What are Results Docs?
Results Docs populate custom PDF or DOCX files with information from your form.
Requirements
The Results Docs feature requires a Pro 2 level or higher Formsite account.
To create custom PDFs, you'll need a PDF editor, such as Acrobat or Adobe Experience Manager Forms (formerly LiveCycle Designer). To create custom DOCX files, you'll need a DOCX editor such as Microsoft Word, Wordpad, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, or Google Docs.
Create a New Results Doc
To get started, upload your PDF or DOCX template file to your account from your account's "Files & Images" page. If you do not already have a template file, you can create one based on your form by going to the "Results Docs" page, clicking the "Generate template" link, selecting the template file options, and saving the output. You can then edit the template file as you would like and upload it to your account as noted above.
Next, on your form's "Results Docs" page, click the "New" button and give your Results Doc a unique name. Then, select a PDF or DOCX template file and map each form item to a field. If you select a template file that was generated by our system, it will attempt to automatically map the fields for you, even if you edit the formatting and style of the file. When you're finished with the mappings, click the "Save" button.
After you have a saved Results Doc, you can use it in Notifications, Exports, or Scheduled Exports.
Edit or Delete an Existing Results Doc
On your form's "Results Docs" page, use the list on the left to select a Results Doc. Modify any settings. When you're finished, click the "Save" button. To delete the Results Doc, click the "Delete" button.
Note: Deleting a Results Doc doesn't delete the PDF or DOCX file it was using.
PDF Files
PDF files need to contain fillable PDF fields, which are like the PDF equivalent of input fields in online forms. PDF fields are the only spots in the PDF that can accept form information. There's not a way to add or modify content outside of fields.
To get started, you can: use the "Generate template" option to generate a template PDF file based on your form, create a new PDF file from scratch in a PDF editor, or use an existing PDF file you already have.
Results Docs using a PDF template have an optional "Flatten" setting. This turns the outputted PDF into a read-only PDF file. When Flattening is disabled, the output file will be preserved as a PDF form that can be modified.
A few form item types have special requirements or behaviors:
- For Radio Button item types, your PDF field values must exactly match your Radio Button choices. For example, if your PDF has radio buttons with "yes" and "no" values then the Radio Button item on your form must also have "yes" and "no". If the values are even slightly different, like "yes, I agree" instead of "yes", the PDF won't accept it.
- For Signature item types, you must have a text field in your PDF. The Signature image will be drawn inside the dimensions of the text field. A Multi-line text field is recommended.
- For File Upload item types, you must have a text field in your PDF. A link to the file will be stored in the text field. Due to the wide variety of files types a form user could upload (documents, images, videos, music, etc.), it's not currently possible to store the actual file inside the PDF.
DOCX Files
To get started quickly, use the "Generate template" option on the Results Docs page and select DOCX as the type to have a template file created for you based on your form. You can then edit this as you would like, upload it to your account, and setup the mappings. You can also create your DOCX file from scratch in an editor of your choosing or adapt an existing DOCX file that you may have already. Note that a DOCX (or .docx) file is required. Results Docs will not be able to process .doc, .txt, or .odt files.
DOCX files only need to contain item placeholder codes in the correct format. The format is "{{text}}", where "text" can be any alphanumeric value. The main requirement is the surrounding "{{" and "}}" characters. Our default item mapping codes use the format "{{item_idX}}", where "X" refers to the item's ID.
When the Results Doc is processed, it will replace the item placeholder codes in the template file with the matching values from the result, similar to a Mail Merge. For File Upload items, it will insert clickable links to the user's uploaded files. For Signature items, it will insert the image of the user's signature at the location of the item placeholder code.
Acrobat and Adobe Experience Manager Forms
There are two popular Adobe PDF editors: Acrobat (Standard or Pro) and Adobe Experience Manager Forms.
Acrobat provides the simplest way to edit PDFs and add fields. Edit text using the "Tools -> Edit PDF -> Edit" menu option, or "Tools -> Advanced Editing -> TouchUp Text Tool", depending on which version of Acrobat you have. Switch to field editing mode using the "Tools -> Prepare Form", or "Forms -> Add or Edit Fields...", menu option. When you're finished, click the "Close Form Editing" button and save the PDF file.
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Forms, formerly LiveCycle Designer, is a more advanced editor with more features. If you're importing an existing PDF, it's best to use the import option "Create an Interactive Form with a Flowable Layout". Flowable layouts allow you to edit text along with everything else, otherwise text will appear embedded into the page background and won't be easy to work with. When you're finished, save the PDF file.
Many other PDF editors are available and our PDF features should be compatible with any editor that fully follows PDF specifications. However, due to the wide range of editors that exist, we can't offer the same level of support with them as we can for Acrobat and LiveCycle Designer.
Additional Information
Results Docs are form-specific, there isn't a way to use information from multiple forms in the same Results Doc. When you copy a form, its Results Docs will be copied along with it.
