Hey Zappers! I’ve got a fun one today, or at least I think so. Someone recently asked this question on Reddit:
![](https://uploads-us-west-2.insided.com/zapier-ca/attachment/64369a40-368c-4b05-9f62-6bcbf002218f.png)
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.
![](https://uploads-us-west-2.insided.com/zapier-ca/attachment/cd366a09-f818-4347-a432-a93bac59a9d0.png)
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.
![](https://uploads-us-west-2.insided.com/zapier-ca/attachment/8c341f51-c9ee-4dc4-9ef1-8b27c5ecc509.png)
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.
![](https://uploads-us-west-2.insided.com/zapier-ca/attachment/6e551412-1dd1-45f0-a594-02303a4594bf.png)
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 ;)
![](https://uploads-us-west-2.insided.com/zapier-ca/attachment/d265c352-2e2c-40d2-8bd6-95f969a3e8e1.png)
Google Drive: Add File Sharing Preference
![](https://uploads-us-west-2.insided.com/zapier-ca/attachment/7a52bd89-8338-4e0f-9d91-75c8213c8cd4.png)
Without this step, the attached PDF will show up like this:
![](https://uploads-us-west-2.insided.com/zapier-ca/attachment/65da6f84-1be7-4f6e-a1fa-d1ad3fac235d.png)
Gmail: Send Email
Now it’s time to send the email with our attached PDF.
![](https://uploads-us-west-2.insided.com/zapier-ca/attachment/8ab45f6e-6280-486e-a2a7-3b8e37370670.png)
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.