Batch printing via page designer

Hi ​@Florian,

I’ve noticed that if I wait long enough for Page Designer to respond, it eventually unfreezes.

You might also have better luck if you download the Airtable desktop app for Mac or PC, instead of using a web browser.

But in general, I don’t typically recommend using Page Designer because:

1. Page Designer can’t be automated at all.
2. Page Designer doesn’t handle documents greater than one page very well.
3. Page Designer doesn’t work from interfaces.

So, for my clients, I usually have them use 3rd-party apps for their printing needs.

The most popular 3rd-party apps can create documents in PDF format, Word format, and Google Docs format.

And then, if my clients need to automate the printing directly to a printer (instead of manually clicking on the document and then manually choosing “File → Print”), I automate the sending of the document to the email address associated with the printer.

Here are a few popular solutions for generating documents from Airtable:

1. DocuMint — the original document creation app for Airtable. Creates PDF files.

2. DocsAutomator — creates Google Docs documents or PDF files. 

3. Make’s integrations — which can be integrated with any document-creation app of your choosing, even 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.
    
4. Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable — This won’t help you with printing a batch of records, but if you need to automatically create a PDF file of a record after that record is newly created in your table, Fillout can 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

​​​​​​Page Designer should get unstuck if you wait for sometime.

That said, Page Designer has some other limitations as well. It cannot be automated, so you have to manually generate each PDF. It doesn’t handle multi-page documents very well.

Also, it doesn’t work with Airtable Interfaces, which can be a drawback depending on your workflow.

Some other options you can consider:

1. If you use Fillout to collect form responses, it offers powerful PDF generation feature. Keep in mind that this works only with data submitted through Fillout forms, not with data already stored inside a table.

2. Document generation tools like DocuMint or DocsAutomater connect directly to your data and let you create polished PDFs with ease.

I have written a detailed article on this. Feel free to check it out.

Taha, Airtable Advisor

​@Taha-Jiruwala Please stop repeating what I post verbatim. It’s obvious that you are using AI to just repeat what I say in numerous posts of yours, and then you are using AI to create your articles.

​@ScottWorld - What I shared came from my own article, which I wrote based on personal experience and tools I’ve used myself.

Yes, there’s some overlap because these tools are well-known in the Airtable community. It’s natural that different people will mention the same tools when answering the same kind of question.

Accusing someone of copying or using AI just because their answer overlaps with yours is unfair.

 

​@Taha-Jiruwala 

Lol, you often copy & paste everything that I write. Your post above is almost 100% copied from my original post above. I have posted a screenshot of your post below, which the moderators can compare to my original post above.

Same thing with your “articles”, which are primarily borrowed from my posts.

.