Enhance PDF Document Generator Automation in Smartsheet

Troy Clarke

Hi Smartsheet Community,

I hope this message finds you well.

I am writing to propose an enhancement to the PDF Document Generator automation in Smartsheet. Currently, the automation adjusts the font size to fit all the data within the text boxes, which results in the loss of the "scrolling long text" functionality, ignores the character limits set in the PDF form template, and disregards the pre-determined font and font size in the text box settings. These issues affect the usability of fillable PDFs, especially when dealing with multi-line text boxes.

Proposed Enhancement:

• Implement the "scrolling long text" functionality in the PDF Document Generator.
• Ensure that the font and font size remain consistent as specified in the PDF form template settings.
• Respect the character limits set for each text box in the PDF form template.
• Adhere to the pre-determined font size and font style set in the PDF form template.

Background: I have configured my PDF form template with the following settings:

• Font Size: 10
• Font: Arial
• Multi-line
• Scroll long text
• Character limits: 28 for most, 56-280 for others

Despite these settings, the generated PDF does not adhere to the "scrolling long text" option, the font size is adjusted to fit all the text within the box, and the character limits are not respected. Additionally, the pre-determined font is ignored. These issues have been confirmed by Smartsheet Support, and it appears that the current functionality does not support scrollable text implementation, character limit enforcement, or consistent font settings.

Request: I kindly request the Smartsheet Product team to consider this enhancement. Implementing these features will greatly improve the usability of fillable PDFs generated through Smartsheet automation.

How to Support: If you believe these enhancements would be beneficial, please vote for this idea in the Smartsheet Product Feedback and Ideas topic. The top-voted posts are reviewed monthly by the Product team, and your support can help bring these features to life.

Thank you for your attention and support!

Jbronson

Agreed, the Document Generation feature is a fairly underrated but powerful feature from what I can tell. These listed changes would definitely help our institution put more of our documentation through Smartsheet and create major efficiencies with the automations. Great idea!