big ideas for document generator

abbyc.hg

My team has 10-20 projects running at any given time in varying scale both in size and end user comfort with Smartsheet. We are (hopefully) transitioning our documentation processes away from clunky word docs into the more automated Google Docs direct from our project register as work requests come through. My first hope, though, was to use the delivered functionality with document generator and workflows in Smartsheet. The fillable pdf left much to be desired when it came to project documents.

Wishlist

1. Multiline text boxes. The .pdf I created an mapped had multi-line text boxes available to truncate text to fit. The automation only uses single line boxes so our text was either running off the pages or becoming so small it was illegible.
   1. Requirement management. Our users would like to submit their requirements in a numbered list and see them come out in the generated doc. I can't anticipate how many requirements would be needed, nor the size of text box. It would be great if the text box could be dynamic to fit their lists and if Smartsheet fields could have rich text. Maybe that's another post in and of itself though…
2. Customize the typeface. I'd like to adjust the font, size, bold/italics/etc. It also seems that some fields mapped came over in different fonts or sizes even though there was no rich text formatting in the sheet origin.
3. Manipulate fields mapped. Some fields might need edits after the doc has been generated. I don't see a way to edit the text mapped once I download the generated item.

Our hope was to automate document generation for users who want to submit projects into the record but don't need a full suite of project management services. We're looking to Google Drive integration to do this instead, but welcome any ideas that others have used in this arena.

Adrian Mandile CHESS

Hi @abbyc.hg,

Some of what you have listed above can be handled with adjusting the properties of the PDF text boxes for: font, font size, font colour, and multi-line wrapping. You can also select multiple boxes and re-size or re-position them for more exact alignment to suit your document layout.

Other things like multi row capability would indeed be a great feature enhancement for Smartsheet. One possible work-around would be to use line breaks (Alt+Enter within the cell) in your requirements text.

abbyc.hg

@Adrian Mandile CHESS thanks for your note. We're trying to set the documents to generate and send out to users without PM manipulation after the work flow. It would be great to set the document to have the same style as Smartsheet, but some of my fields came over from Smartsheet with multiple text styles. Looks clunky, even if I matched each box.