---
title: "Printing and exporting"
url: "https://docs.4hse.com/reports"
description: "How a document is produced from 4HSE: the templates, the formats, and where the result is stored."
---

# Printing and exporting

Everything 4HSE holds can come out as a document: a certificate, a list of people, a safety data sheet. This area covers how that happens.

## Printing starts from the item it concerns

[Section titled “Printing starts from the item it concerns”](#printing-starts-from-the-item-it-concerns)

There is no central “reports” section. The print function sits next to the item it concerns: on a certificate, on an office, on a supplier, on a person. Wherever you see the print icon, the same flow starts.

That flow is always the same three steps:

1.  **Choose a template** — which layout the document will use;
2.  **Preview** it;
3.  **Print or export** it.

## Templates decide the shape

[Section titled “Templates decide the shape”](#templates-decide-the-shape)

A template is the layout of the document. 4HSE provides ready-made ones, a partner can provide their own, and you can modify any of them or upload your own — see [Choose a template](/reports/choose-a-template) and [Customise a template](/reports/customise-a-template).

## Two output formats

[Section titled “Two output formats”](#two-output-formats)

Format

Typical use

**HTML**

the version that stays editable in a browser

**Microsoft Word**

when someone has to work on the text afterwards

PDF is not one of the export formats: you get it from the browser’s print function — see [Print or export a document](/reports/print-and-export).

## Should the document be printed or archived?

[Section titled “Should the document be printed or archived?”](#should-the-document-be-printed-or-archived)

At the end of the flow you choose where the result goes: your own computer, or the 4HSE **file system**. Archiving keeps the document in the project folders, where it is subject to the same permissions as everything else and stays reachable from the item that produced it — see [Files and attachments](/files-and-attachments/).

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