An exciting new update is now in Public Preview, bringing SharePoint structured document generation directly into your libraries. Instead of manually editing Word files, you can convert your existing documents into reusable templates powered by forms. When someone submits a form, SharePoint automatically creates a new document based on that template and merges the submitted values into the correct fields. The result is consistent, standards‑aligned documents – produced with zero manual formatting or intervention.
This new AI‑powered structured document generation capability represents the natural evolution of Content Assembly – a Syntex feature I’ve long championed and worked closely on with the Microsoft product teams. Content Assembly enabled organisations to generate consistent, repeatable business documents by creating modern Word templates in SharePoint and populating them with data from Lists or manual entry. Structured document generation takes that foundation further by pairing Microsoft Forms with SharePoint templates and using AI‑assisted field detection to map form responses into fully structured documents. The result is a simple, governed, end‑to‑end document creation flow that anyone with a form link can use.
When you look closely at SharePoint structured document generation, you can see there are two distinct roles for the different creators and consumers:
- The content manager, who creates and governs the Word‑based template and its associated form – defining fields, structure, and any conditional rules
- The content consumer, who simply completes the form to generate a new document. When the form is submitted, SharePoint automatically produces a fresh, fully formatted document (docx only) that preserves the approved layout and language, changing only the field values supplied in the form.
Using SharePoint Structured Document Generation
I will now walk you through the steps of creating a Structured Document template and then generating new documents using the form linked to that template.
Prerequisites
Licensing Requirements
- Content Managers (anyone creating or configuring templates and forms) must have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license assigned.
- Content Consumers (form submitters) do not need Copilot — they only need access to the form link.
Permissions You’ll Need
- You must have Edit permissions on the SharePoint document library to create or manage a document generation form.
- Form submitters only need permission to open the form link; access to the destination library is not required unless they need to view the generated document afterwards.
Supported File Types
- Templates must be Microsoft Word (.docx) files.
- Other formats (PDF, .doc, etc.) are not supported for template creation.
1. Creating the Form/Document Template
The process to create a document template and the associated form is all completed from a SharePoint document library.
Go to a Document library and click on Forms.
Next, the Forms pop-out will appear – just click on the Document Generation Form button. You’ll also notice an option for the File Upload form, which works differently but allows you to request documents to be uploaded directly through a form. It’s another great feature you might want to explore in the future.
Next, a pop-out will appear, allowing you to choose the file you want to use as the document template. It can either already be stored in SharePoint or, as in my case, be uploaded directly from your device. I’ve chosen my SharePoint @ 25 document because I’m planning to invite people to a party!
Here’s the document for reference – I’d like it to be a letter from Microsoft inviting you to the SharePoint @ 25 birthday party. I’ve included [placeholders] in the doc using square brackets, but it’s fine to leave the original text, like Jamie Vardy as the recipient and the AI should detect as a name, instead of using [placeholders].
The document is then converted into a template and the AI analyses the document to suggest fields to be used as placeholders.
2. Review AI Detected Fields
The form then is displayed with the AI-detected fields.
I was curious, so I ran the same process again to see which fields it selected and whether they were different—and they were!
Remember, the system prompt Microsoft uses probably isn’t changing – each run simply re‑analyses the document. Because LLMs are sensitive to how the text is tokenised and structured, subtle differences in parsing can lead to different fields being detected each time.”
Note: if following the Microsoft Learn Documentation it does speak about being able to edit the fields in Microsoft Forms UI (link). For now, I highly recommend doing it in Word, as it’s much more powerful and instantaneous – that’s what I’ll be doing.
3. Modify the Template in Microsoft Word Desktop
In Word, I need to review the fields the AI has selected and make any necessary additions, removals, or edits. To do this, I opened the template in Word, which then launches in the Word Desktop application.
The fields detected are as follows — you can see them in the right‑hand menu of Word:
Sender address line 1, Sender country, Sender phone number, Recipient address line 1, Recipient city, Recipient country, Date, Recipient name, Venue, Event website, Event hashtag.
From these, I only want to keep the following, so I have some deleting to do:
Recipient name, Recipient address line 1, Recipient city, Recipient country, Date.
You can select a field on the right hand menu and see where it has been inserted in the document by clicking the numbered insertion arrows.
I can also click the three-dot ellipses to activate a drop-down on the field to edit details, manage insertions, or delete the field.
Edit Details lets you change the field name, add a description (a helpful note for authors to fill in the field correctly), or update the field type. Supported field types include Single line of text, Multiple lines of text, Number, Date and time, Email, and Choice.
I can then Manage the field insertions and remove in bulk if the placeholder has been set for multiple locations in the document.
I don’t want to change the sender address line 1 since it will always be from Microsoft, so I want to remove this placeholder field and restore my original text, “One Microsoft Way.” So, I press delete.
I then do the same for the following fields and delete them:
Sender country, Sender phone number, Date, Venue, Event website, Event hashtag.
I’m now going to test the Detect Potential Fields button, which uses AI to scan your document and suggest fields to be mapped. You can then confirm or edit each suggestion individually before they’re added to your document.
In my example it has suggested all of the Sender address details i.e. Microsoft’s address which could be very useful if I wanted to change the sender address details.
I would love in the future the ability to adjust the prompt for AI detection to give the LLM the background of document, what fields to select and any narrative! Could see this being super powerful and useful!
I am going to ignore all the potential field selections and go back to the current fields. A confirmation comes up confirming any detected field suggestions that haven’t been added will be lost,
I’m going to add a Conditional Section to demonstrate how these work. I’ll go back from the Customize Fields pane in the right-hand menu to the Setup Template pane and click Define Conditional Sections.
I created a conditional section so that if the recipient’s name is Jeff Teper, it will display a specific section “Thanking the Father of SharePoint.”
I typed an extra phrase in the document, highlighted it, and clicked Map to set it as my conditional section, which will only be displayed when the recipient’s name is Jeff Teper.
The section is mapped:
I can now review my document template before clicking Publish and open in Forms.
4. Customising The Microsoft Forms form used for Generating the Document
Each form needs to be saved in a folder, and all documents created from that form will be generated into the same folder. I just need to specify the folder, with the option to add a colour for the folder if I want.
I can customise the form give it a better title, description, logo…
Additionally, there’s a settings menu with options like ensuring the created document is a PDF, enabling email notifications, setting a response date range, and adding a custom message when the form is added.
Clicking on Send form will give you a link that anyone with it can use to access the form and generate a document, without needing access to the site. However, form submitters won’t automatically have access to the destination document library. To view the generated document, access must be granted separately, or the form creator can enable the receipt option.
5. Generate a Document as an End User
The User can then access the link directly to then fill out the form and generate a document. The form loads and they can fill in the form and click Submit to generate a personalised document.
Once submitted I get a confirmation:
The document then appears in the document library and if you browse to a newly created document library view named after document library template e.g. “SharePoint At 25 Invitation view” you will see all of the fields as metadata columns (see below). You could then use this metadata in Workflows for Search refinement or further views for example…
I can then open the document and see that the recipient placeholders for name, 1st line of address, city, country and date have been populated. Along with the Conditional section showing as the name I selected was Jeff Teper!
Summary
It’s great to see Content Assembly continuing to evolve, and this new ability to generate structured documents directly from SharePoint forms feels like a great step forward. Instead of relying on people to copy, paste, and tweak Word files, SharePoint can now take care of the heavy lifting – automatically producing clean, standardised documents the moment a form is submitted. The whole process becomes smoother, more reliable, and far less prone to human error.
That said, there’s one part of the experience that still needs refinement. The “Add or edit fields” interface in the Forms page works for quick adjustments i.e. rename fields, but for anything more substantial it feels a bit clunky and disconnected from the document you’re actually building. In practice, I’ve found it far more intuitive to make changes (even minor changes) directly in Word, where you have full control over layout, structure, mapping and field placement. Editing in Word keeps everything visually grounded and avoids the friction of switching between two different interfaces.
Looking ahead, I’d love to see features like custom prompts for creating templates, more control over document names, unique IDs for each generated file, and even the ability to skip the MS form altogether by generating documents through an Agent, Power Automate, or directly from Word.
I’m excited to see how organisations use SharePoint structured document generation during the Public Preview. Whether it’s HR letters, project briefs, onboarding docs, or any of the countless business documents teams produce every day, there’s huge potential here. If you’ve already started experimenting with further document types, I’d love to hear what you’ve built and how it’s changing your day‑to‑day work.
