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

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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                                                          • Tip #10: Automatically add tags to Zoho CRM records using form responses

                                                            You may be using tags to filter records, create reports based on specific tags, or let your sales team to know which clients to give priority to. Don't skip tagging for the crm records added via forms. The tags can be set to be automatically captured during the form submission. How it works When you set up a configuration to push form entries into CRM, you can add a tag to them automatically. The tag value can vary based on the respondent's input (captured using form fields), or you can include a
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                                                          • Tip #9: Modify deal properties in Zoho CRM using form responses

                                                            How to modify deal properties of Zoho CRM records using form responses? Deal properties in Zoho CRM records are constantly modified based on the status of the deal. You can automatically modify deal properties (like the deal closing date, or deal name) and even update the deal stage, using form inputs. This can drastically reduce the work your team would otherwise do to search and change individual record details manually. How it works This works by integrating the form with the Deals module of Zoho


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