Wowing with the Document Designer
in progress
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Jami Morris
Some of these may be repeats but here are some suggestions for the very promising Document Designer:
- Drag and drop fields to desired location
- Option to include title of field when placing on the page layout
- Undo option
- Margins around page breaks are not working
- Set right and left margins
- Allow emojis in text fields
- Ability to mass edit similar element and field settings
- View interactive document within SmartSuite instead of creating a PDF
- Create sections that are collapsible and able to be anchored to each other
- Ability to anchor fields and elements within a section so that the anchor choices are smaller
- Add Headers, Footers, page numbers
- Format text fields as Title, Heading 1, Heading 2, etc
- Ability to add Table of Contents
- Add option for Logo like on forms
- Ability to add a table
- Ability to resize columns in linked record table
- Ability to add grid lines to linked record table
- If table is split between pages, restate the heading columns in the top row of the table on the next page
- Linked record fields split at page break but not Lookup fields
- Linked records should be clickable hyperlinks in doc
- Pageless option
Looking forward to seeing what's released next for this feature!
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James Malin
If this is already stuff that is in process, it would be great to have some additional features added to image/file distribution as well.
In SmartSuite, this would just be basic image manipulation functionality (resize, reposition, aspect ratio) for an uploaded image, rather than just a linked URL (i.e. already hosted somewhere on the web with the exact aspect ratio).
Alex Stoica
Ability to export as a GIF the custom document designer per record.
Our scenario would be to also attach in the email automations a personalised gif with the client name on it and a custom mesage.
Jaya Phillips
yes!!
lorenzo
A key feature I find missing in the document designer is the ability to dynamically display elements based on conditions, possibly on section level. For example, when generating a document from a form submission where certain fields are conditionally revealed based on a checkbox value, I'd prefer to exclude labels with empty values in the final PDF. It would be ideal to (in this specific example) create a section that is only visible if that one checkbox (yes/no field) is checked. Additionally, for the section functionality, having control over whether sections overlap page breaks or remain on the same page would be incredibly useful!
Peter Novosel
Jami,
I wanted to update you on the status of a few of these (really useful!) enhancement requests:
WORK AROUND
* Add option for Logo like on forms - We have added an "Image" page element, that can be specified independently from record data and positioned as you like on the page.
IMPLEMENTED
* Margins around page breaks are not working - The settings configuration screen supports a "Page Break Margin" value that will place space before and after a page break. In my testing it looks like it may be a little finicky with the spacing on the next page, so we'll continue to look into it to see if we can tweak that setting.
* Allow emojis in text fields - You can display emojis that are included in SmartSuite field text, and additionally can paste emojis into text elements. We still need to develop a better UI that would allow you to select a new emoji while editing a text element.
* Ability to resize columns in linked record table - Columns can now be allocated more space by increasing the number displayed to the right of the column name. Space is allocated proportionally, so if you have columns like this:
Column A: 2 <-- Gets half of the horizontal space
Column B: 1 <-- 25% of the space
Column C: 1 <-- Also 25%
We'll continue to update this feature request as we make additional progress here.
Alex Stoica
Peter Novosel Can we also have the option to add GIFs and export as GIF the document designer file?
Jon Darbyshire
in progress
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Sarah Humphries
Jon Darbyshire will this include the ability to upload a logo to the document rather than just entering a URL? Current option of URL doesn't work and have been given no workable solution from support.
Nate Montgomery @ SmartSuite
Merged in a post:
Feedback on Beta Document Designer
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Jeff Eusebio
Overall, feels like an early build. Glad to have it though! Functional, but rough. Feedback:
1. Allow drag and drop of fields from the left-hand side to exactly where I want them on the sheet.
2. When dragging a variable field, automatically add the field title to the left of the field name. It's easier for me to delete that then add that manually every time, and I think most people would want their fields labeled most of the time.
3. In conjunction with a above, if I could select all fields, drag all to the document, have them all labeled automatically, then move them around, that would save me a ton of time.
4. Then, use an AI to lay out the page in an attractive manner. 😊
5. Allow me to more easily select and change attributes of fields in a group. Currently if I lasso select multiple fields, I can’t change any of their properties.
6. When using shapes, allow bring to front or send to back.
7. Let me click on a label and change the text right there rather than having to change the text in the left hand pane.
8. Need support for Page headers and footers including page numbers
9. Multi-page forms need better support for repeating fields like title.
10. Currently, non-solutions managers have security permissions to update the form. Is this by design?
11. The default save should be back to the record. Right now it's not even possible save the PDF back to the record.
Brian Dollen
André Zijlstra
And: sorting linked records in a table (invoices!)
Jon Darbyshire
Hiya Jami Morris, thanks for this post! I have a few more questions for you:
- Can you provide more details on how you envision the 'mass edit similar element and field settings' feature to work?
- Could you elaborate on the 'pageless option' - what functionality would this provide and how would it improve your experience with the Document Designer?
- Can you provide examples of when and how you would use the 'ability to anchor fields and elements within a section' feature?
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Jami Morris
Hi Jon Darbyshire,
- I'd like to be able to drag and select multiple items on the page layout using my mouse and then change the font, font size, alignment, etc. for all highlighted items.
- Google docs has a pageless option (https://support.google.com/docs/thread/150905607/google-docs-new-feature-pageless?hl=en) - it's good for items that don't need to actually be printed, just viewed. It also works well with collapsible headings/sections.
- When anchoring an item, the entire list of items on a page are listed and can get confusing as to which I need as the anchor, especially the Text items. It'd be nice if we can create a section with a border option and anchor to the section, then we can anchor the sections to each other. This may just be user error but placing and anchoring items took me quite a while to complete.
I'd also like to suggest offering wrap text options for fields: overflow, wrap, clip. Thank you!
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Martin Lis
Jami Morris I would like to say that I completely agree and that the Document Designer cannot be used as it is now. As soon as entries from the records are added to the document, the text overlaps between the pages.
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