Generic elements enable you to create a template that refers to elements that might appear in any model, rather than to elements that are specific to a single model. Build a template with generic elements. For example, if you want to extract all the classes from a model, you can add a single generic class element to your template, rather than searching through your model to find every class and adding it to the template. This enables you to use the template with any model: when you use the generic class element to build your template, no matter what model you have open, Rational Rhapsody ReporterPLUS extracts the classes.
Model elements enable you to add text or diagrams quickly from a specific model to your template. You can use model elements when designing a template to be used only with one specific model. If you use this template with a different model, Rational Rhapsody ReporterPLUS might not extract any model data because the names of the model elements are not the same.