Document RFP responses

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What are Document responses?

Realm supports two kinds of RFP responses:

• Questionnaires: RFPs that Realm answers row by row. A spreadsheet becomes a questionnaire as it is. A Word or PDF RFP written as prose can become one too, with one row per requirement, and the answers can be filled back into the original file. See Word and PDF RFPs.
• Document responses: narrative RFPs that you answer with a written document rather than a grid of answers.

Choose a questionnaire when the buyer wants each requirement answered in its place. Choose a Document response when the buyer expects prose: a proposal, a technical approach, a methodology section, or a written security response. Realm reads the RFP, proposes an outline, drafts the document from your company knowledge, and gives your team a collaborative editor to finish it.

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Creating a Document response

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Drafting a document the buyer asked for

A tender usually names the documents it expects: a method statement, a quality plan, a list of references. Realm reads the project’s files and collects the ones nobody has drafted yet under Suggested files, a band on the project’s Files tab, above its supporting files. Each suggestion quotes the sentence that asked for it and names the file that sentence came from. Choose Show to open that file at the passage, so you can read the demand in the buyer’s own words first. To draft it, hover the row, open Create, and choose Create document: the dialog opens linked to the suggestion and shows its questions above the prompt bar. The prompt bar starts with a sentence that asks for the suggestion, such as “Write the Solution concept.” Answer the questions you can decide, then send the sentence as it is or change it to say more about the document. Your answers go with your prompt to the draft, and questions you skip are left out. If you link a different suggestion before you change the sentence, the sentence changes to match. Not every suggestion needs Realm to draft it. The same Create menu also offers Upload files and Existing document. Whatever you start from Create document is linked to the suggestion, which the dialog shows under Linked to. To link a file that is already in the project, open the options menu on the file’s row and choose Link to a suggested file; the suggestion is then marked done and opens the file in the preview. A suggestion you do not plan to produce can be removed from the options menu on its row. Once a suggestion is drafted it is no longer a suggestion: it leaves the band and joins the project’s documents in the list above.

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Planning a document section by section

A document started in Plan mode is planned before it is written. Its Plan shows the instructions for the whole document beside its outline. Instructions holds the brief, the Facts to use, the Placeholders to fill in later and the template. Rules & requirements lists the rules every section follows and each requirement with the sections that answer it, or No section yet. Length shows each section’s share of the word budget. Click any line to edit it. A plan with no sections yet offers Write outline: Realm writes the outline from your instructions and the template you picked. Each section of the outline opens to its Instructions, key points, the Requirements it answers, what to Emphasize and the filled Tables it returns. A closed section shows how many tables it returns. Its header sets the requirements, who owns the section and its word budget, and its menu moves, indents, renames or deletes it. Add sections with Add section, or ask the chat to change the plan. When it says what you want, choose Create document. The document then opens on its Plan tab, with a heading for each section, and Realm starts drafting every section right away. A section shows Not drafted yet until its draft is written, and Writing this section… while Realm writes it. The Plan tab, beside Write and Preview above the document, drafts the sections: Generate all sections writes every section. Once a section has a draft, the button reads Regenerate all sections and asks before it replaces drafted text. Each section’s card has its own Generate or Regenerate; regenerating an approved section asks first, because the section goes back to review. A card shows the section’s draft status and approval; open it to see the checks of its draft, its requirements, filled tables and what to emphasize. Click a section’s title to go to it in the document. A section can also be generated from its heading in the document. Sections keep drafting after you close the editor. A section counts as drafted once its heading has text under it, whether Realm generated it, the chat wrote it or you typed it. Click a section’s heading to rename it. To remove a section, delete it with the × on its heading; its text goes with it. A buyer often wants a filled form or requirements matrix returned inside the response, such as an attachment of the RFP or one tab of it. Under Tables on the section in the Plan, or Filled tables on its card in the Plan tab, add the project’s questionnaire, or one of its sections, to the section that returns it. The chat can also change a section’s tables when you ask. When the section is drafted, Realm writes its text and then inserts each table as filled: a table with the questionnaire’s columns in their order and every row’s full text, so no answer is retyped or lost. A cell with no answer yet stays empty, as in the buyer’s form. The table stays a table in Word and PDF exports. A section with only tables and nothing else in its brief is drafted as its heading and the tables. Regenerating the section inserts the tables’ current answers. A questionnaire that requires approval before export is not inserted while some of its rows are unapproved: the section’s text is still drafted, and a short notice in the table’s place names the table and the reason. Regenerate the section once the rows are approved.

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Adding a document the buyer did not ask for

A bid often includes documents no part of the tender demands: a training plan, a reference list, a method statement offered on your own initiative. From a project, choose Add document on the Files tab (it sits on the Suggested files band while there are suggestions, and closes the list of the bid’s documents when there are none), or Create document in the header’s Add menu. The dialog is the same prompt bar as the Documents page: type what the document should say and Realm drafts it in the editor, or pick Start from document or Start from template first, or choose Blank document to start writing yourself. Write, the default, has the document written straight away; choose Plan to have it planned section by section first, as described in Planning a document section by section. A planned document’s outline follows the template you picked, or the document when you picked no template. Beneath the prompt, Role files the document as a Deliverable of the bid or as a Supporting file, and Linked to links a deliverable to one of the suggested files. The dialog has the Documents page’s + menu, with Skill to pick a skill; the project is already set, so the menu offers no Project. Realm writes every document: neither the dialog nor the editor’s chat has an agent menu. To add files instead, choose Upload files in the header’s Add menu, on the deliverables band, or in the options menu on a suggested file’s row (which links the first document you add to that suggestion; the rest are added unlinked). One drop zone takes every file, and Realm sorts each by type: a spreadsheet is sorted into Questionnaires to fill, and anything else into Supporting files from the header’s menu or Documents to respond to from the deliverables band. Once there are files, drag one or use the arrows on its row to move it into a different group, and use Linked to on a file under Documents to respond to to link it to a suggested file. The dialog starts empty each time you open it, and when you add a single questionnaire, Realm opens it as soon as it is parsed. Opened from the Add menu on the supporting files band instead, the dialog is titled Upload supporting files and every file becomes a supporting file. Either way, uploads keep running after you close the dialog. A buyer’s file can be answered in two ways, and the options menu on its row offers both, whether the file is a deliverable or a supporting file. Choose Fill as questionnaire to have Realm parse it into a questionnaire to fill. Choose Write response to answer it with a written response: Realm creates the response document, opens it in the editor, and starts writing at once from the file’s full text. Where documents are planned section by section, Realm plans the response first and stops at the plan. The plan sees every questionnaire in the project, including attachments parsed from files of their own. It puts a filled questionnaire into a section only where the buyer’s files ask for that form to be completed and included in the response; otherwise the answers are used as facts in the text. Review the plan, change it if needed, and choose Create document to draft every section. Realm keeps working if you leave the page. A document created this way behaves like any other in the bid: it appears with the project’s files, it is approved the same way, and it is included when you choose Export in the project header, as a Word file or a PDF. An uploaded or existing file added as a deliverable is already final: it needs no approval, a suggestion it answers is marked done, and Export includes it as it was uploaded. Realm does not read a deliverable as part of the buyer’s material. See Exporting the project’s files.

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Moving files between deliverables and supporting material

The options menu on any file or document row can change its standing. Move to deliverables and Move to supporting files switch a file between the bid’s own deliverables and the material it draws on. Link to a suggested file opens a searchable list of the project’s suggestions, so a file or document can be linked to one, or to a different one than it is now; Unlink from the suggested file takes the link away and leaves it as a deliverable nobody asked for.

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Approving a document

Each document in the bid is accepted by someone before the bid goes out. In the project’s Files tab, open the options menu on the document’s row and choose Approve. In the editor, choose Approve document in the document’s options menu. Realm asks before it approves, and the document is then marked as done: its row in the Files tab shows Done, and the status in the editor header shows Approved. For a planned document, approving it also approves every section that is not approved yet, so you do not have to approve them one at a time. The editor header shows how many sections are approved, for example 3 of 31 approved; click it to approve the whole document. A section with no text yet stays unapproved. Each approved section goes back to review if its text changes. Choose Reopen in the Files tab, or Reopen for review in the editor’s options menu, to put the document back into progress. Its section approvals stay as they are. Editing an approved document also reopens it. If a document has named reviewers, only one of them can approve it. A document with no reviewer is approved by anyone who can edit the project.

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Where Realm finds what to write

This applies to the documents Realm drafts for a project: the ones a tender demanded, and the ones you add yourself. Before writing each section, Realm looks in three places:

• The project’s files. Realm searches the supporting files on the project’s Files tab. It reads a buyer’s file only to learn what the buyer wants, never as facts about you. The file a plan adapts counts as a previous document. Realm does not read the bid’s own deliverables. The RFP the project was created from reaches each section through the plan’s requirements, which quote it.
• The project’s questionnaire answers. These are what the bid already told the buyer. Each answer is marked approved or not reviewed, with its date.
• Your knowledge base. Realm leaves out the project’s own files here. If your organization limits RFP answers to tags, the project’s current tags apply. The tag button at the top of the editor shows them as N from project and opens the project, where you edit them.

When two sources disagree about your company, Realm follows the stronger one: a project file, then an approved answer, then an answer that is not reviewed, then your knowledge base or a previous document. Between two sources of the same kind, the newer one wins. Realm cites each statement to its source, and a questionnaire answer is cited back to the question it answers, so you can open it and check the claim. Realm shows how many answers and documents each document cites, or that it cites none.

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Reviewing the outline

Realm analyzes the RFP and generates an outline of the response. The outline opens in Plan mode, where you review the proposed structure before any drafting happens. Refine the outline through Embedded Chat, which you open from the editor header. Ask it to add or remove sections, reorder them, merge overlapping topics, or change the emphasis of a section. Iterate until the structure matches how you want to respond.

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Drafting the document

When the outline is right, click Draft the document. Realm attaches the uploaded RFP to the drafting request and writes the full response draft, following the outline and drawing on the RFP, your company knowledge, and your answer library. Drafting follows the response language you picked when creating the response.

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Collaborating in the editor

The response opens in a real-time collaborative editor, so several people can write in the same document at once.

• Outline: The Outline tab in the sidebar, left of the document, lists the plan’s sections with their status and the avatar of each section’s owner. Click a section to jump to it. Click the status icon beside a section to open its menu: Approve or Unapprove it, Assign it to anyone in your organization, or Go to section. A document without a plan lists its headings instead. The sidebar stays open beside the document; on a narrow screen it folds to a column of tab icons.
• Section approval: A section that has text is In review until someone approves it. Click the status icon beside the section in the Outline and choose Approve, or use Approve on the section’s card in the Plan tab. The Outline uses the status icons of an RFP on the project’s Files tab: a dashed circle for a section with no text yet, a partly filled circle for one in review, and a filled check for an approved one. Hovering over an approved section’s icon shows who approved it and when. Any change to the section’s text puts it back in review, and changing the text back to what was approved shows it as approved again. Comments do not count as changes. Anyone who can edit the document can approve a section, the person who wrote it included, and Unapprove in the Outline, or Undo in the Plan tab, takes an approval back. The editor header shows how many of the plan’s sections are approved.
• Embedded Chat: Open Embedded Chat from the editor header to ask questions about the RFP, rewrite a section, or expand a thin answer. The panel knows which document and version you have open, and keeps that document’s conversations together. See Embedded Chat.
• Suggested edits: The assistant can propose inline edits. Review each one and accept or reject it.
• Regenerate a paragraph: Point at a paragraph and click the sparkle icon at its end, Regenerate with AI. Type how it should change, or leave the box empty, and press Enter. Realm rewrites that paragraph in place within a few seconds, without a chat message. Press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on Mac) to bring back the earlier text.
• Filled tables: Ask the chat to insert one of the project’s questionnaires, or one of its sections, into the document. The chat inserts the rows as filled, the same way as a planned section, after a line or heading you name or in place of a section’s text. A questionnaire that still awaits a required approval is not inserted, and the chat tells you why.
• Comments: Start comment threads on any part of the document and assign them to a teammate. A comment that @mentions exactly one person, and no team, assigns its thread to that person. The Comments button in the editor header lists every thread in the page’s right margin. Assigned threads show up as tasks in the RFP list under My tasks, and threads you are waiting on appear under Waiting on.
• Version history: Open Versions in the editor header to browse earlier versions of the document, see how it changed and recover previous wording.
• Images: Paste images, drag them into the document, or upload several at once from the insert menu. PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP images are supported. Drag a corner of an image to resize it. Word exports keep the size you set. You can also attach images in the chat and ask it to place them, for example “put the architecture diagram under Technical approach and our logo at the top”. The chat places a copy of each image where you ask, when it edits the document or writes its first version, and you review it like its other edits. The document keeps its own copy, so the image shows for teammates and in Word exports, even if the chat is deleted. HEIC photos can’t be placed, so attach those as PNG or JPEG.
• Citations: Drafted content links back to the sources it came from, so reviewers can verify claims.
• Placeholders: Values only you can supply, such as names, dates or prices, are left as placeholders. Click a placeholder to type its value, or use Fill all to fill every placeholder with the same label. Submit an empty value to remove the placeholder instead (Remove all removes every placeholder with that label). The Placeholders tab in the sidebar lists them all. Word and PDF exports highlight unfilled placeholders in yellow, so reviewers can find them.
• Status: A response moves from Drafting to Completed, and can be Archived when it is no longer active. A project document stays in Drafting after its first draft, until someone approves it. It then shows Approved until it is edited or reopened.
• Deadlines and tags: Set a deadline to keep the team on track, and add tags to organize responses.

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Publishing a link

Publishing a document gives it a link anyone can open, inside or outside your organization. The published page always shows the document’s current content, so edits made after publishing are visible right away. Use Unpublish in the editor header to take the link down.

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Document responses in projects

When the RFP belongs to a project, the response document is part of the project:

• It appears in the project Files tab, where you can open it in the editor.
• It counts toward the project Progress dashboard.
• The source RFP feeds the project Summary and Go/No-Go analysis.

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Reusing completed documents

You can add a finished Document response or another document the project wrote, such as a deliverable, to your answer library so future work can reuse it. When the document is Completed, a book icon appears in the editor header next to the status badge. Click it to opt the document in, and Realm indexes it into the answer library. After that, questionnaire fills and chats can reuse its content the same way they use the rest of your company knowledge.

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Exporting

Export the document currently shown in the editor in any of these formats. If you have selected an earlier version in Version history, the export uses that historical version; otherwise it uses the document’s current live content:

• PDF
• Word (.docx)
• Markdown
• Google Docs

For Word, PDF, and Google Docs exports, choose what the response should look like under Match formatting of. The list shows your organization’s saved layouts. To use another file, choose Add layout, then Upload a Word file for a .docx or .dotx file or From knowledge base for a Word document in your knowledge base. Realm renders the response through that layout, so the export matches your company’s branding and formatting. A selected and saved layout can also produce a Word, PDF, or Google Docs export when the document body is blank. Choose Standard Realm style to export with Realm’s own formatting. Choose Use as document layout to keep the choice on the document. Later exports use it, and Preview, beside Write above the document, shows the Word document the export produces in place of the editor. A layout can hold its own text on the cover and in its headers and footers, such as a title, a date or sample text. If you can edit a document that has a layout, the Cover and header tab in the sidebar beside the document lists each line of that text with a field for its replacement. A line you leave empty keeps the layout’s text, except a cover title or subtitle, or a line tied to the document’s title, which uses the document’s title or project. To drop a line from the document, choose Remove from the layout on its row. The line moves to the bottom of the list, and Restore brings it back to its place. Lines that likely need a new value come first, and the rest, such as labels, are under Other text. If any remain unfilled, the export dialog says how many, and you can still export. Realm saves a value when you leave its field, and Preview and exports show it. The agent can fill these values too, from your sources or the chat. It replaces placeholder and sample text and leaves fixed text such as your company’s name and address. If your organization has a default document template, a document that has no layout of its own uses that template’s Word layout in Preview and in exports. The picker shows it as the selected layout, marked Organization default. Choose another layout to override it for the document, or Standard Realm style to keep Realm’s own formatting even when a default is set.