Use Form Publisher to be able to save your form's data in a PDF document for each submission. That will let you transform your Google Form into a PDF generator.
You will have control over the PDF through a document that you will use as a template for the generation, and you will even be able to send those generated PDF to some specified email addresses, and even the form respondent.
Below are the step-by-step instructions with the corresponding explanations to guide you through Form Publisher.
1. Create a Google Form
Go to Google Forms, and create a form. The form will be generated empty.
From that point, if you already have the template document that you wish to generate as a PDF through the form, you can start creating questions in your form for each field of the PDF that you want to be dynamical. And if you don't, you can create a question for each info that you wish to display in the output PDF.
2. Build your form
So, for example, if we want our form to create a Purchase order in PDF, we have to create a question for each field that will be dynamical in the document.
So our Google Form looks like that:
3. Create your template
Suppose the document that you wish to generate is a Word, Excel, PowerPoint document. In that case, you can convert them to Google Doc, Sheet or slide by uploading them to the Drive then click open with Doc/Sheet/Slide this will generate a version of the document compatible with Google Drive.
If the only copy of the document that you wish to generate is a PDF, you will have to reproduce the document in a Google Spreadsheet or a Google Doc or Google Slide.
To help you to get started with your template, you can use those examples as a base for Docs, Sheet and Slide.
So now to configure a template that will work with Form Publisher, we need to replace the current data of the field that we want to be dynamical with Form Publisher markers. Markers are really simple to implement: title of the question in the Google Form inside "<< >>". So, for example, the marker for the question Plan purchased will be <<Plan purchased>>.
4. Open Form Publisher
Click on the add-on menu icon, then Form Publisher and Get started.
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5. Configure Form Publisher as PDF Generator
So now you can specify that you already have your template document. Click Select template and then select it in the picker.
Then you can check that all the marker that you use in your template are matching with questions from the form. You can also edit the date format, or the way checkboxes' answers will be displayed.
Then select the naming convention of the generated PDF and choose to save the PDF in the output folder. You can also decide to change the output folder.
And in the end, select who will receive the PDF file by emails.
6. Test your form to PDF configuration
You can try to submit the form to see how Form Publisher works.
As we configured sharing option of Form Publisher, the email submitted in <<Company email>> (here bob.fordemos@gmail.com) and alice@form-publisher.com will receive the generated PDF.
If you go back to your form and click on In drive from the sidebar, you will find the generated PDF, and any new file generations will also be stored in this Drive folder.
Comments
20 comments
Is there a way to save pdfs only and not the google doc?
Hi,
@Systems Sorry but this is not possible.
This is kind of working for us, but need some help:
1. Person submits Google docs form
2. Goodle docs generates pdf
3. Form Pubisher sends form to internal email address
4. But Form publisher only sends link to original person who completed the form, not a pdf
5. How can I make FormPublisher return a pdf??
Hi,
Is it possible for you to contact the support, as if you follow this tutorial you should be able to notify people with the pdf file. Please contact support@form-publisher.com.
Hi. Is there any possibility to generate PDF output in landscape? I have my template in Sheets and it prints fine from within the sheets (in landscape) but when the PDF is generated, it outputs that template in portrait mode.
Hi,
Unfortunately, this is not possible with Form Publisher for the moment.
Is there a way to change the margins on the PDF? The font is very small when I print it.
Hi,
For the moment, this is not possible, the .pdf is printed with the basic Google configuration.
Form Publisher is only picking up one record at a time. What am I doing wrong?
Hi,
Form Publisher only process one form submission at a time and generate a document for each one of them.
Hi,
Great add-on! However, I'm looking for the option to have all attachments of the form in a pdf. So a respondent fills out the form and uploads images. When the form is submitted, I want to receive an email of the submission with a pdf, with the filled out form and the attached images.
Is this possible?
Kind regards
Hi,
Yes you can follow this article to insert images in your template.
Hi,
how to set the form publisher to output pdf
only the values that were filled in the forms.
Hi.
It says "1 Question(s) not in template"
There's no marker in your template matching those questions
But then it doesn't display what question exactly?
@frantisek nosal You can do that with a spreadsheet template and some formulas.
@Ruchi Is it possible that you have a question with no title in your form ?
How often/quickly does the add-on create and send a PDF. I am testing the creation process and noted that it had been several hours since a form submission and had not received the PDF, but when I "regenerated" files, it was immediate.
The output pdf has grid lines (sheets) shown but the default option on the template is to not print grid lines. Is there a setting I have missed?
Is it possible to publish a form if the form has already been completed. Can I generate the response email afterwards?
Hi,
@Sammi Gallagher: The file generation can take up to 5 minutes. If the file is not generated then, their was an issue. Could you contact support@form-publisher.com so that we can investigate ?
@Daniel Bishop: This is not currently possible in Form Publisher.
@Xena Cupido: You can do it if Form Publisher was installed before the form submission.
Is there any way to generate pdf with fill-able text field?
Suppose, I want to add my notes and reference numbers later on that pdf file?
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