Introduction

Certificates are usually awarded after completing a program of study. Certificates can be beneficial for individuals at any stage of their career, as they acquire new and more specialized knowledge.

Certificates can be managed by customizing templates and assigning them to specific user fields and courses. By associating a certificate to a course, it will be awarded to all of the users that have completed that course.

This article will show you the steps needed to create a template, associate one or more templates to a course, generate that template, and download a final certificate.

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 the template you have created using the icons in the template's row to download the certificate, create a new template, view to whom the certificate has been issued, edit the name and description of the template, or delete it.

Click on the certificate template icon to customize the template. You will be redirected to the editing page, where you can design the certificate layout using sentences and tags. Sentences can be directly typed into the text field, keeping in mind that the Certificate Template text field uses the old TCPDF library, not converting fonts on the fly. More details on the complete list of supported fonts (opens in a new tab).

Additionally, you can copy and paste tags from the bottom of the page to enrich the template with customized text. 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 create a certificate.

Tags are grouped in four tabs on the left side of the tags section: User fields, Course fields, Other fields, and Learning plan fields.

Browse among the available tags and copy and paste them into the text of the certificate. Please note that the tags in the User fields section include user additional fields, they are identified as [userfield_n].

Tip: 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.

If you insert the tags [firstname] and [lastname] (User fields section), decide whether to activate the option Automatically update the certificate when the user's first or last name changes on top of the tags list in the User fields section. This ensures that for users who change their names or surnames from the My profile area or when Superadmins change them from the Users menu, certificates will be updated with the new values when users download them unless the course triggering the certificate is protected by e-signature. This option is only available for Superadmins.

Please note: The time needed to regenerate certificates may change depending on the platform's ongoing activities and on the number of certificates to regenerate.

For the best results, create templates using tables and customize them 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 images (such as your company logo), links, files, or to format the text that you inserted into the certificate. Please note that you cannot include images from external URL links  in the Certificate Templates. This restriction does not apply to background images.

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.

Managing dates on certificates

When indicating the course completion date on certificates, use 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:

Format	Description	Example of returned values
Day
d	Day of the month, 2 digits with leading zeros	01 to 31
D	Textual representation of a day, three letters	Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
j	Day of the month without leading zeros	1 to 31
l (lowercase L)	Full textual representation of the day of the week	Sunday to Saturday
N	ISO-8601 numeric representation of the day of the week	1 (for Monday) through 7 (for Sunday)
w	Numeric representation of the day of the week	0 (for Sunday) through 6 (for Saturday)
z	The day of the year (starting from 0)	0 through 365
Week
W	ISO-8601 week number of the year, weeks start on Monday	Example: 42 (42nd week of the year)
Month
F	Full textual representation of a month	January through December
m	Number representation of a month, with leading zeros	01 through 12
M	A short textual representation of a month, three letters	Jan through Dec
Year
Y	Full numeric representation of a year, 4 digits	Examples: 1999, 2003
y	Two-digit representation of a year	Examples: 22 or 03 (which will be interpreted as 2022 and 2003, respectively)
Time
a	Lowercase Ante Meridiem and Post Meridiem	am or pm
A	Uppercase Ante Meridiem and Post Meridiem	AM or PM
g	12-hour format of an hour without leading zeros	1 through 12
h	12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros	01 through 12
H	24-hour format of an hour with leading zeros	00 through 23
i	Minutes with leading zeros	00 through 59
s	Seconds with leading zeros	00 through 59
Timezone
O	Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) in hours	Example: +0200
T	Timezone abbreviation	Examples: WST, MTD...

Associating a default certificate to a course

You can associate one or more certificate templates to a course. As a rule, the course has a default certificate template associated, but you can associate additional certificate templates for specific branches or groups of users.

First, access the Admin menu, then select the Course management option in the E-learning section. On the main courses page, find the course for which you would like to add the certificate, then click on the course description to enter the course area, and move to the Properties tab.

Move now to the Certificate templates vertical tab and click on the plus button at the end of the Default certificate template field. Choose the certificate template you wish to associate to the course as the default certificate template and click Select to confirm your choice. Press Save changes when finished.

When you associate a template to a course, the certificate will be retroactively assigned to all the users who have completed the course when the association is set.

Associating additional certificate templates to a course

You can assign multiple certificate templates to the same course and generate certificates with different details and layouts, based on legal, compliance, or local requirements, for users in different groups/branches.

Move to the Additional certificate templates area and click Assign certificate template. In the right panel, select a template, click on Next to choose the branch or the group of users for the association and Confirm to complete the action. When selecting a branch, keep in mind that also sub-branches are included in the association. Repeat the association process for every additional certificate template you wish to associate. You can assign up to 50 additional certificates to a course.

The additional templates associated with the course are listed in the Additional certificate templates area. Click on the ellipsis menu at the end of the template row to download a sample-generated PDF or to remove the association with the course. Every user completing the course will receive only one certificate, even when the course is associated to different certificate templates. If a user belongs to more than one group or branch, their certificate will be issued using the first available additional certificate template in the list. For this reason, make sure you sort the templates according to your preferred order by using the drag and drop icon.

When you remove the association of a course with an additional template, the newly issued certificates will be generated using another associated template, if present, or the default template. The certificates already issued will be regenerated with the same logic.

If none of the associated templates is tied to their groups or branch of belonging, the platform will use the default template. If you need to re-issue the certificates using a previously removed certificate template, you’ll have to do it manually from the Certificate Templates page.

Notes on additional certificate templates

• Power Users can add, download or remove additional certificate templates only for the resources they manage and only if they have visibility on all the items listed on the page. If they do not have full visibility, then they will see the table in read-only mode.
• You cannot add additional templates if no default certificate template is selected
• You must remove the association with all of the additional templates to remove the default certificate template

Associating a certificate to a learning plan

To associate a certificate to a learning plan, access the Admin menu, then select the Learning plans option in the E-learning section. On the Learning plans page, identify the plan you want to assign a certificate, hover the mouse at the end of its row, click on the ellipsis menu and select Edit.

While in the Properties tab, move to the Certificate template section. Click on the plus button at the end of the Certificate template field. Choose the certificate template you wish to associate to the learning plan and click Select to confirm your choice. Press Save changes when finished.

After associating the certificate template to the learning plan, you can see its preview by clicking on Download certificate template.

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 when the association is set.

Certificates for learning plans are issued only when a user has completed all 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.

To edit the certificate template associated to the learning plan, click on Edit at the end of the Certificate template field and select another template in the panel that opens.

To remove the association of a learning plan to a certificate, click on Clear input at the end of the Certificate template field.

Please note: If you remove the association between a learning plan and a certificate, all 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 from the My activity page as described in the learner article on certificates.

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 about pages and menus.

Viewing issued certificates

If you are logged into your platform as the Superadmin, you can 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.

In the pop-up window, select a course or a learning plan from the drop-down menu. You will see the list of users who have completed the course or learning plan or for which a certificate has been issued. Select the users of interest, then, from the On Selected 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.

Please Note! 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.
• 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 the supported browsers. Instead of opening the PDF in Firefox, it will be automatically downloaded.
• When using a background image, it is highly suggested to test the certificate template by downloading a certificate associated to it and making sure the certificate layout is properly displayed with an external viewer.

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.
• You can associate only one certificate per 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.
• For learners, showcasing their achievements, such as certificates, on LinkedIn and other social media is highly rewarding, and having the possibility to do it from their learning platform can increase their involvement. You can achieve this result using the badges of the Gamification app.