Save MS Forms response to PDF (quick & easy)

[@AndrewNumptyPants]

That is awesome - now to combine it with my holiday request test form ;P

[@jaredwaterman5868]

This is supper useful and a great instruction video. Though, I noted one issue: After converting/saving HTML file to OneDrive, we're missing a connector to create/save the file as PDF to SharePoint, as the SharePoint step to create file asks for the site address, while the FOLDER PATH won't allow me to find my OneDrive folder w/ html converted file. I tried the dynamic path content "path to file" from the previous html conversion step noting this failed. I placed the OneDrive file path directly into the step which causes a "retry" noting the flow cannot continue. Any idea how to access the OneDrive html file/folder when using the SharePoint create file action step - as the linking the two appears missing?

[@cvkealey]

The "path to file" dynamic content will only work if the file is stored in SharePoint itself; you'll need to use the "Get file content" action first to get the file from OneDrive and then pass it as the "File Content" input to the "Create file" action in SharePoint.

[@unremedio]

Hi Chad me again, another thing I was trying to do earlier was converting the time formats as you did in this video but as I'm in gmt London 0.00 I couldn't convert to same time zone as was getting null error. As I didn't think I could set the date to be converted to a different time zone say utc.01;00 then convert to 0:00 London my time? Or what the work around could be. All dates will be in London time so I don't need the date converting as such but changing it for different uses as you have seemed very useful. Thanks again in advance

[@cvkealey]

So, you just want to format the date/time? The formatDateTime expression will do that. See learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/power-platform/power-automate/how-to-customize-or-format-date-and-time-values-in-flow

[@unremedio]

Thanks Chadbut which action would i select if i wanted to: - formatDateTime(submission time) - of a submitted form. It doesn't specify in that thread.

[@cvkealey]

@@unremedio either use a Compose action (if you want to use that value in multiple places) or just put that formula into the field where you want to use it. See this page for more details: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/power-platform/power-automate/how-to-customize-or-format-date-and-time-values-in-flow

[@AdrianRowe-e7c]

Hi Chad. Thanks for posting this video. Q: Can you only include the Response ID in the Compose file name? I've tried including dynamic content items like first name, last name but they never come through in the file name of the PDF file.

[@cvkealey]

Assuming you're using the "Get response details" action, you should be able to use any of the outputs of that to name the file. Basically, you can name the file whatever you'd like with the exception of illegal characters (for example things like /).

[@GOAT-rl2uq]

Hey man - seems like no matter what I do, the PDF at the end comes out as corrupted or something. Everything just says "could not open this file". Also shows the PDF as being about 8kb in size, so it's as if it's unable to read the contents of the forms response?

[@cvkealey]

Did you look at a completed flow run to verify that the response data is actually showing up and the body of the file is being populated?

[@GOAT-rl2uq]

@@cvkealey I did, but I was drawing the data from the wrong phase... thanks! Works now.

[@jemtl]

Thanks for great video. Any solution on how to get the created pdf sent as an attachment on mail in the same process?

[@cvkealey]

To send an email with an attachment, you need a filename and file content, both of which you already have in this flow as outputs of the "convert file" action.

[@JeremyWhitehill]

Chad, Great video and saved me tons of time. Almost everything is working great except for word wrapping on the PDF. I am creating the PDF in SharePoint and the long text responses were not displaying correct spacing so I added dynamicconent and that fixed the spacing between paragraphs but I am not getting the wrapping, the text just runs off the side of the page. Any Ideas?

[@cvkealey]

The basic idea here is to compose the document in HTML then convert that to PDF. The "" tags are an old hack that the PDF converter probably isn't interpreting as you intend. To see if that's the problem, look at the HTML file that's created. If the text wraps normally there, then it's probably the converter. In that case, you'll need to find a way to format the text (in HTML) that the converter will accept. I kept the HTML very simple for this example, but you'll need to get a little more complicated to build a page layout (for example, using DIVs or Flexbox). Unfortunately, I can't really help you there.

[@JeremyWhitehill]

@@cvkealey Thank you for the update and that gives me a direction to go. For the short term put a table in the html which fixed that problem for now. I appreciate your videos as they are extremely helpful. Have a great weekend.

[@burduni]

I wanted to thank you for taking the time to do this. It has helped me build the necessary flow for a project that I worked on. I do have a question regarding timestamps. One of the requirements that I have is to add the start time (submission time working perfectly) for when the FORM was opened (started). Any tips that I can use to enter that information in the Compose file content in html?

[@cvkealey]

Getting the start time is a little more complicated because it's not included in the "response details" that you can retrieve using the out of the box actions in Power Automate. However, if it's a group form, the response data (including the timestamp for when they started the form) is saved to an Excel file stored in the Documents library of the group's SharePoint team site. It's in a table ("Table1") and the first column holds the "ID" (same as "Response ID" in the flow). So, you could retrieve that row from the table to get the start time. Another option would be to use the MS Forms API to retrieve the data. I haven't actually done that myself, but here's a good video showing some of the interesting things you can do with that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nouuhJKwZ7ammqMsi=icMSncH0t3fsyxnX

[@jamiesolis2886]

Can you show how you made each action in the Power Automate flow?

[@cvkealey]

Unfortunately, if I were to do that, this video would be about 3 times longer. That being said, even though there's nothing particularly complicated in this flow, I wouldn't recommend it as anyone's first attempt at building a flow. I'd suggest checking out these templates to get a basic understanding of how flows triggered by forms work: make.powerautomate.com/environments/Default-4d4d7db2-9030-4a44-8015-1661ca9c740b/galleries/public/templates/19f79910d8da440981811b9f8e43ffcc/send-an-email-to-responder-when-response-submitted-in-microsoft-forms make.powerautomate.com/environments/Default-4d4d7db2-9030-4a44-8015-1661ca9c740b/galleries/public/templates/2be590104bdd11e78896d10a96d3fac3/record-form-responses-in-sharepoint

[@Y.T-cb9dc]

Great video! I had a quick question. Is there a way to have the questions come up exactly as they are in the form without having to type in manually when making the html? I have an extensive form that has many questions and was wondering if there was a way to simplify that step. Thank you

[@cvkealey]

Unfortunately, no.

[@meghanavinesh5499]

Hi Chad - I was able to successfully create PDF from Microsoft Forms using my OneDrive and Sharepoint List for storing teh PDF and Form attachment. How is the same process if this form is being accessed by many users in Sharepoint page after embed. They cannot access my OneDrive. Please help.

[@jamesluc4138]

Hi Chad. Have you ever experienced a problem where you edit columns in grid view but the data does update when exiting grid view?

[@cvkealey]

Not recently. Occasionally it takes a page refresh to see recent changes, but that's about it.

[@jamesluc4138]

@cvkealey I think I might have some syncing issues now have a validation error. Back to thr drawing board

[@cvkealey]

@@jamesluc4138 oh, I've seen some weirdness with the whole list syncing thing, especially with date and time columns. Whenever that happens, I just open the list settings > advanced settings and turn off the sync to client apps option.

[@jamesluc4138]

@cvkealey the only option I have like that is allow offline sync? Maybe I need to contact IT for permissions

[@cvkealey]

@@jamesluc4138 yes, that's the one you might want to set to No (to see if it eliminates the issue you're seeing).

[@testforall555]

Pardon my ignorance and i am not that expert in coding or power automate but is that possible that form responses be transfered or converted to a table in word. If yes and you have some free time, kindly show it. Mohamed

[@cvkealey]

Yes. The easy way is to use the premium Word connector, but with a bit more work, you can do it without that. See this video for more details: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5ubhHyffK-FpMU (not my video, but it's very well done).

[@testforall555]

@@cvkealey Thank you very much. Mohamed

[@technopedagogie4551]

Thank you! How could one then send this pdf via email? I seem to be unable to choose the correct parameters via Send an email (V2)

[@cvkealey]

To include an attachment on an email (those actions that support attachments), you need to provide the file name and content. You should be able to get both of those from the "create file" or "convert to PDF" actions.

[@simplestblue]

Hi Chad, how can I save MS forms response that has upload option for files like JPG, PDF, DOC, BMP while saving form to PDF, what will happen to the uploaded file in the form?

[@cvkealey]

The files that are uploaded go to either OneDrive or SharePoint, depending on the form ownership (personal or group). See this playlist for more information: kzbin.info/aero/PLMVyjgrWIGnwQowO2RsvHg0pZ8EozvAG- I personally have not done this, but I know it's technically possible to include some of those file types (images, for example) in that PDF (see kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmmUimenj5Wlabs). For other file types (Word, Excel, etc.), it would be more complicated. I would probably just add links to them in the PDF.

[@vishalkonnur6915]

Love it. Thank you very much !

[@TatianaDiaz1]

How do I make multiple options from a checklist appear correctly? Instead of option 1, option 2, option 5 appears in the pdf ["option 1","option 2","option 5"]

[@cvkealey]

They're technically an array of data, so you need to work with them as such. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z3-wlZ2DYr6Bosk

[@mannykhan7752]

Wow this helped me so much. Thank a lot!!🙂

[@katemccaskill]

How do I keep the appearance in tact?

[@cvkealey]

Well, you don't really. If you know HTML, you can make it look like whatever you want. I guess technically you could mimic the style of the form itself, but you'd have to recreate it in HTML.

[@marcuspetersen5148]

You should show how to create the .html file

[@cvkealey]

I do. It starts right around 7:20 with creating the filename with a .HTML extension and then crafting the content using some (very) basic HTML tags. This isn't meant to be a tutorial on HTML - there are lots of those out there. I recommend starting at the w3schools website.

[@drloomac]

At the end you say not to use the compose file content output that was used in the prior step but you don't explain what is supposed to be used for file content. I'm STUCK!!!

[@cvkealey]

You use the File Content output of the Convert file action.

[@nikkihope88]

Yeah - this is neither quick nor easy UNLESS you already know how to save a Microsoft 360 form in HTML format and edit where the form is being saved to, and how to create a Power Automate flow.....

[@cvkealey]

They're relative terms. There are other methods and, as is mentioned in the description this "probably the simplest" way I've found to do it. If you're going to work with Power Automate, knowing a little HTML (basic stuff like paragraph and line break tags) helps a lot, especially when formatting email messages.

[@nikkihope88]

@@cvkealey Ah thanks replying. I'm so out of my depth here! but trying to learn more all the time