Customizing a minutes template

Create and customize meeting minutes templates for automatic formatting when exporting your notes. Diligent provides two templates to get you started. Here we look at the available placeholders and how to use them effectively when using either of the Diligent templates as your starting point or when creating your own template to upload.

The two templates provided in your Template manager dashboard:

  • Boards Meeting Minutes template A best-practice minutes template designed to efficiently capture discussions, decisions, and action items in a clear, organized format for effective governance and record-keeping.

  • Legacy Diligent template The original template with basic formatting and straightforward structure for capturing discussions, decisions, and action items.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out to Diligent Support or your Customer Success Manager.

Placeholders

Placeholders are special markers that are replaced with actual content when you export your minutes. In the Diligent Standard template they appear in curly brackets - { } - and come in two types:

• Single placeholders Representing one piece of information, like a meeting title {title} or date {date}. They are used to add basic meeting information to your template.

• Repeating placeholders Represent multiple pieces of information, like a list of attendees or action items. Use a # and / characters in the placeholders to mark the start and end of each repeating section - {#placeholder-name}{/placeholder-name}. For more details go to Format Repeating placeholders.

Single placeholders

Placeholder Description, source information, and notes
{logo}

  • Organization logo.

  • Exports the logo uploaded to your template, or the saved default logo.

    • The {logo} placeholder must be entered in the image Alt text box, unless you add a fixed logo in a customized template.

    • You can adjust the dimensions of your image in the template.

    • Your saved logo replaces the {logo} placeholder during export.
{company}

  • The organization name.

  • Drawn from the Company name field detailed in the Template manager page in Minutes.

  • The name can be edited in the Template manager page.
{committee}

  • Committee name.
{title}

  • Title of a document or action.

  • Drawn from Minutes document title or the action .
{meetingdates}

  • Dates set for meetings.

  • Drawn from all the dates scheduled for your meetings.
{location}

  • Meeting location details.

  • Drawn from Meeting location information.
{attendeecount}

  • Total number of attendees.

  • Drawn from the Attendees tab.
{additionalinformation}

  • Any additional information, typically used for apologies.

  • Drawn from Add more information in the Attendees tab.
{date}

  • Date of the first meeting.

  • Drawn from the Meeting date information.

  • The default format is DD MM YYYY. To change the date format, add a suffix to the {date} placeholder.

    Example: {date:format(MM DD YYYY)}
{starttime}

  • Start time of the first meeting.

  • Drawn from the Start time information.
{endtime}

  • End time of the first meeting.

  • Drawn from the End time information.
{timezone}

  • Timezone set for first meeting date.

  • Drawn from the Time zone information.

  • Defaults to time zone set.

Repeating placeholders

Important

Certain placeholders are properties of other placeholders so must be used within those context, and not outside, or else they will not render correctly.

  • The {header}, {text}, and {actions} placeholders are properties of the {sections} placeholder.

  • The {duedate}, {duedatelabel}, {assignees}, and {assigneeslabel} placeholders are a properties of the {actions} placeholder.

Placeholder Description, source information, and notes
{#attendees} {attendee}{/attendees}

  • Displays the names of attendees at a meeting in the format you choose.

  • Drawn from Attendees tab in your minutes.

    Attendees can be displayed in either comma-separated, vertical, or bulleted list.

    Comma-seperated list formatting

    {#attendees}{attendee},{/attendees}

    Vertical list formatting

    {#attendees}

    {attendee}

    {/attendees}

    Bulleted list formatting

    {#attendees}

    - {attendee}

    {/attendees}
{#sections}{/sections}

  • Displays the sections of your minutes and related details.

  • Drawn from Sections in your minutes.

Properties used between section placeholders to generate the following:

  • {header} = Section title. Example: {#sections}{header}{/sections}.

  • {text} = Text from each section in minutes. Example: {#sections}{header}{text}{/sections}.
{#actions}{/actions}

  • Displays the actions from your minutes and related details.

  • Drawn from Actions in your minutes.

Properties that can be used between {#actions} {/actions} placeholders are:

  • {title} = Action title.

  • {titlelabel} = The word "Action", used with the {title} placeholder. Example: {titlelabel}{title}.

  • {assignees} = The name of the assignee. Drawn from Assigned to column in the Actions tab.

  • {assigneeslabel} = The word "Assignees", used with the {assignees} placeholder. Example: {assigneeslabel}{assignees} = Assignees: Mary Smith.

  • {duedate} = The date the action is due. Drawn from the Due date column in the Actions tab. The default format is DD/MM/YYYY. To change the date format, add a suffix to the {duedate} placeholder.

  • {duedatelabel} = The word "Due date", used with the {duedate} placeholder. Example: {duedatelabel}{duedate:format(MM DD YYYY)} = Due date: 01/25/2026.

     

Format repeating placeholders

Repeating placeholders display multiple items in a list format. You need to mark the start and end of repeating sections using # and / characters - {#placeholder-name}{/placeholder-name}. The property placeholders between them dictates the content that is exported. For example {#attendees}{attendee}{/attendees}

Common formatting examples

Format type Structure & output
Comma-separated list

Structure:

{#placeholder-name}{property},{/placeholder-name}

Example:

Attendee ({attendeecount})

{#attendees}{attendee},{/attendees}

Output:

Attendees (3)

John Smith, Mary Brown, Willem Garcia

Vertical list

Structure:

{#placeholder-name}{property}{/placeholder-name}

Example:

Attendee ({attendeecount})

{#attendees}

{attendee}

{/attendees}

Output:

Attendees (3)

John Smith
Mary Brown
Willem Garcia

Bulleted list

Structure:

{#placeholder-name} - {property}{/placeholder-name}

Attendee ({attendeecount})

{#attendees}

- {attendee}

{/attendees}

Output:

Attendees (3)

  • John Smith

  • Mary Brown

  • Willem Garcia

Action list with formatted dates

Structure:

{#actions}

{titlelabel} {title}

{assigneeslabel}: {assignees}

{duedatelabel}: {duedate:format(DD-MM-YYYY)}

{/actions}

Output:

Action: Prepare report

Assignees: John Smith

Due date: 01-01-2025
Sections with an actions list

Structure:

{#sections}

{header}

{text}

{#actions}

{titlelabel} {title} - {assigneeslabel}:{assignees}

{duedatelabel}:{duedate:format(DD-MM-YYYY)}

{/actions}

{/sections}

Output:

Financial review

Ms. Brooks presented the Q2 results. Revenue increased by 8% year-on-year, with gross margins improving to 46%. Operating costs remained broadly in line with budget. The decline in North American revenue was attributed to delays in client on-boarding.

Action: Prepare report

Assignees: John Smith

Due date: 01-01-2025

Set up your logo

When exporting minutes using either of the Diligent templates, the {logo} placeholder is replaced by the logo saved in the minutes' Properties. To change the logo you can either download the template and customize it or update the logo in your minutes properties.

Verify Alt text

Ensure {logo} appears in the Alt text field.

  1. Right-click on the logo placeholder in your template and select View Alt Text from the menu.

    The Alt text panel opens.

  2. Check that {logo} is displayed, if not, enter the {logo} placeholder.

Change the logo image

  1. Right-click on the logo placeholder in your template and select Change Picture from the menu.

  2. Select the image location.

  3. Select the logo and Insert.

    The new image is uploaded to your template and appears in your exported minutes.

Adjust image dimensions and location

  1. Select the placeholder or uploaded image.

  2. select and drag to increase or decrease the size.

  3. Select the alignment for left, center or right.

    The exported version inherits the dimensions and location of the placeholder.

Date formats and how to apply the suffix

Date fields use a default format that can be customized.

  1. Go to the {date} or {duedate} placeholder.

  2. Add :format () after date or duedate. Your preferred suffix should be placed between the brackets.

    Example: {date:format (DD-MM-YYYY)}

    The format is applied to the exported minutes.

Format Output Common use
YYYY-MM-DD 2025-07-12 ISO standard
DD/MM/YYYY 12/07/2025 Europe and India
MM/DD/YYYY 07/12/2025 United States
DD-MM-YYYY 12-07-2025 Hyphen-separated
DD MMM YYYY 12 Jul 2025 Short month names
DD MMMM YYYY 12 July 2025 Full month names
YYYY/MM/DD 2025/07/12 Japan, China, South Korea