Question

Printing a form before it's submitted or getting a copy.

Forms

Updated April 16, 2015

asked on December 5, 2013 • Show version history

Have a client that is going to be rolling out the Forms Public Portal, however, they want to be able to allow the Public to "print" a copy of their Form (or save it). However, the only way I've been able to do this is via HTML print button, but the issue, is that fields that are using drop down list it prints the field as it's a list...this is very ugly and won't work as information is cutt off if the data is longer than the field. Has anyone figured a work around to this? Emailing the submitted Form is not an option because not all submitters will have email and a COPY of the form MUST be available for them? Any suggestions are welcome!!

This is a continuation of this Support Site forum thread.

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Answer

APPROVED ANSWER

replied on December 9, 2013 • Show version history

If you want to give users the option to print or save a form before submitting it, the best option is to create a print button on the form using a Custom HTML field. Here's what the custom HTML would look like:

<input type="button" value="Print this page" onClick="window.print()">

Using the window.print function opens the browser's print dialog box and is supported in every browser that you can view Forms in.

The other issue that Daryl has encountered is that the form will print as-is, so if text doesn't completely fit in an input box, it will be cutoff when it prints. This isn't an issue with the print button, but is just an issue with the field size being too small for its input. If you encounter this issue, try resizing your fields to ensure that the user's input will fit cleanly within the input box. To learn more about resizing fields, read this page in the online help.

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Replies

replied on December 18, 2013 • Show version history

We have a transcript request form where we were having the same problem. We have to collect the physical signature of the requestor. What we have done is included an email address field that is required. Once the form is submitted it is then sent through a workflow that sends a copy of the form as a PDF to the requestor to the email address they specified. They can then print it off, sign it, and send it to us.

To have it printed off before the form is submitted you might be able to use the JavaScript window.print() Function. Here is an article on some options that might work: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/javascript/article.php/3471121/Print-a-Web-Page-Using-JavaScript.htm. I have not tried to implement this using Forms, so I'm not sure if t will work or not.

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replied on December 6, 2013

maybe using the history URL might help.

{server}/Form/Submission/History/%(Instance ID)/%(Submission ID)

You can use that pattern to generate URL's that they should be able to see after a submission. It would need to be up to you to figure out how best to server that content to them. This would allow an easy way to print the form.

Also, another option is to hide the submit button, make a custom button and have it alert the user before it submits the information so they are reminded to print the form.

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replied on January 17, 2014

Kenneth...I think you might have a good idea here...question I have is obviously, I want to automate the URL...how can I do that so that the proper Instance ID and Submmission ID's are inserted into the Hyperlink? In other words...I want to insert a hyperlink with the "Thank You Message" that is created in the "Start Event" in process modeler. If I simply copy what you put above...nothing happens, as it doesn't seem to grab the instance ID or submission ID form the currenly submitted form.

Thanks!

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replied on October 7, 2014

Hi there,

Forms 9.2 provides functionality for user to print, download submitted Start Form.

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replied on October 9, 2014

There should be an option for LOVE THIS FEATURE

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replied on April 16, 2015

Does this exist? or feature request?

Thanks

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replied on December 6, 2013

This is where traditional and new-age methods will have to be leveraged to accomplish the task at hand.

There are a few ways to handle this, one being that the use of Weblinks is used to allow users to view the submitted forms afterwards and print or save them at a later point. The other option is to have a small section where they can indicate an email to send a copy to them, a fax number, or an address to send a physical copy of the printed form. There are plenty of services out there to automate faxes via emails and likely some for snailmail as well.

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replied on December 10, 2013

I've attached two PDF's, one was printed from Chrome, the other IE. Printing to a printer does the same thing. See the section 03-05...you'll see the State Agency is completely cuttoff b/c it's a drop down field.

IE.pdf (86.39 KB)

| Download

New Submission.pdf (204.69 KB)

| Download

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replied on December 10, 2013

Did you try my recommendation? If there was a way to redirect them to a page with a link to the submitted form using the formatting of the URL I gave you, then you may be able to provide a printed form that they can print without fail/problems

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replied on December 10, 2013

How do these fields appear on the form as you're filling it out? A potential solution might be manually adjusting the field width's for these drop-down fields to ensure they are wider than their contents.

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replied on January 15, 2014

Ok...so I'm back to his issue as we've been able to print the form...however, after the Commission reviewed the Form, they're concerned that people will Print the Form...then go back and change the information on the form before submitting, which could cause a problem. So what they've asked is there a way to create the ability to Print "after" the form has been submitted or hardcode the Submit with the Print so that when they hit Sumbit...it also prints a copy at the same time? We are open for ideas.

Thanks!

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replied on January 17, 2014

The problem with the user printing the form before they submit it is that it isn't an official copy (since they could make changes after printing and before submitting). If you have WebLink, one option might be to redirect the user to WebLink with the folder where the form submission will be saved open.

Using a Save to Repository service task after the message start, you could save the form submission in the appropriate folder in the repository.

The feature request for allowing users to print a copy of the form for their records is something that we're currently investigating as a feature for a future release.

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replied on January 17, 2014

Eric,

That's one thing I'm trying to do...we are doing just that using a Save To Repository Service Task, and they do have Weblink...the issue, is our Workflow moves the Document as soon as it comes into Laserfiche because it stores it by their Last Name, First Name...so I'm having a tough time figuring out how to get them directly to the link of the form itself in Weblink. I was hoping there was a way I could redirect them to the "Form Submission URL" that is displayed in the the Results Tab of Forms...but I'm not certain how to accomplish that either. I feel like I'm real close to having two possible options...just missing that bridge to get across.

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replied on January 17, 2014

Discussion continued here.

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Printing a form before it's submitted or getting a copy.

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