Tip of the fortnight 2 - Acknowledge customers with a PDF copy of their submitted form

Hello fellow form builders,

I believe the previous tip gave you insights on the different ways of form redirection. Today I've come up with a tip that aims to help your respondents be aware of the data they enter!

Have you come across a circumstance where you need to give away the form along with the entire response and the answer choices being entered? Well, rather than consuming time to send the raw form submission through manual emails, you can do it in a much simpler way. Yes! The form submissions can be delivered in an organised way, as a PDF.

Unlike a copy of the form responses that gets submitted in the form, the PDF of the form submission is a copy of the entire form along with the answer choices and the responses that gets filled in. Regardless of the type of business forms you create, you can set up the PDF's page properties to complement it.

Let's get started with the PDF customization. First things first; Build your form, and finish designing it. Whatsoever theme you've applied for your form will be reflected in the PDF as well. Now, in your form's Settings >> PDF Settings , click Customize and start customizing your PDF.

Choose a Relevant Title

Inside the PDF editor, start-off by personalizing the name of the PDF. Enter a name or set a custom name by including the field responses that fall in your form. If you need to label the PDF explicitly, add the Unique ID field to it (the field must be added prior in the form).

Customize Appearances

Under the Page setting, quickly pick out from Portrait or Landscape orientation based on how you want to display the page.

Depending on the nature of the form, say for an Order Invoice , Course Application Form , or a Sales Contract , choose the size of the page accordingly. Altering this, maintains the proportions of the entire form by correspondingly scaling the contents. Next up, choose the Margin from the pre-defined values, or set up the page with no margins (choose "0" from the dropdown).

Another significant option is the Exclude Empty Fields . Whenever the respondent has not filled any fields in your form, instead of showing those fields empty, you can delete them from displaying inside the PDF. This sure helps you to generate a sophisticated PDF.

Reveal the unique ID

Another useful field you can add to your PDF is the Include Unique ID field. For example, you've created a Membership Application Form , and have added a unique ID field (get to know more about Unique ID in this post ) that generates the Applicant Number. When the customers fill out the form, the generated unique ID will not be displayed. However, the Unique ID will be displayed in the PDF when you download it. This ensures your respondents are familiarized with their Applicant Number. Once you are done with fine-tuning your PDF, hit Save .

There are two super-quick ways you can let your customers find and download the PDF. One is that, you can give the PDF's link in the Thank You Page that gets displayed after the submission. For this, permit to display the link under the PDF Settings. Or, attach the PDF in an email and automate the emails (we will discuss on automating emails in our upcoming series).

And, that's a wrap! Put your forms out there and watch the PDFs generated for every submission. Comment your thoughts below - we'd love to hear from you.

Until next fortnight,

Prasana.

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Prasana Lakshmi
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