Editing a Generated Proposal

How engineers change wording, bullets, and header fields in the draft .docx — without breaking the formatting.

The two rules before you touch anything

Small fixes in Word, big changes go back for a rebuild. Fixing wording, adding or removing an Includes / Not Included bullet, filling prices, correcting a typo — do it in Word using this page. Adding or removing an equipment item, changing models, tags, quantities, or manufacturers — do not rebuild it by hand. Each item lives in three linked places (its tag table, its Includes section, and the price table); hand-editing all three invites mismatches. Re-run the job instead.
Never overwrite the original. File > Save As, and add your initials or a REV to the filename (e.g. ...DRAFT_REV1-AB.docx) before you start.

Key fact — why editing bullets feels broken

The • bullets are typed characters, not Word's automatic bullets. Pressing Enter gives you a correctly formatted new line — but without the • symbol. The copy-a-line method below handles this.

Edit the text of an existing bullet

Click into the line and type. Keep the • symbol and the two spaces after it. The font and indent take care of themselves as long as you don't delete the whole line first.

Add a new bullet (copy-a-line method — always works)

1. Move the mouse into the left margin beside an existing bullet in the same list until the pointer becomes an arrow, then click once. The whole line highlights.
2. Press Ctrl+C.
3. Click at the very beginning of the line that should come after your new bullet.
4. Press Ctrl+V. You now have a duplicate line with perfect formatting.
5. Select the duplicate's text after the • and type your new wording over it.

Delete or move a bullet

Delete: click in the left margin beside the line to select it, press Backspace. If an empty line is left behind, press Backspace once more.
Move between Includes and Not Included: select the whole line the same way, Ctrl+X, click at the start of a line in the other list, Ctrl+V.

Header fields, tables and prices

Header (face page): each value sits on its own line under its label (Project Name, MEP Engineer, ...). Select the value line and type over it. Don't add or remove rows in this table.
Equipment table typo: click in the cell and correct it. The same model/description also appears in the price table — fix both.
Prices: select the underscores after the $ and type the number. The TOTAL PRICE row is not a formula — it will not add itself; type the total.

Pasting from email or another proposal

Never paste directly — it drags in foreign fonts and spacing. Right-click where you want the text and choose Paste Options > Keep Text Only (the “A” icon). The proposal font is Avenir Next; if your PC shows a substitute because the font isn't installed, leave it alone — don't re-font the document.

Do not touch

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE — legal text, ships verbatim, no edits ever.
The italic “valid for thirty (30) days” note, the letterhead/logo, the footer, and the signature block layout.

Before you send — 30-second check

1. Every bullet line still starts with • and lines up with its neighbors.
2. Item descriptions match between the item sections and the price table.
3. No leftover blank lines where bullets were deleted.
4. Saved as a new REV filename — original untouched.

Printable version + recurring fixes

Download this guide as a Word document to keep or print.

Keep making the same correction on a model's includes? Report it — the fix goes into the includes library once, and every future proposal for that model comes out right.

Drafts only — every proposal is completed by an engineer before it is sent. No pricing is ever generated.