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PowerScribe 360 templates: how to export, import and migrate AutoText and report templates

The short answer

In PowerScribe, report templates are called AutoText. Nuance documentation describes AutoText as templates or macros that can hold an entire report, a phrase or a standardized pick list, and you invoke one by dictating its name. You create and edit them in the AutoText Editor, reached from Tools in the Explorer window or from Insert in the Report Editor. Administrators export AutoText to a file named AutoTextExport.xml and import it either to a site, where every user gets it, or to one user account. That export file is the single most important thing to produce before any PowerScribe 360 migration, because renewals and maintenance end on August 31, 2026 and your template library is the part of the system nobody else has a copy of.

Ask a radiologist what they would miss most if their reporting platform vanished tomorrow and almost nobody says the speech engine. They say the templates. A mature PowerScribe library is years of accumulated judgment: the normal chest, the stroke protocol, the pick list that stops a resident forgetting the Bosniak category. Nuance calls these AutoText, which is why searching for PowerScribe templates turns up so little useful writing. The product does not use the word template in the interface, but the documentation is explicit that AutoText, templates and macros mean the same thing here.

This page does two jobs. First it explains what AutoText actually is at the level of the settings that matter, because most groups only ever use a fraction of them and the unused ones are exactly what breaks in a move. Procedure code assignment, patient class filters, default pick list values and the private flag all change how a template behaves, and none of them are visible if you only look at the text. Second, it covers getting your library out, which is now a live problem rather than a theoretical one. PowerScribe 360 annual renewals and maintenance end on August 31, 2026, and full support ends on August 31, 2027.

The honest position on the migration itself: Microsoft describes a path to PowerScribe One that reuses existing 360 templates and content rather than rebuilding them, and the two can run side by side while you move. That is genuinely better than the worst case. It is still worth producing your own export and reading it, because a template library you can read is leverage in every conversation that follows, including the ones with vendors who are not Microsoft. Radiological.ai is one of those: it drafts the structured report into your template rather than asking you to rebuild your library somewhere new.

Last updated August 2026

The Reading Station

Assistant ready

Worklist

SERIES 1 · AX

SLICE 24/64

SAMPLE STUDY

NOT FOR DIAGNOSTIC USE

W 80 · L 40

Structured report

Draft

Run the assistant to draft this report for review.

You review & sign

Illustrative sample · not a real patient study, not a diagnosis

Drafted in · you review & sign Worklist re-prioritized

Decision support for qualified clinicians. Radiological.ai does not provide a diagnosis and is not a substitute for professional judgment.

See the comparison

Flag · prioritize · draft · you review and sign

PowerScribe templates are AutoText, they export to a single XML file, and the settings attached to each one matter more than the words in it. Inventory those settings before you migrate anything.

Side by side

Every PowerScribe 360 AutoText setting, and what it costs you in a migration

Built from Nuance PowerScribe 360 Reporting documentation. These are the properties attached to each template that do not show up when you simply read the report text.

AutoText setting	What it does in PowerScribe 360	Why it matters when you move
AutoText name	The word or phrase you dictate to insert the template. Nuance tells providers to use at least two syllables and all lowercase, with acronyms such as CT or MR the only exception, because the speech engine has to recognize it reliably.	Names are muscle memory. Radiologists dictate them thousands of times a year without looking. Preserving the exact names across a migration is worth more to adoption than any feature on the new platform.
Fill-in fields	Placeholders inside the template, set as Text, Numeric or Pick List. You add one by dictating Insert Fill-In Field, and you move between them with the tab buttons on the microphone or by saying Next Field.	Fill-in fields are the structure in structured reporting. A migration that flattens them into plain text technically keeps your templates and quietly destroys what they were for.
Default values	Text typed into the Default box populates the field the moment the AutoText is inserted, normally with the normal finding. A default pick list choice is set with Set Default and shows in red in the editor.	Defaults are how a normal study gets reported in seconds. They are also the highest-risk item to migrate, because a default that carries over incorrectly puts wrong text into a report by design.
Procedure code assignment	An AutoText can be tied to procedure codes so it populates automatically when a matching exam is opened.	This is the link between your template library and your chargemaster. It lives in mappings, not in the template text, and it is routinely the piece nobody exports.
Age, gender and patient class filters	A template can be restricted so it is only offered when the patient matches the parameters you set.	Invisible logic. If the filters do not come across, radiologists start seeing pediatric templates on adult studies and lose trust in the library within a week.
Private flag	An AutoText can be marked Private so other users cannot see or use it.	Private templates are usually a senior radiologist personal library, and they are the ones most likely to be missed in a site-level export. Ask every reader to check their own list.
Owner and AutoText Manager	Templates belong to an owner. The AutoText Manager lets you browse another account library, and right clicking a template and choosing Clone copies it into your own account for editing.	Ownership determines what a site-level export actually captures. Cloned copies also mean the same template can exist in ten slightly different versions across your readers.
Export	The administrator Export function produces a file called AutoTextExport.xml, saved to the Downloads folder by default, or elsewhere using Save As.	This is the artifact to produce first, before any migration conversation. XML is readable, diffable and vendor neutral, so it is evidence of what you own.
Import scope	Import accepts AutoText from RadWhere or PowerScribe 360 Reporting, and lets you load it either to a site, where all users get it, or to a single user account.	The site versus user choice decides whether a migration lands as a shared standard library or as a thousand personal copies that immediately start diverging.
Trigger word	The word that invokes a template is configurable under Tools, Preferences, Dictation tab. Alongside AutoText the choices include PowerScribe, Macro and Dictaphone.	If your group standardized on saying Macro rather than AutoText, that preference is part of the workflow and needs replicating, or every reader has to relearn the trigger.

Compiled August 2026 from Nuance PowerScribe 360 Reporting documentation, including the AutoText Creation Quick Reference Card for Providers (L-3319-005) and site administrator how-to guides. Interface labels vary by version and by how your site was configured, so confirm each step against your own build before planning a migration around it.

Side by side

Radiological.ai vs PowerScribe, honestly

A fair look at what each does well. Both are capable tools. Here is where they differ.

What matters	Radiological.ai	PowerScribe
What a template is called	A report template. The assistant drafts findings and impression directly into the template your group already uses.	AutoText, which Nuance documentation also refers to as templates or macros. The naming is the main reason this is hard to research.
Who fills the template in	The assistant drafts it from the study before you open it, then you review, edit and sign.	You do, by dictating into fill-in fields. PowerScribe One adds AI assistance to impressions on top of that.
Getting your library out	Your templates stay yours because they stay where they are. We draft into them rather than storing them.	Supported. Administrators export to AutoTextExport.xml and import to a site or a single user.
Rebuilding required to adopt	None. Keeping your existing templates is the point, so there is no library migration project attached.	Microsoft describes the PowerScribe One path as reusing existing 360 templates and content rather than rebuilding, with both able to run side by side during the move.
Where the time saving comes from	The draft exists before you start reading, and the worklist is already ordered by urgency.	Dictating less by inserting a prepared block of text, which is real and well proven, but it starts once you are already reading.
Structured fields	Drafts populate the structured sections your template defines.	Text, Numeric and Pick List fill-in fields, with defaults and procedure code triggers.
Regulatory status	Decision support; we make no regulatory-status claims on this site.	A long established clinical documentation platform with a deep deployed base across US healthcare.

Comparison reflects general, publicly understood positioning. Capabilities change, so check each product for the latest.

If the reason you are reading this is the retirement deadline, start with the PowerScribe 360 end of life dates, then work through the PowerScribe 360 migration checklist, which sequences the template export alongside the interface and training work. The PowerScribe One vs PowerScribe 360 comparison covers what actually changes in the cloud move.

For the money side, PowerScribe 360 price and PowerScribe One pricing analyzes 183 public federal contract awards and shows template migration being contracted as its own line item, which is the detail most quotes leave out. If hardware is in scope too, the PowerScribe headset and PowerMic guide explains what carries over.

Groups weighing whether to stay inside the Microsoft portfolio at all should read the vendor-level Nuance alternatives and competitors page and the Nuance PowerScribe alternative. For what a reporting layer should do beyond storing your templates, see structured radiology reporting and AI radiology reporting.

Why groups pick Radiological.ai

One assistant across the whole read

Export before you negotiate, not after

Produce AutoTextExport.xml now, while your contract is live and your administrator still has access. A readable XML copy of your own template library changes the tone of every migration conversation, because the question stops being whether you can leave and becomes what the next platform will do with what you already own. It costs an afternoon. Groups that skip it discover the gap at the worst possible moment, when access is expiring and the vendor is the only one who can help.

Inventory the settings, not just the text

The words in a template are the easy part. What breaks a migration is everything attached to them: procedure code mappings that tie templates to your chargemaster, patient class and age filters that control when a template appears, default values that pre-populate normal findings, and the private libraries individual radiologists built for themselves. Walk the table above and record which of these your site actually uses before anyone quotes you for a migration.

A forced migration is the moment to ask what the template is for

A template exists so a radiologist does not retype a normal chest. That is a good goal and a modest one. The alternative worth considering while everything is already on the table is a system that arrives with the draft written. Radiological.ai connects to your PACS over standard DICOM, flags suspected findings, prioritizes the worklist and drafts the structured report into the template you already use. It is decision support, and the radiologist reviews, edits and signs every study.

Good questions

PowerScribe vs Radiological.ai, answered

AutoText is the PowerScribe name for a report template. Nuance documentation describes it as templates or macros that can be an entire report, a phrase, or a standardized pick list. You insert one by dictating its name, and it can contain fill-in fields that you tab through and complete as you dictate.

Yes. Nuance site documentation states plainly that AutoText is also called templates or macros, and the three terms are used interchangeably by radiologists. You can even change which word triggers insertion: under Tools, Preferences, Dictation tab the options include AutoText, PowerScribe, Macro and Dictaphone.

Exporting is an administrator function. In the AutoText tab of the Setup group, click Export. PowerScribe generates a file named AutoTextExport.xml, which saves to the Downloads folder by default, or to a location you pick using Save As. That single XML file is the portable copy of your template library.

On the AutoText tab of the Setup group, click Import. PowerScribe accepts AutoText exported from RadWhere or from PowerScribe 360 Reporting. The important choice is scope: you can import to a site, which makes the templates available to every user, or to a single user account. Pick site level if you are trying to establish one shared standard library.

Open the AutoText Editor from Tools in the Explorer window, or from Insert then AutoText in the Report Editor. Name it using at least two syllables in lowercase, dictate the body into the work area, add fill-in fields by saying Insert Fill-In Field, then save by saying Save AutoText or pressing Ctrl+S. Test it in a live report before sharing it.

Say Save AutoText, press Ctrl+S, or click the disk icon in the AutoText Editor. The Explorer window reopens once the save completes. Always save before exiting the editor, because unsaved template work is not recovered, and always test the template in a real report afterwards to confirm the fill-in fields behave as intended.

Microsoft describes the upgrade path as reusing existing PowerScribe 360 templates and content rather than rebuilding them, and the two products can run side by side during a migration. Treat that as the plan rather than the guarantee: export your own AutoTextExport.xml first, and verify procedure code mappings, patient filters and default values after the move, since those are attached to the template rather than contained in its text.

Yes, unless the owner marked it Private. Open the AutoText Manager, click the arrow in the Owner category, select the account you want to look at, and click Browse to list their templates. Right click the one you want and choose Clone. Your name populates the Owner box, and the copy opens in the editor so you can rename and adapt it before saving.

A placeholder inside a template that you complete while dictating. There are three types: Text, Numeric and Pick List. Pick lists hold predefined choices, which is how groups enforce consistent terminology for things like severity grading. Any field can carry a default value that populates automatically, normally the normal finding, and you can dictate over it when the study is not normal.

It refers to automated help drafting the impression section rather than dictating it from scratch. This is a PowerScribe One capability rather than a classic 360 AutoText feature, and Microsoft also describes automated impression drafting in the radiologist experience within Dragon Copilot. If impression drafting is what you are shopping for, compare it directly against tools that draft the whole structured report.

Fewer shared ones than most groups end up with. A practical pattern is one well maintained base template per common procedure code, owned at site level, plus room for individual preference on top. Libraries sprawl when every radiologist clones and edits rather than improving the shared version, which is also why template counts balloon before a migration and why an export is worth reading rather than just archiving.

The RSNA RadReport template library is the standard public source and it is free to use, which makes it a reasonable starting point for a structure you then adapt. It will not match your chargemaster, your pick list terminology or your group conventions, so treat downloaded templates as a first draft rather than a library. The work that makes a template valuable is the local adaptation.

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From the blog: what the PowerScribe 360 end of life means for radiology groups, how much radiology AI costs, and the full comparison of the best AI radiology software in 2026.

See how Radiological.ai reads alongside your group

One assistant that flags suspected findings, prioritizes the worklist, and drafts the structured report on X-ray, CT and MRI. You review and sign every study.

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Decision support for qualified clinicians. Radiological.ai does not provide a diagnosis and is not a substitute for professional medical judgment.