Hey Zappers! I’ve got a fun one today, or at least I think so. Someone recently asked this question on Reddit:
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I’ve seen similar questions come up before, so I decided to figure out how to do it. Turns out, it’s not that difficult Let’s get started!
Apps We’ll Be Using
- Google Forms (this can be any other form app)
- Airtable (this is where the magic happens)
- Google Docs (where we’ll create the PDF)
- Google Drive (only to change file sharing permissions)
- Gmail (to email the PDF...you can use another app here)
In Airtable
Table 1: where we add form submissions
Each submission for the form will be created as a separate record in this table.
The Setup
Assuming you want to send an email, we’ll have a field for email address, one for name and one for each question on our form.
For each question, we also have a Lookup field for Table 2.
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Table 2: to “convert” form answers to custom text
Each possible option from the form will be added as a separate record, including a field for the text we want to output when someone selects this option.
The Setup
You don’t have to include the Question # field, but for simplicity’s sake you may want to. It will make things easier if you have a lot of questions/responses.
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The Zap
Trigger
Google Forms: New Form Submission
You can use a different form app here. I chose it because it’s free and we’re using other Google apps.
Actions
If you don’t have to create a document, and would instead like to email the text directly you can cut out Google Docs and Google Drive.
Airtable: Create Record
Map the fields from your trigger step. In this case, that’s Google Forms.
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NOTE: Make sure that you’ve added the exact text from your responses into Airtable. That’s how we perform the lookup that gets your custom text.
Google Docs: Create Document from Text
In this case, we’re creating a super basic document with each of our mapped fields inside a paragraph tag. More complex documents are possible, but that’s a whole other article ;)
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Google Drive: Add File Sharing Preference
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Without this step, the attached PDF will show up like this:
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Gmail: Send Email
Now it’s time to send the email with our attached PDF.
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If you want to, you can make the subject and body of the email dynamic by including information from the form (like name, for example).
Wrapping Up
There you have it! A 4-step Zap and some Airtable creativity will allow you to create custom documents/emails based on form submissions :)
Shared Zap
If you’d like a head-start or to see how the Zap is created, here’s a shared Zap for you.
Airtable Base You Can Copy
Likewise, here’s an Airtable base you can copy or look at, to get an idea of how the lookup fields work.