Introduction
Ultimate Forms' Print component allows you to print out and export your SharePoint list items in the layout and format of your own design. This helps you create and distribute documents with ease, directly from your SharePoint sites. You can configure one or more print templates and those will serve as the basis for the resulting print-out.
One of the most important features is the ability to generate PDF and MS Word documents. These are two of the most important document formats in the world today.
Word and PDF conversions have been a part of our product for quite some time now. Today we are happy to announce that we are rolling out a number of improvements, some of them based on the direct customer feedback.
Word templates
We thrive to simplify the process of defining the document layout as much as possible. The easiest way for most user is by the way of Word templates. By simply creating a regular Word documents, users are able to create the template. The only difference is that instead of actual values you include SharePoint column names surrounded by double square brackets.
Simply create a regular Word document (.docx file) with your column names placed instead of actual values. Then, when you create a print template, upload the word document into the template. The Print module will then use the template whenever it generates a document:
- On-screen preview and sending directly to the printer
- Export in Word format
- Export in PDF format
- Export in Excel format. In this case we will simply extract the column names from within the Word template and use them to generate an Excel document.
- Send email - the Word document will be generated and then attached to the email in PDF format (or included directly in the email body, it's your choice).
As you can see, using Word as a template is simple and effective, especially for non-technical users. Everyone has at least some experience creating a Word document!
Repeating Sections in Word Templates
When your list contains one or more Associated Items columns, those repeating section can also be added to your Word or PDF output. Simply include the column name in double square brackets, exactly like any other column type.
By default, we will render a simple table inside your Word document. When you prefer to use your own styling, you can create a Word template for that section as well.
Create a Word document with your table formatted just the way you want it. As always, you should include column names surrounded by double square brackets. Just create one row for the values, below the header row. We will reuse that sample row for all data rows.
Then go to your child SharePoint list and create a List print template. Upload your Word template into your print template. It will now be used for including the repeating section when printing the parent item.
Word Document Preview
Our latest release will now use Word templates not just for document generation, but also for preview and for sending directly to the printer.
When you click on your Print button on any SharePoint list or document library, we will check if the print template contains a Word template. If so, we will generate the Word document and then present it on screen. This way you can know for sure how your document is going to look like even before you create it.
PDF Merge
Our latest print template type is PDF Merge. When you use this type, only document and attachments (including regular attachments, document links and Associated documents) are used. The only available output type will be PDF.
The resulting PDF document will contain a merge of all the documents and attachments selected for printing. It can contain attachments from one or more documents or even all all the documents/list items included in the view. The source documents of the following types can be merged:
- Word documents
- Image files: PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP
The resulting document will contain all the source documents placed in the order they appear in the view or in the attachments of the particular item.
Automation
As with almost all the features of Ultimate Forms, you can automate Print with our Actions. When you use our Print list items action, you can specify which items you want to print. You can also specify the sorting rules for the documents to ensure the resulting PDF contains them in the correct order.
You can select any existing Print templates that are shared with all users. Personal print templates will not appear for selection. Note that all print template is by default shared.
When you use a print template of PDF merge type, only documents and attachments are used, as described in the previous section. SharePoint list items with no attachments will be ignored. Also, the output type for these templates is always PDF. Therefore the output type selector is hidden for these templates.
The resulting document can then be automatically emailed, stored in a document library or added as an attachments to the current item. You can specify the file name, which can be dynamic, based on the current item's column values.
Conclusion
Ultimate Forms is an advanced, yet easy to use tool for document generation. You can print your SharePoint lists and export SharePoint data in a variety of formats. It requires no special technical knowledge, so even regular users are able to take advantage of it.
