Overview of Vitas and Templates in Vita Builder
This article explains where to find Vita Builder templates, provides an overview of the Vita Builder, and discusses the relationship between vitas and templates, including the difference between linked and unlinked institutional templates.
This article does not review Legacy Vitas. In this article, “vita” refers to the new Vita Builder, not Legacy Vitas.
If you are looking for instructions on how to create/edit a vita or template within the vita builder, check out these articles:
Overview of Vitas and Templates
| About | Location | Personal | Institutional | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template |
Templates are used to set up a vita. The template specifies the sections, settings, and styling of the vita. Faculty use templates to set up their own personal vita configurations. They can specify the settings they want, such as which sections should be shown, section/activity order, and more. This is also where faculty can make style specifications to indicate how their vita should be styled. Note that this is not where faculty will view their vita. The template simply allows them to create the configuration for the vita which will be generated after going to Vitas. |
Vitas & Biosketches > Templates | Created and managed by individual users for personal usage. | Created and managed by administrators at the institution and used in RPT cases that use vitas/attachments from FAR as well as activity input forms. |
| Vita |
The vita is the output of the template. This is where faculty will go to add custom text and generate/save/export their vita. Vitas are the output of the faculty member's activity information based on the template they have selected to use. Faculty will have the option here to select either a template they created themselves under My Templates or a template that the institution has created for them to use. Faculty can select the term or date range for the activities that they want to see and add custom text to their activities. Faculty are not able to make changes to the vita's configuration or styling from here. Faculty can also access their available institutional vitae, their personal vitae, and any vitae they have archived.
|
Administration > Setup > Institutional Vita Templates | Generated from a template created and owned by the faculty member. Section settings/styling can be updated by the faculty member on the template in order to modify the vita output. | Generated from an institutional template; faculty can add custom text but cannot change any section settings/styling on the vita output. |
FAQs
What is the difference between a personal template/vita and an institutional template/vita?
Template: The template sets up the vita. The template specifies the sections, settings, and styling of the vita.
Vita: The vita is based on the template. Faculty can add custom text, generate/save, and export their vita.
| Template | Vita | |
|---|---|---|
| Institutional | Administrators create and manage institutional templates for faculty to use in creating vitas, including those needed for Review, Promotion, and Tenure (RPT) cases and Faculty Activity Reporting (FAR). Only administrators with full rights and access to the Vita Setup page can create and edit these templates. Templates can be drafted and published for faculty use within their unit. | Generated from an institutional template; faculty can add custom text but cannot change any section settings/styling on the vita output. |
| Personal | Created and managed by individual users for personal usage. | Generated from a template created and owned by the faculty member. Section settings/styling can be updated by the faculty member on the template in order to modify the vita output. |
What is the difference between Linked and Unlinked templates?
Linked Template: Changes to the source (reference) template apply to all linked and nested reference templates. Administrators can modify units and settings during creation, and linked templates can be customized (show/hide sections, reorder, update styling).
Source templates are not locked and updates to the source template will override these customizations.
Unlinked Template: Changes to an unlinked template do not affect other templates, and subsequent changes to the source template do not apply. While it inherits the source template's unit and settings, it remains independent and does not update with source changes.
Can a personal template be shared with other users?
No, a personal template is only accessible by the individual who created it.
Can a personal vita be included on RPT cases that use vitas/attachments from FAR or activity input forms?
No, these product areas will only incorporate vitas generated from institutional templates; personal vitas are unable to be included.
Will custom text added by faculty to their vita be visible on RPT cases that use vitas/attachments from FAR or activity input forms?
Custom text is tied to a specific vita, not the template. These product areas generate vitas based on the specified template (rather than including a vita created by the individual faculty member), so custom text will not be supported.
What happens to a vita created from a template that is eventually archived or deleted?
- If the template was archived, there will be no impact to existing vitas, but that template will no longer appear as an option to create new vitas.
- A template cannot be deleted if existing vitas were created using that template. If all associated vitas are deleted (not archived), the template can subsequently be deleted as well.
What features does legacy vitas have that Vita Builder does not yet support?
Vita Builder does not currently support vita auto-generation upon creation of the template,
Check out this article Overview of Building Vitas in the New Vita Builder for more details and differences between these two features.