How products are created and edited
Products appear automatically from documents and imports. Here's how they're made and how to change their details.
How a product gets created
DataSheets Pro usually creates products for you, in these ways:
- From a document. Whenever you create a document (blank, from a template, from one of your own templates, or by duplicating) a matching product record is created and linked to it. The product picks up the facts from the document's product overview, features and specifications.
- From a spreadsheet import. Each row you import becomes one product, with no document until you create one from it. Importing is included on Pro and above.
- By hand. + New product on My Products makes a product from a name; model, part numbers, specs, features and an image are added on its page. It is its own master copy until you make a document from it and choose Set as source.
- From a catalog, when you ask. A Product Catalog lists many products as entries. On My Products, under Catalogs, click Add to My Products to make one product per entry; a catalog built from your products is already linked to them. A catalog you make in the builder never adds products on its own.
Because products are drawn from a document, empty editor placeholders (like "Product name") don't pollute the record, and they're treated as blank until you fill them in.
Editing a product's details
Open a product from My products and click Edit details. You can change the product name, subtitle, category, model, part numbers (comma-separated), internal reference and description. A product with no source document — imported, or added by hand — also lets you edit its specifications, key features and image there, and its Variants & pricing: the order codes it is sold by, each with an option, list price, pack and lead time. Catalogs and price lists generated from the product list those codes; a spreadsheet import fills them from a Blocks tab “Catalog entry” group, and Export catalogue writes them back out.
- Go to My products and open the product.
- Click Edit details.
- Update the fields, then click Save details.
A product with no source document — one from a spreadsheet import, or whose source was deleted or marked final — is its own master copy: editing writes directly to the product record, and the documents made from it can pick the change up. Creating a document from such a product does not make that document its source; use Set as source on the product page if you want a document to take over. To understand which document controls the facts, read Understanding Source of Truth.
Deleting a product
Deleting a product moves its documents to Trash at the same time. The confirmation tells you how many before anything happens, and they stay in Trash for 30 days like anything else you delete, so this is recoverable. The product record itself is removed for good.
They travel together because a document can't be left without a product behind it: the product is where the shared facts live, so a document with none can't stay in step with anything, doesn't appear under any product, and can't have a sibling created from it. If you want to keep a document, don't delete its product.