If the report is to be generated as WordML document, then a WordML (base) document (.xml) is required as format template. You can get such a document by creating a template in MS Word and saving it in the format "XML Document" (in MS Word 2003) or "Word 2003 XML Document" (MS Word 2007 and newer), respectively.
The following hints should be considered when a custom WordML format template is to be created:
All layout settings - like the page layout - are left unchanged in the resulting report.
The headers and footers are left unchanged in the resulting report.
The format template may also contain additional contents, like a table of contents, e.g.. All additional contents are placed in the resulting report between the title page and the document body. The title page is considered to comprise all parts before the first chapter of the DocBook structure of the report to be generated.
During report generation the following paragraph styles are used from the format template:
In addition, depending on the report template used, additional paragraph and table styles may be necessary. The ARCWAY standardreport template, e.g., uses the following paragraph styles:
and table style:
Please note that autotext fields (like e.g. a table of contents), which may be part of Your format template,
are not updated automatically during report generation.
You have to trigger the update manually after the report generation. To do so, open the report in MS Word,
select everything using the keyboard short cut 'STRG + A' and start the update by pressing 'F9' or by choosing
"Update fields" from the context menu.

You can find a sample for a WordML format template on the ARCWAY web site at www.arcway.com/downloads.