Creating a new instance of a document on rails server

I am trying to allow users on a site to create some documents that can be modified and bound to their user_id based on document templates on the web server.

One way I thought of doing it is having files exist in a directory on the rails server which users can select after looking at the file name and create a new instance of it by "uploading" the file through paperclip, however, I am not quite sure how to do it.

Would appreciate some advice in doing it. I am aware that this might not be the best way of doing it and am open to other options as well.

Thanks!