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Introducing Document Automator

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Scott_White
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

:wave: Hello! I’m Scott – a product manager at Airtable who worked on the development of document automator – the newest way to get Airtable data into formatted documents.

What is document automator?

Available to those on Pro and Enterprise plans, Document automator is a new integration with Google Docs and associated automation action that enables you to export formatted Airtable data directly into Google docs, where you can format and collaborate on that data to your heart’s content.

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Furthermore, because document automator is built into automations, you can use other automations like Slack or Email to automatically share the created document with others, fully automating the process of creating and distributing published reports or status updates.

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How can I use document automator?

Document automator is perfect for creating point-in-time reports or status updates that can be shared with people who don’t have access to Airtable, when you want to editorialize around the data, or when you want to facilitate feedback and discussion about the data. Common use-cases for document automator include:

  • OKR (objectives and key responsibilities) updates
  • Roadmap updates
  • Campaign performance reports
  • Publishing Retrospectives

What about Interface Designer or Page Designer?

While similar, Interface Designer and Page Designer are meant to accomplish different use cases:

  • Document automator: Point-in-time reports/status updates leveraging Airtable data across multiple records, meant to be communicated to audiences that may/may not live in Airtable (or be close to the work), allowing broad access (ie. Google docs) across the org. This helps with distribution and permissioning issues, as well as facilitating comments and discussions directly on the report.
  • Interface Designer: Live-refreshing dashboards or surfaces for collaboration on live data
  • Page Designer: Visual assets (physical printed page design, mock-ups) based on individual records (like a real estate brief, business card, etc.)

Where can I learn more?

To learn more about how to use document automator, check out the launch blog post, or help center article.

I’ll also be hosting a Community AMA to talk all things content automator on June 29, at 9 am PT where you’ll have the opportunity to see the feature in action and ask any questions you may have. You can register now here, and I can’t wait to see you online.

We can’t wait to see what you create with the document automator and would love to hear your thoughts below.

If you are on a pro or enterprise plan and not seeing these changes reflected in your workspace, try clearing your cache.

63 Comments
Andrew_Davies
7 - App Architect
7 - App Architect

Highly recommend On2Air actions for this. I had a Demo from Dan a couple of months ago and am amazed at how cool it is and what it can do

Hannah_Wiginton
10 - Mercury
10 - Mercury

Thanks so much Andrew!

I’m working on a comparison right now and our app is still much more powerful.

Hendrik_Yang
9 - Sun
9 - Sun

Yes totally agreed with you.

Avark_Web
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

This is perfect except it doesn’t work with Shared Drives. For most Google Business Workspace users, we generate these docs within our own team/corporate shared drives. Currently when saving to shared drives it shows error. We really need this to work with shared drives please for the corporate environment please!

openside
10 - Mercury
10 - Mercury

Our On2air solution supports Shared Drives if interested to check it out

Andrew_Davies
7 - App Architect
7 - App Architect

Hi all

Really finding this a useful feature.

@Scott_White Is there anyway Of including the summary values in the report? (Ie Sum / count of the records in the group)

I use it to generate a snapshot of a budget every week so would like to see totals.

Thanks

Andrew

Ron_Manke
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Could you create summary fields in the sheet, and include those in the report?

Andrew_Davies
7 - App Architect
7 - App Architect

Thanks Rob

Good idea. I guess I could - though as I’m looking for a total of a group - it wouldn’t make much sense appearing in a column.

But will give it a go. Thank you.

Andrew_Davies
7 - App Architect
7 - App Architect

I tried this - but couldn’t get it to work. Ended up using Make to calculate the group totals instead.

Would love to see this feature built in so group totals can be included natively in the report.

Ilias_T
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Hi, it could be a very useful feature. Is there a restriction on the number of records or is there something I’ve done wrong? It shows only the first 100 records.
Also it’ be great if we had the capability to see the Sum, Average etc on each filed as we have it on the table.