Enable Document Generation into Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or HTML

Marc Shecter

Goal

Generate a document for each row in a Smartsheet. The document needs to accommodate cells with varying amounts of text - from a few words to multiple paragraphs. The fields should expand/contract based on the text length.

Problem

PDF technology doesn't automatically resize fields based on text length. Fixing field size has two downsides:

• Text may get cut off if too lengthy for the field
• Field looks too big if text is short

Potential Solutions

Smartsheet could support output to formats like:

• MS Word - fields auto-adjust size
• Google Docs - fields auto-adjust size
• HTML - text can wrap automatically

This would allow fields to naturally expand/contract based on the amount of text in each cell.

melissa.warren41401

One thing that I found that you can do is go to the Properties of each field in the fillable form in Adobe Acrobat and change the size of the font to Auto in the Appearance tab and you can also select the Options tab and select multi-line. This is how I've been able to fit more text in each field.

Mounika

Hi @Marc Shecter

• Could you please help how to generate a word document (MS Word - fields auto-adjust size) with the feature that you have mentioned? I need to generate a document that needs to accommodate cells with varying amounts of text - from a few words to multiple paragraphs. Do I need any third-party apps to do this?

Thanks, Mounika!

Marc Shecter

Hi @Mounika -- I'm sorry, but I can't help you. My post above is a request for an enhancement to Smartsheet to enable to do what you are asking for.

Mounika

No problem @Marc Shecter . Thank you for the prompt response.

Are you aware of any other tool that would support this type of document generation? Like ODK, Redcap, Qualtrics etc?

Marc Shecter

Hi @Mounika -- I'm not.

Mounika

Thank you @Marc Shecter

shall

Power Apps I believe has expandable controls (label control I think) that can expand based on content. Power Apps has a connector to Smartsheet I believe.

Shannon Heward

The document builder is great, but it would be even better if you could generate a Word document, in addition to PDF and sending via DocuSign.

Yukiko

Currently, we are aiming to use document generation function. However at this moment, only fillable PDF format is allowed to generate document. Since some documents are preferable to be generated in Excel and Word, so it would be highly appreciated to extend to more document format for document generation.