Merge fields are placeholders that fill in with real data at the moment a certificate is issued. They are what let one template serve every recipient: the same design issues as “Jane Smith” for Jane and “Ravi Patel” for Ravi.

Adding Merge Fields

There are two ways to place a merge field on a certificate:

• As its own element: Add a Merge Field element from the palette, then choose the field in the properties panel. This is the right choice when a value stands alone, like the recipient name line.
• Inside a text element: Select a text element, place the cursor where the value belongs, and click Insert merge field. The label and the value then center and wrap as one line, like “Expires: {{certificate.expiry_date}}”. See Merge Fields in Text.

Both pickers list every field available to the template, with a sample value for each. Fields use a {{group.field}} token format, and the Merge field display toggle in the toolbar switches the canvas between Samples (example values, to judge length and wrapping) and Tokens (the raw codes, to see exactly what is in the text).

Recipient Fields

• Recipient Name ({{recipient.display_name}}): The recipient’s display name. This is the field starter templates use for the name line.
• First Name ({{recipient.first_name}}) and Last Name ({{recipient.last_name}})
• Full Name ({{recipient.full_name}}): First and last name combined.
• Email ({{recipient.email}})

Certificate Fields

• Display Name ({{certificate.title}}): What this certificate is called, from the template’s display name pattern (or the template name when no pattern is set).
• Issue Date ({{certificate.issue_date}}): The earned date, formatted using your site’s date format.
• Credential ID ({{certificate.credential_id}}): The certificate’s unique ID, displayed in its grouped form.
• Issuer Name ({{certificate.issuer_name}}): Your site name.
• Expiry Date ({{certificate.expiry_date}}): The expiry date, when the certificate has one.

Site Fields

• Site Name ({{site.name}})
• Site Tagline ({{site.tagline}})
• Site URL ({{site.url}})

Source Fields

When a certificate is issued by a trigger, the integration that fired it supplies source fields describing what was completed: the course title, quiz score, instructor, completion date, and so on. The available fields depend on the integration. When the trigger uses an “Any” option (any course, any quiz), the fields fill from whichever course or quiz the learner actually completed, so one template names the right course on every certificate. Source fields resolve to blank when a certificate is issued manually, since there is no source activity to describe.

Custom Meta Fields

Beyond the registered fields, you can pull custom data directly:

• {{recipient.meta.your_key}} reads the recipient’s user meta. For example, a membership plugin that stores a member number in user meta can put that number on the certificate. Sensitive core meta like passwords and session tokens is blocked.
• {{source.meta.your_key}} reads post meta from the source content (like the course) that triggered the certificate. This is available when the source is a WordPress post; PressPrimer Quiz and PressPrimer Assignment sources do not support it.

Custom meta values must be plain text or numbers. Anything else renders as blank rather than an error.

On a trigger that awards for any course or quiz, the meta key picker previews values from your most recent matching course or quiz. Each issued certificate prints the value from its own source.

When Values Are Resolved

Important: Merge fields resolve once, at issue time, and the resolved values are stored with the certificate. If a recipient later changes their display name, certificates they already earned keep the name as it was when issued. This is deliberate: an earned credential is a record, and records should not rewrite themselves.

The certificate email and the certificate’s display name read from the same stored values, so all three always agree. A field used only in an email or a display name pattern is stored with the certificate too, even when nothing on the design prints it. See Email Notifications.