Introduction

Certificates can be managed by customizing templates and assigning them to specific user fields and courses. By associating a certificate to a course, you can give it to all users that have completed that course. This article will show you the steps needed to create a template, associate the template to a course, generate that template, and download a final certificate.

While creating a new template, use a background aligned to your company profile (company logo and colors) and insert all of the necessary fields. You can create a standard template and assign it to all of your courses, or create a customized template for each course. Please also note that due to how Firefox renders PDFs with embedded fonts, Docebo recommends using this functionality on another one of our supported browsers. Instead of opening the PDF in Firefox, it will be automatically downloaded.

Creating a New Certificate Template

To begin creating new templates, press the gear icon in the top right corner of your platform to reach the Admin Menu, then select the Certificate Template item from the Settings section. On the main certificates page, you will find all of the available templates. To create a new template, select the New Certificate button at the top of the page.

In the pop-up box, add a code to your template, choose a name, write a description, then press Confirm. The certificate template will then appear in the list of templates on the bottom half of the main certificate templates page.

You can manage your template using the menu of icons in the template's row. Using the icons, you can download the certificate, create the template, view to whom the certificate has been issued, edit the name and description of the template, or delete it.

Let's begin with the editing tool (the second icon to the left), to customize your template. You will be redirected to the editing page, where you are able to create your certificate using sentences and platform tags. Sentences can be directly typed into the text field. More details on the complete list of supported fonts (opens in a new tab). Please note that your platform uses the old TCPDF library, not converting fonts on the fly. 

Additionally, tags can be copied and pasted from the bottom of the page. Tags are HTML keys extracting user and course information every time a new certificate is generated. For example, by using the tag [date_complete] "Date of the course completion," the system will show the date when the user completed the course. Tags for your certificates are divided into tabs in the certificate template to provide organization and a quicker process when you’re creating a certificate.

When you want to enter tags into your certificate template, you will see four tabs on the left side of the tags section dividing the tags into categories: User Fields, Course Fields, Other Fields, and Learning Plan Fields.

Find the tag you’re wanting to enter into your certificate in the corresponding tab. Inserting a tag is very easy. Simply copy and paste the tags you need from the list. Please note that the tags in the User Fields section include user additional fields, they are identified as [userfield_n].

For the best results, we suggest creating each template using a table. Each table can be customized by inserting and/or deleting rows and columns. Both the width and height can be manually managed. You can also add a background image and choose the orientation of the certificate (Landscape or Portrait). Here are some suggestions for the management of images.

Minimum suggested size:

• Portrait: 905  x 1280 pixels - 72 dpi
• Landscape: 1280 x 905 pixel - 72 dpi

Optimal size:

• Portrait: 1810  x 2560 pixels – 150 dpi
• Landscape: 2560 x 1810 pixel – 150 dpi

Restrictions:

• The background image size cannot be more than 2560x1810px and 10MB
• The supported image formats are JPG, PNG, JPEG, GIF
• Images with transparency are not recommended

Use the buttons in the formatting bar at the top of the text editor to add photos (such as your company logo), links, files, or to format the text that you inserted into the certificate.

Finally, assign a language to the certificate template from the corresponding dropdown menu. Please note that the language assigned to the template will affect the date format of the dates displayed in the certificate, independently from the option selected in the Date Format section of the Date and Time tab of the platform Advanced Settings.

Press Confirm to save the template. To display a preview of how the final certificate will look, click on the magnifying glass icon in the certificate's row on the Certificates page.

When using a background image, we suggest testing the certificate template by downloading a certificate associated to it and making sure the certificate layout is properly displayed with an external viewer. 

Managing Dates on Certificates

You can apply to certificates the date format that suits you the best by editing the date tag, as follows:

• Standard tag: [date_complete] 01/01/2020
• New format option: [date_complete format:"d, F Y"]
• Result: 1, January 2020

Remember that the format of dates depends on the language you selected for the certificate template. The date formats shown in this article are just examples. 

So, you must insert the tag [date_complete format: “date format”] as in the example. In the quotes, type the letters indicating the day, week, month, year, time, and timezone. Please refer to the following table to learn more about which letters correspond with each day, week, month, year, time, and timezone:

Associating a Certificate to a Course

Associating a Certificate to a Learning Plan

Besides associating certificates to courses, you can also associate them to learning plans. To do so, access the Admin Menu, then select the Learning Plans option in the E-Learning section. On the main learning plans page, find the learning plan for which you would like to add the certificate, then press the pen and paper icon at the end of the learning plan's row, and move to the Settings tab.

Then, choose the certificate you would like to associate from the Certificate dropdown menu. Press Confirm when finished.

Certificates for learning plans are issued only when a user has completed ALL of the courses within a learning plan. This also applies if a learner is only enrolled in a few, but not all, of the courses within a learning plan.

In order to remove the association of a certificate to a learning plan, set the value of the Certificate dropdown menu to None.

Notes on Certificates for Learning Plans

• When you associate a template to a learning plan, the certificate will be retroactively assigned to all the users who have completed the learning plan at the moment when the association is set.
• When removing the association between a learning plan and a certificate, all of the users who obtained the certificate by completing the learning plan will lose the certificate. Be careful when performing this action.

Generating and Downloading a Certificate

Once a user has completed a course or a learning plan associated with a certificate, the certificate is available for download. Users can download their certificates from the My Activity page, by selecting the tab corresponding to the course type (courses, ILT, learning plans or external training) and clicking on the certificate icon. Remember to make this page available in the user menu if you are working with certificates, or learners will not be able to download them. Learn more on pages and menus.

If the platform theme is Theme 6.9, users can also download their certificates from the Course Information widget in the course page (if configured), by pressing Download a copy of your certificate. Remember that the Course Information widget is available only for the 6.9 theme.

Viewing Issued Certificates

If you're logged into your platform as the Superadmin, you're able to see all of the issued certificates associated with a course or a learning plan. To do so, access the Admin menu, then choose the Certificate Template option from the Settings section. On the main certificates page, find the certificate you want to view, then press the issued certificates icon.

The system will display a pop-up window, where you can use the dropdown menu to view the issued certificates for a selected course or a learning plan. Now, you will see the list of all users enrolled in this course or learning plan. Select the users of interest, then, from the Choose an Action dropdown menu, choose whether to issue certificates to the selected users or delete the issued certificates for the selected users. The action will be applied as soon as you choose an option.

If you make any changes to a certificate template, these changes will not affect the certificates a user previously earned before the change was made, until you delete and then issue the certificate again for that user.

Once a learner receives a certificate upon completing a course or a learning plan, the certificate will be associated with the user and available for download. When a certificate template is deleted, it will no longer be available for download, not even by Superadmins.

Best Practices

When copying and pasting shortcodes in your certificate templates, in order to avoid including extra formatting, copy and paste them in plain text.

Tips & Tricks

• You will find a "sample" certificate in the list of certificates. As a best practice, keep it in your folder. You can edit it and copy/paste the HTML in the Source Code into a new template. This way you will have a table structure ready to be used.
• When creating a template, begin the process by uploading the background image. We recommend doing this before inserting HTML text on the certificate. Once you have confirmed the background image is sized appropriately and ready, start adding the desired text and shortcodes.
• The [course_certificate_number] shortcode is a unique alphanumeric code connecting the certificate issued and the user assigned to it. If the certificate is linked to a course, the code starts with C, if the certificate is linked to a learning plan, the code starts with LP.
• You can associate only one certificate per course, learning plan, or external training activity. You can still create a learning plan with different certificates assigned to it by assigning the certificates to the courses included in the learning plan, not at the learning plan level.