Generate Documents Mapping removed PDF Formatting

Evani

This has been happening a LOT to me. I will prepare a fillable PDF with all the formatting I need and each time I upload it to Smartsheet through the "generate documents" feature, it removes all my formatting.

I can fill out everything in the PDF myself and it comes out fine, but the second it goes into smartsheet, everything is all out of whack. I am then forced to tweak minimal items here and there several times to see if I can make it work. Sometimes, I am successful in getting smartsheet to produce the correct file, but then a few weeks later it reverts back to the unformatted version of my UNTOUCHED mapping.

Is there some bug in the system? It will remove things like formatted fonts, text size, alignment, calculations, date formats, you name it. This has taken up a lot of time and I'm not sure how to fix it.

ChristianFinke

Hi @Evani

That sounds incredibly frustrating, and I’ve seen issues like this before. Smartsheet’s "Generate Documents" feature can sometimes struggle with formatting in complex PDFs, especially with custom fonts, alignments, or embedded calculations. Even when everything seems fine initially, minor tweaks or system quirks can throw things off.

If your PDF works perfectly outside of Smartsheet but gets misaligned after uploading, it could be an issue with how Smartsheet handles certain formatting. Sometimes simplifying the template or double-checking for even tiny changes to the PDF after mapping can help.

We work with these kinds of challenges all the time, so let me know if you'd like help troubleshooting or finding a workaround to save you time.

Best,