Formstack Documents is an incredibly flexible way to generate professional, dynamic documents with data collected or housed in the systems you use every day. You can upload an existing template in the form of a fillable PDF or Microsoft Document or get started by building a document from scratch in our Documents builder.
We offer three ways to build your documents. For highly technical documents users, you can feel free to get as custom as you’d like in our Advanced Editor which allows you to use HTML to create and design your documents. If you’ve been a longtime Documents user, you may be familiar with our “Classic Editor” which uses formatted merge fields like {$name} to capture information.
If you’re a fan of no-code software, you’ll probably like our drag-and-drop builder best. This builder incorporates Formstack’s iconic drag-and-drop functionality to allow you to quickly and easily build the documents you need. In this document, we’ll walk you through how it works.
Step 1: Create Your Document
Begin as you normally would by selecting New Document on the top right and giving your document a title.
Then choose “Build from scratch" or "Use AI Assistant". The AI Assistant option will ask for you to write a description/prompt to create a template based on your use case. If you don't see the AI Assistant option and would like to enable it, check out this article. If you need some help with understanding how you should write your prompt, check out this article for more information.
If you’re building from scratch and want to use Formstack’s Drag & Drop Builder, select the HTML (Classic Editor) document format.
Step 2: Drag-and-Drop Fields onto Your Document
Use the Insert dropdown to add a list of fields you will need on your form. Select the Insert drop down and choose Merge Fields. Give each merge field a name.
Once you’ve added the merge fields that you need in your document. You can use the section of existing merge fields on the right hand side of your document to repeatedly add fields to your document as needed.
Please note - It's still possible to manually write your Merge Field. The format for a Merge Field is {$fieldName} - and you will want to make sure not to start the field name with a number or have any spaces. When you close the field with a curly bracket, it will automatically change the format into a pill shaped merge field with the name of the field on it.
Here are a few examples of acceptable fields:
- {$name}
- {$EmailAddress}
- {$Home_Phone}
Here are a few examples that are NOT acceptable
- {$1stName}
- {$email address}
- {$1234}
- {$phone-number}
Step 3: Add Modifiers to Your Merge Fields
Formstack Documents allows users to add modifiers to their merge fields as a way to format the data that is sent to their document. For example, if you have created a document that includes numeric merge fields, but the data comes through without the pretty, formatted numbers that include commas to separate the thousands, you can use modifiers to fix that!
You can add a modifier to your merge field by selecting the field in your document and choosing a modifier from the library or set up a custom modifier.
Want to add custom modifiers to your document? Check out this help article to learn more how you can set them up!
(Optional)Step 4: Add Images and Logos to Your Document
Use the Image icon to upload any images or logos you’d like to add to your document.
You can easily format your image to change the alignment, add a caption, resize, or add a shadow or border.
Optional: Switch to Text Mode
By default, the builder will display in drag-and-drop mode, meaning Merge Fields will be presented in a pill format. If you prefer building or viewing templates in text mode, you can click the "T" icon in the toolbar to toggle text mode on/off as shown below.
Before
After
Our updated Formstack Documents builder is quicker and easier to use, so you can start automating your most important workflows!
Optional: Delivery Options
Once you've finished with setting up your document template, you'll want to potentially decide on the destination for the document itself. Formstack Documents has several different delivery options available, from sending the document via email to including it on your CRM of choice like Salesforce - there are a ton of options to consider. For a full list, check out our dedication section on how to setup deliveries here.
FAQ:
Q: What are the supported export formats for Documents that are built with Formstacks Drag & Drop builder?
A: For our native document builder we can output to: pdf, docx, xlsx, html, xml, email, jpg, text/advanced (which lets you specify the extension). These output options can be found out under the settings tab for your document.