Tip of the fortnight 3 - Create merged documents with form responses

Tip of the fortnight 3 - Create merged documents with form responses

Hello fellow form builders,

It's another fortnight, and I am back with an exciting new tip. In the previous post, we discussed how to deliver the PDFs of the submitted form  to your customers. To continue with this process, let's take a look at how to create dynamic documents with the responses that fall in your form.

Sending Order Receipts upon successful purchases, Interview Call Letters to chosen candidates, Invoices for your customers, Certificates on course completion, etc, is crucial for your business. Instead of the default process of manually entering in form data into an external document and dealing with the chaos of paper documents, I'll share a useful solution!



Using this tip, you can quickly integrate your document template with the form you create, and automate them as customized documents by merging the form responses. This ensures that there is no room for manual errors during the pre-filling process. Let's take a deep dive to understand how it's done!


Leave your mark 

Whether it's an Order Invoice or a Sales Contract, the scenarios require customized solutions. To satisfy this, create custom documents using Zoho Writer or WebMerge by adding your company logo, tables, etc. and design them to reflect your business. 

Here's a preview of how a document will look inside Zoho Writer (I've illustrated an Order Invoice and an Interview Invitation here). Include your form responses inside the document by clicking the field labels under INSERT FIELDS header.  






We've learned how to construct various documents as per business needs, and now let's explore the different ways it can be sent to your customers. 

Deliver to every submitter

If you want all of your customers to receive the document (say, an Order Receipt), try setting up an automated email by configuring the customer's email as the To address and include the merged document as an attachment. This configuration delivers custom documents right away when the customers make a form submission.

Deliver to specific submitters

If you want to analyze all your received form entries and send the documents to a few of the customers (say, a Course Completion Certificate), you can follow our manual workflow. For a Zoho Writer document, configure the email set up in the Merge and Send Email tab that appears. You can check the status of the document (if it is successfully merged or sent) by routing to the Mail Merge Status column under the All Entries/ Report section. You will receive a success message like this. 




That's all there is to it! Try this out and get started with the document merge for your forms by learning the set up from our help documentation. And, it's a wrap! What are the different documents you create for your business? Comment below - we'd love to hear from you!  

Until next fortnight, 
Prasana.

    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community





                                                  Use cases

                                                  Make the most of Zoho Desk with the use cases.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  eBooks

                                                  Download free eBooks and access a range of topics to get deeper insight on successfully using Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Videos

                                                  Watch comprehensive videos on features and other important topics that will help you master Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Webinar

                                                  Sign up for our webinars and learn the Zoho Desk basics, from customization to automation and more

                                                   
                                                    
                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Ask the Experts


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner




                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • 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
                                                            • Tip #2: Prefill forms automatically with existing Zoho CRM data

                                                              How to automatically prefill a form with existing Zoho CRM data? Prefilled forms can be useful when you want your prospects to view and confirm their data, and in a wide range of other situations. In Zoho Forms, we prefill the fields with the values from Zoho CRM using the Zoho CRM field. What is a Zoho CRM field? A Zoho CRM field acts as a two-way communication channel, by sending data to Zoho CRM from forms and fetching information from CRM into Forms. The field will look up data from your CRM
                                                            • Tip #8: Pass Adwords data (GCLID) and UTM parameters to Zoho CRM using forms

                                                              When you are using forms to capture leads, you may wonder: " How did they find me? Which marketing campaign worked best?"  You can answer this question by capturing the Google Adwords data (GCLID) or the UTM parameter details in your CRM using forms. This can be a great way to gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns and identify the most effective ways to capture leads.  Capturing GCLID parameters How it works If a person finds your form by clicking an ad, a GCLID gets created. When they fill out
                                                            • ZUG (Zoho User Group) In-person Meetups - Maximize Data Efficiency with Zoho Forms & Beyond

                                                              Hello Zoho Community, Join us for our upcoming meetups in ANZ, where we'll dive into seamless data handling and maximizing efficiency through Zoho Forms and beyond. Explore the potential of Zoho Forms customization and integration, from mastering the
                                                            • 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


                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                      Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                        Zoho Books Resources


                                                                          Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                            Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                              Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                Qntrl Resources


                                                                                  Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                      Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                      • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                        CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                      • Kaizen

                                                                                        Kaizen

                                                                                      • Functions

                                                                                        Functions

                                                                                      • Meetups

                                                                                        Meetups

                                                                                      • Kbase

                                                                                        Kbase

                                                                                      • Resources

                                                                                        Resources

                                                                                      • Digest

                                                                                        Digest

                                                                                      • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      • MVP Corner

                                                                                        MVP Corner







                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now


                                                                                            Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                              Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                              Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                              Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                Zoho CRM コンテンツ








                                                                                                  Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                      ご検討中の方




                                                                                                            • Recent Topics

                                                                                                            • Is there a way to sync Tags between CRM and Campaigns/Marketing Hub?

                                                                                                              I wonder if there is a way to synch the tags between CRM and Marketing-Hub / Campaigns?
                                                                                                            • how to see if a specific contact opened an email in zoho campaign?

                                                                                                              how to see if a specific contact opened an email in zoho campaign?
                                                                                                            • Revenue Management: #8 Revenue Recognition in Educational & Training Institutions

                                                                                                              Educational Institutions and training centres typically collect course fees at the time of enrolment, sometimes for a one-day workshop and sometimes for a year-long certification course. You might also charge separately for course materials or evaluation.
                                                                                                            • How to Customize Task Creation to Send a Custom Alert Using JavaScript in Zoho CRM?

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho CRM Community, I’m looking to customize Zoho CRM to send a custom alert whenever a task is created. I understand that Zoho CRM supports client scripts using JavaScript, and I would like to leverage this feature to implement the alert functionality.
                                                                                                            • how to use validation rules in subform

                                                                                                              Is it possible to use validation rules for subforms? I tried the following code: entityMap = crmAPIRequest.toMap().get("record"); sum = 0; direct_billing = entityMap.get("direct_billing_details"); response = Map(); for each i in direct_billing { if(i.get("type")
                                                                                                            • Using files from Zoho CRM in Gemini/ChatGPT/Claude

                                                                                                              Hi all, I’ve got subscriptions to Gemini and a few other AI tools which I use for tasks like data enrichment, email composition, etc. In our workflow, we often receive various documents from clients — such as process workflows, BRDs/requirement documents
                                                                                                            • Enhancements to the formula field in Zoho CRM: Auto-refresh formulas with the "Now" function, stop formula executions based on criteria, and include formulas within formulas

                                                                                                              Dear Customers, We hope you're well! By their nature, modern businesses rely every day on computations, whether it's to calculate the price of a product, assess ROI, evaluate the lifetime value of a customer, or even determine the age of a record. With
                                                                                                            • Maximum file limit in zoho people LMS

                                                                                                              Dear Team, I am having approximately 4.9 GB of material, including PPTs and videos for uploading in zoho people LMS course. May I know what is the maximum limit limit for the course files Thanking you, With regards, Logeswar V Executive _ Operations
                                                                                                            • Dynamically prefill ticket fields

                                                                                                              Hello, I am using Zoho Desk to collect tickets of our clients about orders they placed on our website. I would like to be able to prefill two tickets fields dynamically, in this case a readonly field for the order id, and a hidden field for the seller
                                                                                                            • Optimize your Knowledge Base for better visibility by allowing search engine crawling and indexing

                                                                                                              All you need to know about no-follow and no-index in KB. What are article crawlability and indexability? Crawlability and indexability are vital for making an article visible and accessible to search engines. When a search engine crawls an article, it
                                                                                                            • Has anyone created a public ASAP Guide that I can check out?

                                                                                                              I am thinking of adding an ASAP guide to my web application, but I have noticed that the ASAP widget itself can be really slow to load sometimes. Has anyone created a public ASAP Guide that I can check to see how performant it is? I don't want to spend
                                                                                                            • Zoho Desk Partners with Microsoft's M365 Copilot for seamless customer service experiences

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Desk users, We are happy to announce that Zoho Desk has partnered with Microsoft's M365 to empower customer service teams with enhanced capabilities and seamless experiences for agents. Microsoft announced their partnership during their keynote
                                                                                                            • What’s New in Zoho Analytics – September 2025

                                                                                                              Hello Users!! In this month’s update, we’re raising the bar across multiple touchpoints, from how you bring in data, plan and track projects to how you design and brand your dashboards. We’ve added the all-new Gantt chart for project visualization, expanded
                                                                                                            • Zoho MCP has no tools for Creator or 3rd Party Apps?

                                                                                                              I don't see a Zoho MCP community forum so putting this here. Two big problems I see: 1) Although Zoho advertises "over 950 3rd party apps" as available through their MCP, when I go to "Add Tools" there are ZERO 3rd party apps available to choose from.
                                                                                                            • Zoho Forms - Zoho Drive connection - Shared Drives not supported

                                                                                                              Hello i am stuck with Google Drive Connection There is no supported shared drives Connection is not support shared drives boolean Query Parameters - supportsAllDrives=true&supportsTeamDrives=true to activate fetch files from the shared drives. Ahat need
                                                                                                            • Can't create package until Bill created?

                                                                                                              I can't understand why we cannot create a package until a Bill is created? We are having to created draft Bills to create a package when the item is received, but we may not have received a Bill from the supplier. Also, Bill # is required, but we normally
                                                                                                            • Whats the Time out Limit for API Calls from Deluge?

                                                                                                              Hi Creator Devs, We are making API calls to third party server via Deluge. Getting this error message: Error at line : 24, The task has been terminated since the API call is taking too long to respond. Please try again after sometime. Whats the default
                                                                                                            • How to get the authorization code for domain transfer from Zoho?

                                                                                                              I have transferred my domain from zoho to godaddy, and that needs a authorization code. I haven't got any mail containing that. How to get the authorization code from domain transfer? Thanks, Arun
                                                                                                            • Community Digest Agosto 2025 - Todas las novedades en Español Zoho Community

                                                                                                              ¡Hola, Zoho Community! Agosto llega a su fin y septiembre nos trae aire fresco a la comunidad: más inteligencia con IA, actualizaciones que elevan la productividad y la recta final hacia Zoholics España 2025. Aquí tienes lo más destacado del mes para
                                                                                                            • I have error AS101 when I try to add paypal@mydomain.com to Zoho

                                                                                                              Please help me with this. I tried to call the help line 4 times but don't get any response.
                                                                                                            • Tip #3: How to change your booking page language

                                                                                                              Displaying your booking page in your target audience's language can greatly increase customer satisfaction. By speaking their language, you will help customers feel more comfortable scheduling with you and create a stronger connection with them. Let's
                                                                                                            • How can I optimize a Zoho Site page for SEO when embedding external menu or restaurant links?

                                                                                                              Hi everyone, I’m experimenting with building small content hubs on Zoho Sites and want to make sure I’m doing it in an SEO-friendly way. For example, I tried creating a page that highlights restaurant menu items and linked out to a resource like this:
                                                                                                            • Diff signature for compose new email and replies

                                                                                                              Hi,   How do i have different signature for replies and new emails. its inconvenient to have one large signature for replies. Usually on Outlook we have the option to keep separate signatures for new emails and for replies.
                                                                                                            • Zoho Website Site Speed Up & Setting

                                                                                                              We are experiencing slow loading speeds on our Zoho website and would like assistance in optimizing its performance. Kindly review the site and suggest or implement necessary improvements to enhance speed, especially related to: > Caching mechanisms >
                                                                                                            • Clickjacking: Zoho Vault's Response

                                                                                                              Issue: Password manager browser extensions are found to be vulnerable to clickjacking security vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to steal account credentials, TFA codes, and card details under certain conditions. Reported by: Marek Toth, Independent
                                                                                                            • Refund

                                                                                                              Hi There, Please refund me asap possible, because of no support given. Thank you
                                                                                                            • No option for pick up in Zoho Books / Inventory but yes on commerce

                                                                                                              Is it planned to release soon on books/inventory?
                                                                                                            • Accessing Zoho form enteries via API

                                                                                                              Hi As a user I can view enteries to a form at: https://forms.zoho.com/<myOrganisation>/report/<myReportName>/records/web How do I access these entries via API? I don't have any problem with scope and getting tokens. But I have no idea what the API call
                                                                                                            • Zoho Books - France

                                                                                                              L’équipe de Zoho France reçoit régulièrement des questions sur la conformité de ses applications de finances (Zoho Books/ Zoho Invoice) pour le marché français. Voici quelques points pour clarifier la question : Zoho Books est un logiciel de comptabilité
                                                                                                            • Blueprint Issue - Being able to set a subform field as mandatory

                                                                                                              I'm creating a blueprint. My record involves a subform which is only shown once field is set but the field gets set in step two of the process. My problem - I can't save the record as the subform field is set to mandatory - If I unset the mandatory field,
                                                                                                            • Blueprint - Mandatory file upload field

                                                                                                              Hi, File upload (as we as image upload) field cannot be set as mandatory during a blueprint transition. Is there a workaround? Setting attachments as mandatory doesn't solve this need as we have no control over which attachments are added, nor can we
                                                                                                            • Zoho Books - Include Quote Status in Workflow Field Triggers

                                                                                                              Hi Zoho Books team, I recently tried to create a Workflow rule based on when a Quote is Accepted by the customer. This is something which I thought would be very easy to do, however I discovered that Status is not listed as a field which can be monitored
                                                                                                            • Zoho Books - Show Related Sales Orders on Quotes

                                                                                                              Hi Books team, I've noticed that the Quotes don't show show the related Sales Order. My feature request is to also show related Sales Orders above the Quote so it's easy to follow the thread of records in the sales and fulfilment process. Below screenshot
                                                                                                            • Add VAT/Tax line to bank adjustments

                                                                                                              When categorising transactions and matching bank feeds with transactions such as customer payments, we use the "Add Adjustment" to add things like fees/bank fees. It would be useful to choose a VAT/Tax rate here. Whilst there is a bank charges option when adding a payment, this goes into the default bank charges account. We use the adjustments so that we can choose the account and separate our fees. We use different card providers and Worldpay charges VAT so we are stuck. We cannot integrate with
                                                                                                            • New Menu Layout Feedback

                                                                                                              I'd really like to see the banking item back on the top of the menu. I'm sure part of it is just because that's what I'm accustomed to. However, for a bookkeeping program, I think there's a logic to having banking be on top. Not a giant issue, but something
                                                                                                            • How to use Rollup Summary in a Formula Field?

                                                                                                              I created a Rollup Summary (Decimal) field in my module, and it shows values correctly. When I try to reference it in a Formula Field (e.g. ${Deals.Partners_Requested} - ${Deals.Partners_Paid}), I get the error that the field can’t be found. Is it possible
                                                                                                            • Form Accessibility

                                                                                                              Hi, is there an update on the accessibility standard of Zoho forms? Are the forms WCAG 2.1 AA compliant? 
                                                                                                            • Cannot schedule report delivery

                                                                                                              The only 'send option' available when exporting reports is 'immediately' The option to schedule the report is missing.
                                                                                                            • adding attachment in sendmail script where attachment is in a CRM field

                                                                                                              Hi all, I have a custom field of type 'File Upload' in one of my modules in my CRM. I want to include the file in that field as an attachment to an email - which is done from a button on  the 'Results' module. I have created a script and a button to initiate an email from that module. The Deluge scripting window has allowed me to add arguments for all the fields I need to use except for the one file upload type field. My script currently looks like the below (content of the email omitted). As you
                                                                                                            • [Free Webinar] Learning Table Series - AI-Enhanced Insurance Claim Management in Zoho Creator

                                                                                                              Hello Everyone! We’re excited to invite you to another edition of Learning Table Series, where we showcase how Zoho Creator empowers industries with innovative and automated solutions. Struggling with lengthy claim processes, a lack of visibility into
                                                                                                            • Next Page