The Document Merger lets your team generate precedent documents from your Actionstep templates — on the matter, through the assistant. Turning it on is a one-time job: your Microsoft 365 administrator completes two Microsoft-side steps, someone puts your templates in a SharePoint library, and LegalCollect finishes the configuration. This guide walks through all of it.
Today, generating a precedent from an Actionstep template is a manual job in the Actionstep screen. The Document Merger lets you do it through the assistant instead — you ask for a template on a matter, the assistant fills every merge field it can from that matter's data (client names, addresses, dates, matter details), and files the finished Word document back onto the matter in Actionstep.
You stay in control: the assistant shows you a preview of what will and won't fill before anything is created, marks any blank fields clearly, and always reminds you to review the document before it's sent.
Two things are needed to switch it on, both one-time:
1. An approval by your Microsoft 365 administrator — so the assistant can read a SharePoint library that holds copies of your templates.
2. Your templates placed in that library — a copy of each Actionstep template, kept up to date.
Until both are done, the feature simply reports that it "is not configured" — nothing else in the assistant is affected, so there's no rush and no risk to the rest of your setup.
For your Microsoft 365 / IT administrator, and done once. Your Actionstep template files can't be pulled through Actionstep's API, so the assistant reads them from a SharePoint document library in your own Microsoft 365 tenant, using our application — which you approve for read-only access to exactly the sites you choose, and nothing else.
These steps run in order, and consent alone does nothing. Approving the app registers it in your tenant but grants it no access to any content; the app stays inert until you also grant it the site (step 3) and LegalCollect finishes the configuration on our side. So don't treat the consent click as "done" — work through all four steps.
Any document library on a SharePoint site works (for example a site called Precedents or Firm Templates). Note its URL, e.g. https://[yourfirm].sharepoint.com/sites/Precedents — you'll send it to us at the end.
A Global Administrator opens the admin-consent link below and approves it. This registers our app in your tenant so it can be granted access — on its own it grants no access to any content. The permission requested is Microsoft Graph Sites.Selected, which means our app can reach only the specific sites you explicitly grant it (step 3), and nothing by default.
Before approving, confirm you're approving the right application — the details Microsoft shows should match these exactly:
Verify it's really us. Check the app against these details before approving:
Open the admin-consent link (sign in as a Global Administrator):
After you approve, you'll land on a LegalCollect confirmation page at legalcollect.com.au/doc-merger/consent-complete showing your directory (tenant) ID — keep that page open for step 4.
Expect an "unverified publisher" notice — that's normal. Microsoft shows this for any app whose publisher hasn't completed Microsoft's paid Partner verification. LegalCollect doesn't pursue that verification, so the notice is expected and permanent. It does not affect what the app can do or access — confirm authenticity using the name, the legalcollect.com.au publisher domain, and the Application ID above.
Sites.Selected grants nothing until you name the site. Grant our app read on the templates site from step 1 with two Microsoft Graph calls (for example in Graph Explorer, signed in as a site administrator). First look up the site's ID:
GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{host}:/sites/{sitePath}
# e.g. .../sites/yourfirm.sharepoint.com:/sites/Precedents — copy the "id" from the responseThen grant read access to that site ID:
POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{siteId}/permissions
{
"roles": ["read"],
"grantedToIdentities": [
{ "application": { "id": "b1c0015d-cbdd-4872-9c93-d1f6c1abe9e3", "displayName": "LegalCollect Actionstep Doc Merger" } }
]
}A 201 Created response means it's done. Note: to run the POST, Graph Explorer itself may need the Sites.FullControl.All permission consented to it first (Graph Explorer prompts for this) — that's a permission on the Graph Explorer tool, not on our app.
Send us your directory (tenant) ID — shown on the confirmation page after step 2 (also under Entra ID → Overview) — and your templates site URL. There is no password or secret to send: our application authenticates itself, and you've only granted it read access to the one library. We finish the configuration on our side from there.
Send them to help@legalcollect.com.au, or to your usual LegalCollect contact.
What our app can and can't do. Because of the Sites.Selected permission you approve, our application can read only the SharePoint site(s) you explicitly grant it — nothing else: no mailboxes, no other sites, and no write access anywhere. The documents the assistant generates are filed into Actionstep, never written back to SharePoint. You can revoke access at any time by removing the site grant, or by removing the application under Entra ID → Enterprise applications.
For the team who maintain your precedents. The assistant reads your templates from the SharePoint library set up above — your job is to keep a copy of each template there.
In Actionstep, export the template document (the Word .docx file), then upload that file into the SharePoint templates library as-is — no need to rename it. The assistant matches files to your Actionstep templates by name, and copes with the way Actionstep names its exports. Folder structure inside the library doesn't matter — put them wherever suits you.
When you change a template in Actionstep, re-export it and replace the copy in SharePoint. The assistant works from the SharePoint copy, so an out-of-date copy produces an out-of-date document. If a template is missing from the library, the assistant tells you the exact file to add; if the SharePoint copy looks older than the Actionstep version, it warns you.
Which templates are supported. Word (.docx) templates are supported. PDF templates (such as some cost agreements) aren't generated in this version — they'll be listed but flagged.
Once it's switched on, everyone on your team can generate documents through the assistant. There's nothing extra to install.
Ask to see your firm's templates — optionally narrowed to a matter or matter type.
For a specific matter, ask for a dry run: the assistant shows exactly what value each field would fill with, and which would be blank. Nothing is created by a preview — it's there so you can see the gaps first.
The assistant fills the fields, files the Word document on the matter (optionally in a folder you name), and reports how many fields filled.
Blank fields show as ****. If a matter is missing data (e.g. no defendant recorded yet), those fields render as ****, and the assistant lists them. Fill the matter data and generate again.
Always review before sending. The assistant produces a draft. Open the generated document in Actionstep and check it — especially names, addresses, dates, and anything in the letterhead — before it goes to a client or court.
Work down the list; the feature switches on once every item is done.