates and provides an overview of our Vita Builder and the relationship of vitas and templates, including the difference between linked and unlinked templates (when creating an institutional template).
If you are looking for instructions on how to create/edit a vita or template within the vita builder, check out these articles:
This article does not review Legacy Vitas. In this article, “vita” refers to the new Vita Builder, not Legacy Vitas.
Overview of Vitas and Templates
About Templates
Templates are used to set up a vita. The template specifies the sections, settings, and styling of the vita. Faculty use templates to set up their own personal vita configurations. They can specify the settings they want, such as which sections should be shown, section/activity order, and more. This is also where faculty can make style specifications to indicate how their vita should be styled.
Note that this is not where faculty will view their vita. The template simply allows them to create the configuration for the vita which will be generated after going to Vitas.
| Personal | Institutional | |
|---|---|---|
| Template | Created and managed by individual users for personal usage. | Created and managed by administrators at the institution and used in RPT cases that use vitas/attachments from FAR as well as activity input forms. |
About Vitas
The vita is the output of the template. This is where faculty will go to add custom text and generate/save/export their vita. Vitas are the output of the faculty member's activity information based on the template they have selected to use. Faculty will have the option here to select either a template they created themselves under My Templates or a template that the institution has created for them to use. Faculty can select the term or date range for the activities that they want to see and add custom text to their activities. Faculty are not able to make changes to the vita's configuration or styling from here. Faculty can also access their available institutional vitae, their personal vitae, and any vitae they have archived.
- If using an institutional template, configuration, and style changes will need to be made by an administrator.
- If using a personal template, the faculty member can make changes by updating the relevant template under My Templates, and any vita using that template will automatically update with the changes.
| Personal | Institutional | |
|---|---|---|
| Vita | Generated from a template created and owned by the faculty member. Section settings/styling can be updated by the faculty member on the template in order to modify the vita output. | Generated from an institutional template; faculty can add custom text but cannot change any section settings/styling on the vita output. |
FAQs
How do I create/edit a vita or vita template?
If you are looking for instructions on how to create/edit a vita or template within the vita builder, check out these articles:
What is the difference between a vita and a template?
- Template: The template sets up the vita. The template specifies the sections, settings, and styling of the vita.
- Vita: The vita is based on the template. Faculty can add custom text, generate/save, and export their vita.
What is the difference between a personal template/vita and an institutional template/vita?
- Institutional Templates: Created and managed by administrators at the institution and used in RPT cases that use vitas/attachments from FAR as well as activity input forms.
- Personal Templates: Created and managed by individual users for personal usage.
- Institutional Vitas: Generated from an institutional template; faculty can add custom text but cannot change any section settings/styling on the vita output.
- Personal Vitas: Generated from a template created and owned by the faculty member. Section settings/styling can be updated by the faculty member on the template in order to modify the vita output.
More about Institutional Templates:
- Administrators create institutional templates that faculty can use to create vitas.
- Institutional templates are created and managed by administrators at the institution and can be used in Review, Promotion Tenure (RPT) cases that use vitas/attachments from Faculty Activity Reporting (FAR, Faculty180) as well as Activity Input Forms.
- Only Administrators with full administrative rights, and who have been given access to the Vita Setup page (based on their administrative unit assignments) are able to create and edit institutional vita templates at their assigned unit, and any units beneath theirs in the unit hierarchy.
- Templates can be drafted, and then published to make the template available for faculty users in a given unit.
- Faculty users can then use the template for their unit to create institutional vitas.
What is the difference between Linked and Unlinked templates?
- When the unlinked option is used to create a template, the unlinked template will be independent from the source. It will inherit the source template's unit and settings, but any changes to the source template after the cloned template is created will not be carried over.
- When the linked option is used to create a template, the new template will be linked to the source. Changes to the source template will carry down to any and all reference templates. Creating a new template will allow the administrator to change the unit and settings during the creation process.
- If there is a nested relationship, changes to any source template will affect all nested reference templates.
- While the changes made to a source template will be carried down to any reference templates, the reference templates are not locked; administrators can show/hide sections, update styling, modify section order, etc., without error. However, subsequent updates to the source template will override changes made to reference templates.
Will changes made to a template update vitas dynamically?
Yes, changes made to a template will automatically update on vitas created with that template.
What actions are logged in a template's edit history?
- The edit history log is only available for institutional templates and includes the following:
- Creation date (not available for Cloned templates)
- Changes to a template’s general information or styling
- Changes to section visibility, settings, and styling
Can a deleted template be restored?
No, once a template has been deleted, it cannot be restored. It is best to archive templates if they may be used again in the future. Archived templates can be made active again at any time.
Can a personal template be shared with other users?
No, a personal template is only accessible by the individual who created it.
Can a personal vita be included on RPT cases that use vitas/attachments from FAR or activity input forms?
No, these product areas will only incorporate vitas generated from institutional templates; personal vitas are unable to be included.
Will custom text added by faculty to their vita be visible on RPT cases that use vitas/attachments from FAR or activity input forms?
Custom text is tied to a specific vita, not the template. These product areas generate vitas based on the specified template (rather than including a vita created by the individual faculty member), so custom text will not be supported.
What happens to a vita created from a template that is eventually archived or deleted?
- If the template was archived, there will be no impact to existing vitas, but that template will no longer appear as an option to create new vitas.
- A template cannot be deleted if existing vitas were created using that template. If all associated vitas are deleted (not archived), the template can subsequently be deleted as well.
Can a deleted vita be restored?
No, once a vita has been deleted, it cannot be restored. It is best to archive vitas if they may be used again in the future; archived vitas can be made active again at any time.
What features does legacy vitas have that Vita Builder does not yet support?
There are three main features that legacy vitas has that Vita Builder does not currently support; vita auto-generation upon creation of the template, export to Microsoft Word, and the ability to view vitas generated in Vita Builder in the standard vita report. All of these are on our roadmap.
Check out this article Overview of Building Vitas in the New Vita Builder for more details and differences between these two features.