The built-in templates
New Patient Visit and Follow-Up Patient Visit cannot be edited. To change the structure, make a custom template and set it as your default.
Create a custom template
Templates → Template Library.
- Start from a predefined template (fastest): open the Predefined tab, preview one, click Customize. It is copied into Custom as "Copy of …". Or New Template → name it → choose Note or Document.
- Add sections from the library on the right: Chief Complaint, HPI, Physical Exam, Assessment, Plan and two hundred more.
- Set each section's instructions. Every section has a format (Paragraph, Bullet Points or Static), a title, content instructions, optional layout notes and an example. The instructions are where you control style — this is the part that matters.
- Choose visibility and save. Org shared gives it to the whole practice; Private keeps it yours. It then appears in Choose template on the session screen.
Generate Template builds one from a PDF of an existing note or pasted text; pick a detail level and review the result.
Instructions that solve the four common complaints
"It rewrites what I dictate." In that section's instructions:
When I dictate this section, transcribe it word-for-word exactly as spoken. Do not paraphrase, summarise, reorder or rewrite it into narrative prose. Preserve my phrasing and terminology. Only remove filler words and apply dictated punctuation such as "period", "comma" and "new line".
"It suggests referring to my own specialty." In the Plan instructions: "The author is the [specialty] specialist. Do not suggest referral to [specialty]." Also make your Specialty setting exact — Other plus the sub-specialty if needed.
"It lists negatives I never discussed." "Record only conditions the patient confirmed. Do not list negatives or 'denies' statements in this section."
"I want one item per line." "Each item on its own line, flush left, no paragraphs." Or set the section format to Bullet Points.
Support will set any of these up for you — tell us which template you use.
Dot phrases
Reusable text. Dot Phrases → New dot phrase:
- Content — the full text to insert.
- Shorthand — a short code such as
nlchest. In a note, type. /nlchestand pick it. - Verbal trigger (optional) — something you say out loud, for example "normal chest exam". When the note generates, the content is added.
A verbal trigger appears only when it is switched on, you actually said it, and the content fits a section of the template you used. A lung-exam line has nowhere to go in a mental-health template, and "great to see you too" has nowhere to go at all.