Before you make a certificate design available for holders to print, preview it with a real certification in your Rhythm account. The Print Certificate option appears for staff in the Console and holders in the Portal only when the program’s certificate mode allows printing.
What It Controls
This article explains how to preview an in-progress certificate design and how certificate mode controls printing for staff and holders. You do not choose the certificate mode or design the certificate template in this preview step; that setup happens on the program’s certificate configuration.
Where to Find It
Preview a design: Open Setup › Programs › Catalog, then create, clone, or edit a program. On the Certificate Template card, set the mode to Generated Automatically, then select Preview.
See why printing is or isn't offered: Staff see Print Certificate on a certification’s staff 360 page, which they can open from search, from a contact’s or organization’s certifications, or by direct link. Holders see Print Certificate in the Portal when they view their own certification.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certification (on the Preview dialog): | A certification’s identifier, typed or pasted | Blank | Selects the real certification data that merges into the draft design. You can use any certification identifier in your account, even if it belongs to a different program than the one you are editing. To get an identifier, open the certification's 360 page, open the options menu, select Copy ID to Clipboard, and paste it here |
| Certificate Template (on the program): | Disabled, Generated Automatically, Create Manually | Disabled | Controls whether this program’s certifications produce certificates and how Rhythm produces them. Staff and holders see Print Certificate only when this is set to Generated Automatically or Create Manually; it is hidden when the mode is Disabled or left unset |
Dependencies and Precedence
- Preview always renders as if generation is automatic. Preview renders your draft template as though the program were set to generate certificates automatically, regardless of the certificate mode saved on the program. It also ignores any certificate file already attached to the certification you selected.
- Preview uses your unsaved changes. Preview uses what is currently in the Certificate Template editor on the form, including edits you have not saved. It does not use the program’s last saved template.
- Print reads the saved program, not the preview. When staff or a holder prints a certificate, Rhythm uses the program’s saved certificate mode and template. If you preview changes without saving them, the printed certificate can differ from the preview.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Previewing does not save anything. If you close the preview or leave the program form without saving, the program’s certificate settings stay exactly as they were. To make a previewed design available to holders, save the program with that template in place.
Warning
Because preview always behaves like automatic generation and ignores any attached certificate file, it can look different from what a holder actually prints. This happens when the program’s saved mode is Create Manually, or when the specific certification you are testing has its own uploaded certificate file. Use preview to check your template’s layout and merge fields, not as a guarantee of exactly what every holder will see.
Permissions
Previewing a certificate design is part of the program’s Create or Edit form, so it requires the same access as editing a program. Printing a certificate has its own permission check: staff need permission to print certificates in the Console, and a signed-in Portal member can print only a certificate that belongs to them or, for an organization certification, to an organization they are allowed to act for.
Validation and Errors
- Preview requires an existing certification identifier. If the identifier does not match a certification in your account, the preview fails with “Unable to preview certificate.”
- If Print Certificate is missing from a certification’s staff 360 page or from a holder’s view in the Portal, check the program’s Certificate Template setting first. It is usually set to Disabled or left unset.
- If a merge field is blank in the preview or the printed certificate, the field may not be available in this template's data context. Not every field from application custom fields or other records is accessible from every certificate template, so a blank value can point to field availability rather than a typo in the merge code.
Related Tasks
Choosing a certificate mode and designing the template itself is covered in Program Certificates. Once a program enables certificates, staff print or attach certificates as described in Print or Attach a Certificate.