Reference Guide
Detailed explanations of every feature and function in NutshellThe PDF component allows you to generate a branded PDF document, containing both hand-typed content and data pulled dynamically from Variables or form fields elsewhere in your app workflow.
Once you’ve created your PDF, you can attach it to an email or upload it to a file storage facility, such as FTP or Dropbox, all without the end-user leaving your app.
Creating a PDF
To create a PDF document, drag the PDF component onto the Canvas from the Essentials Tool Bar. Double-click the component on the Canvas to edit the content of the document; a WYISWYGMore information on What You See Is What You Get can be found here text editor will open, allowing you to create and style your PDF content. If you’ve ever used a document editor like Microsoft Word, this should all be quite familiar.
The WYSIWYG PDF editor lets you design custom document layouts
All the usual styling options are available within a PDF, with the additional option of inserting page-breaks for better printing.
Inserting Data
You can insert dynamic data into your PDF documents. What do we mean by dynamic data? Dynamic data is content that changes based on something your end-user does.
User data can be inserted dynamically from form fields within your app
For example; imagine that your app asks the end-user for their name on the first screen, and then inserts it into a personalised PDF document later. In this example, the name is dynamic as it changes to whatever the end-user has typed in.
Emailing a PDF
The most common way to pull a finished PDF out of an app is to send it as an email attachment. First, make sure you’ve set up an Email component, so that you have an email to attach it to (the Email component reference will help you do this).
Next, you’ll need to attach your PDF to the email. Assuming you’ve already created one, draw a link from your PDF to the Email component on the Canvas.
PDFs can be attached to emails simply by linking to them
Provided you drew the link from the PDF to the Email (and not the other way around) the link should be a dotted line, to indicate that the PDF is an attachment. If it’s not, select the link and in the Properties panel you’ll find an option labelled “Attach Item” – make sure this option is turned on and save your changes.
Now, when the Email is sent, it will pull in the PDF and attach it.
Uploading a PDF
You may also want to store the PDF on a server or a third party file sharing solution, such as Google Drive or Dropbox. How this works depends on which particular connector you’re using – FTP, Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive. The documentation for each of these connectors will show you how to upload a PDF.
PDF Properties
When a PDF component is selected on the Canvas, the following settings are available in the Properties panel:
| Basic Settings | |
|---|---|
| Label | An optional name, that appears on the Canvas. This makes reading larger workflows much easier. |
| PDF Name | The filename of the generated PDF file. You don’t need to include the .pdf extension – this will be added automatically. The filename can be typed in by hand, or inserted dynamically from a Variable or a form field elsewhere in your workflow. |
| Page Settings | |
|---|---|
| Paper Size | Most PDFs end up being printed. Here, you can specify what paper size your document should be optimised for. This will affect the size and shape of the page as it appears on the Canvas, giving you a more accurate representation of the finished document. |
| Orientation | How your finished document should be printed/viewed – in either Portrait or Landscape orientation. |
| Footer Settings | |
|---|---|
| Include copyright notice | Tick this box to automatically include a custom copyright notice in the bottom margin of every page. |
| Custom copyright notice | If you’ve chosen to include a custom copyright message, you can enter it here. If you haven’t ticked the box, this option will not be visible. |
| Include page count | Tick this box to automatically include the current page number and overall page-count in the bottom margin of every page – e.g. “Page 3 of 17”. |
Just getting started? Try the Tutorials section for handy quick-start guides.
Prefer to watch the action? Try our series of short video tutorials.
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