Templates in Labii: Streamlining Record Creation and Experiment Management

Templates in Labii are designed to save time, improve consistency, and reduce errors in scientific documentation.

Overview

Templates in Labii are designed to save time, improve consistency, and reduce errors in scientific documentation. Instead of starting from scratch each time, researchers can leverage templates to create new records with pre-defined structures and content. This feature ensures repeatability across experiments, while also providing flexibility for different users and teams to maintain their own personalized templates.

Creating Records from Templates

In Labii, any record can be designated as a template. Once a record is set as is_template=true, new records can be created directly from it. When templates need to be updated, the recommended approach is to create a new record, set it as the new template, and mark the old one as is_template=false. This ensures that future records are created from the latest version of the template while still keeping a historical reference.

Users can create as many templates as needed, and different users can maintain their own unique templates to suit their workflows.

Duplicating Records vs. Using Templates

Labii also offers the ability to duplicate an existing record. This is particularly useful when an experiment fails and needs to be repeated under the same setup. However, duplication is not a recommended method for managing templates, because users must remember which record to duplicate from.

With templates, this problem is solved—users do not need to recall a specific record. Instead, they can simply select the appropriate template, ensuring accuracy and consistency every time.

Default Sections for Administrators

Another powerful feature in Labii is default sections, available exclusively to administrators. Default sections act as a one-time template applied automatically when new records are created. Administrators can define a single set of default sections, which ensures that every new record in a table starts with the same structure.

While default sections function similarly to templates, they differ in scope:

• Default sections → one set per table, ideal when only one template is needed.

• Templates → multiple options per table, ideal when different templates are required for varied workflows.

This flexibility allows organizations to choose between streamlined uniformity or versatile customization.

Conclusion

Templates in Labii provide a practical way to standardize record creation, improve efficiency, and ensure reproducibility. Whether using customizable templates for diverse workflows, duplicating records to quickly repeat experiments, or leveraging default sections for administrative control, Labii offers multiple pathways to optimize documentation. By combining these tools, researchers can focus less on repetitive setup and more on meaningful scientific work.

To learn more, schedule a meeting with Labii representatives (https://call.schedule.labii.com) or create an account (https://www.labii.com/signup/) to try it out yourself.