How to Use Smartsheet Document Builder | Smartsheet Tutorial

[@SchoolofSheets]

Check out the follow up to this video and learn how to automate document generation at the click of a button! ▶ kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHaQgK13dq6maNU

[@donwilcox7919]

Your instruction was great and is going to help me save a ton of time and possible mistakes from manually updating pdf files. Thank you

[@SchoolofSheets]

Thanks for the positive feedback, Don! Glad you will save some time because time is money!!!

[@andreaguillet575]

Great step by step instruction and very helpful! Thank you! Two questions - 1) Is there a way to "wrap text" in the report for fields that might contain lots of data due to multiselect option in my sheet? 2) Is there a way to pull photos into a report?

[@SchoolofSheets]

I believe if you setup the formatting to wrap in the PDF itself it will apply. Same for images, they can populate (this is newer I believe) but you the PDF map needs to be an image field.

[@jamalkhalid]

What type of form field should be used to add symbols from smartsheet? Text doesn't work and makes it appear as text, "Green" instead of a RYG Ball.

[@SchoolofSheets]

This is a limitation. You can get an image into the PDF if you map it correctly, so theoretically you could use a legitimate image instead of the symbol column but then you would need some type of workflow to get the proper image and working with images is pretty limited. There is more info in the community about this below. community.smartsheet.com/discussion/72630/document-builder-insert-images-into-form

[@joshisdriven]

Great video. I was hoping to use this functionality in reverse fashion but based on this I do not think it is possible. I use SS forms to gather data about new projects from my clients... I was hoping to replace SS Forms with fillable PDFs... thinking that since the fields are mapped maybe information could flow bidirectionally... Then set up automation in a "tracker" to say when a new document is submitted create a new row with the mapped data. I'll keep digging but it seems like that is not possible, at least for now. Thanks!

[@SchoolofSheets]

Thanks! I have never looked into that, I imagine it would require the API and some type of webform based PDF that could be converted into Smartsheet columns.

[@GreenHempMathalie]

cool that smart sheets has that option! i’m new to smart sheets does it work in reverse? like customer fills out form then can upload that data into smart sheets? and have the form attached - sorry if that’s a dumb question… just curious is all

[@SchoolofSheets]

Smartsheet is the COOLEST! The reverse is kind of possible. Not exactly as in you cannot literally have a document used to populate data into a Sheet. However, you could create a web form that someone could fill it and this would populate a Sheet. For example, I have one for potential new clients which you can see at schoolofsheets.com/workwithus. In this case, the form itself would not be attached it would just populate a Sheet. You could best accomplish what you are describing by: 1) Having someone fill out a web form to capture the data you want, 2) Having an automation set up to put the information you got into a PDF (shown in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHaQgK13dq6maNU). The end result of this would be a row in a Smartsheet Sheet with a document attached containing the information from your form.

[@GreenHempMathalie]

@@SchoolofSheets thanks so much! and thanks for the quick response!

[@mikeb6824]

I have two fields with large amounts of text in them. Although there is space in the PDF - the data is not making it from the sheet to the PDF. I've taken the "wrap text" step, but that isn't working. Thanks for your time!

[@mikeb6824]

SOLVED! The trouble was within the PDF... While in the "Prepare Form" tool, double-click the (blue) field box you've created. This will bring up a Text Field Properties box and you'll want the "Options" tab. Click on the "Limit of" Characters box and choose a large number. (I picked 1,000). Ta Da!

[@SchoolofSheets]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing and nice detective work.

[@masonherrin6394]

What about fields that may or may not pop up based on the selections within the original sheet? How would you work that into a fillable PDF?

[@SchoolofSheets]

You could create several maps and use the one that is appropriate based on your data. Each map is static though.

[@annieoneil8081]

Why won't a column show up to map? I can't add it into the field because it isn't an option even though it is a column on my spreadsheet. Thanks!

[@SchoolofSheets]

Hi Annie! What kind of column is it? Has it been mapped previously?

[@egyptianqueen4007]

Can you add signatures to a form in smartsheet?

[@SchoolofSheets]

There is a DocuSign workflow for Enterprise customers!

[@claribelreyes9196]

Can I use that form with individual information?

[@claribelreyes9196]

To print them individually

[@SchoolofSheets]

@@claribelreyes9196 If you're asking if you can print the document that get's generated yes you can. If you have a different question can you please describe in more detail what you're trying to accomplish?

[@claribelreyes9196]

Ok, what I mean is if there any way that from the table to generate a individual document with different customer information?

[@SchoolofSheets]

@@claribelreyes9196 Yes! The document that is generated takes the information from an individual row. So if you have a Sheet where each row is a customer, when you make a document for a given row it will populate with the data for that customer.

[@claribelreyes9196]

@@SchoolofSheets Thank you so much for your answers. That help me a lot.