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Advice Needed: How to Generate Thank You Notes in Bulk

  • July 6, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 25 views

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I work for a small non-profit organization.  In addition to developing a contact table, I’ve uploaded donations into a separate table which contains relevant data for each donation, such as date, amount and purpose.  This donation table references donor specific information such as address.

I’d like to find an easy way to create thank you notes in bulk. All the necessary data fields are in the donation table.  From the donation table (or using an interface form) I’d like to choose a specific group of donations for which thank you notes will be prepared. Using a letter template, I’d like to insert name, date, and donation amounts for the selected donations.  Ideally, I’d like the thank you notes to be created in an editable format (perhaps word or a PDF document). Hard copies of the thank you notes will be mailed.  After reviewing and printing the thank you notes, I’d like an easy way to tick them off as completed. 

AirTable has been a cost-effective solution to our business needs, and any guidance would be deeply appreciated. 

4 replies

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  • New Participant
  • July 6, 2026

Are you referring to a mail merge? Like having the same basic document but needing different names in certain points in the doc?


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  • Author
  • New Participant
  • July 6, 2026

Yes, a mail merge. I’d like to use the same basic document but needing names, dates and donations amounts inserted in certain points in the document.  Thank you for asking


Brian_Scott
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  • Participating Frequently
  • July 6, 2026

Nancy,

You can achieve this with a (or set of) formula fields.  you may have to break your template up into various sections.  If you’re paying for AI capability, then this is an easy and ideal application of an AI agent field.

Brian


ScottWorld
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  • Genius
  • July 6, 2026

Hi ​@NancyJ ,

The primary option that Airtable gives for creating mail merge documents is Page Designer, but it has been mostly abandoned by Airtable and it has many limitations.

Here is a partial list of limitations with Page Designer:

  • Page Designer can’t be automated in any way.
  • Page Designer doesn’t work in interfaces.
  • Page Designer can’t create PDF files on its own — you need to use your computer’s print or PDF functions for that.
  • Page Designer can’t insert completed PDF documents into attachment fields. You have to do this manually.
  • Page Designer can’t elegantly handle documents that aren’t exactly one page in length.
  • Page Designer layouts can’t be copied to other tables or bases.

Alternatively, Airtable’s automations give you the ability to create a Google Docs document, but it has serious limitations as well.

In general, if you want to automate the process of creating a document or a PDF file (or if you want to automatically attach the PDF file to the record in Airtable, or if you want to generate multi-page PDF files from Airtable, or if you want to generate PDF files from interfaces), you would typically need to turn to a 3rd-party app for that.

Here are a few popular 3rd-party apps for automatically generating documents from Airtable:

  1. DocsAutomator — creates Google Docs documents or PDF files.
  2. Typeflow — creates PDF files.
  3. DocuMint — creates PDF files.
  4. Make’s integrations — which can be integrated with any document-creation app or PDF-creation app of your choosing, such as CraftMyPDF. You can even integrate something as simple as custom Microsoft Word documents.

    If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread. For example, here is one way that you can instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable.
  5. Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable — Fillout lets you automatically generate custom PDF files from a form submission.

    I show off this feature on this Airtable podcast episode:Using Fillout to create an eSignature approval process with PDF file creation.

Hope this helps!

If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld