When the contract behind a template changes — new clauses, or a formatting fix — you don't create a new document. You upload the new version through the template document's Version History. This keeps one source of truth and an automatic record of every past version, and it avoids ending up with duplicate copies of the same agreement in your repository.

Use this whenever your underlying agreement is updated, or when you need to re-upload a document to clear a formatting issue carried over from an earlier import.

Go to Templates, open the template, and open the document itself.

💡 Best Practice: Update the document directly inside the template rather than editing a separate copy in your repository. Editing a loose copy is how teams end up with two versions of the same agreement — and with the template still showing the old (or wrong) one.

Inside the document, open Version History. This is where every version of the document lives, with the date each was updated tracked automatically.

Add the new updated version of the document in Version History. The new version becomes current, while the previous versions remain available for reference.

⚠️ Re-uploading is also the fix for formatting problems (for example, sub-clauses that came in capitalized or bold from a Word import). If a backend formatting fix was applied after your original upload, you must re-upload the document for the corrected formatting to take effect — the already-uploaded copy is not repaired automatically.

Uploading a new version drops the signature fields that were placed on the document. After the upload, open the document and drag the signature fields back in. Remember that fields require a signing phase with an assigned signatory before they can be placed.

If the document name still references the old version (for example, "v1"), rename it so the current version is clear to everyone who uses the template.

Updating through Version History keeps a single, clean template with a full history behind it — so every future launch uses the right document, and you can always see what changed and when.

Related articles: Creating Templates in Aline · File Format Requirements & PDF-to-Word Conversion · How to Rename Documents in Aline