Generating Templated Word Document from Database Excel

[creativerenz]

I'm new to Airtable and looking to see if this will be a good platform to use.

I created an Excel file that has a lot of information, so, based on the rows selected by a user, I want it to export out separate word documents based on those rows only and the word document would include the information from each column and that word document would be company branded. 

Hopefully, my question makes sense,

Is that possible?

[ScottWorld]

Yes, that is one of the popular uses for Airtable.

An entire record (i.e. row) can have its data sent to Microsoft Word and have a document created based on the information in that document.

However, Airtable can't do this natively. You would need to use an external tool, such as Make (which is a low-code automation & integration tool), which integrates with hundreds of document creation apps — including Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

You can also use document creation apps like DocuMint or DocsAutomator.

These tools can be a little bit time-consuming to setup if you've never used them before, so if you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you create this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld

[kuovonne]

MS Word has a native Mail Merge function that works well with MS Excel. Despite the name, Mail Merge works well for longer documents and reports, not just mass mailings.

If you want to use On2Air Docs (an excellent tool!), I believe that the template needs to be a Google Doc, even if the final format is MS Word. So if you need to start with an MS Word template, you might need a different method.

Another consideration is whether your files already exist in the cloud, or if they are only available on your local computer. If they are only on your local computer, that limits your choices.

[ScottWorld]

Oh, that’s right! I forgot that On2Air only works with Google Docs. Thanks, @kuovonne!

Make will work with many different document generation apps, including Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and others.

Both tools are great choices!

[creativerenz]

Thank You both!

I've added my data on Airtable. 

Now, when someone needs a record or multiple records, they will need to be exported out into individual word documents. Since On2Air Docs only works with Google Docs, I guess I'll try Make.

Time for some testing, here we go....

Any additional feed back would be appreciated.

Thank You! 😎

[ScottWorld]

It's super easy to do with Make's Word modules. Note that you don't need to use Microsoft's cloud storage to do this -- you can use any cloud storage app.

If you have any questions, post screenshots here, and some Make/Airtable experts can help you with it.

Also, there can be a bit of a learning curve with Make, which is why I created this basic navigation video for Make, along with providing the link to Make’s free training courses.

[Hannah_Wiginton]

Hey there,

You've gotten some great recommendations!

Just to add, the On2Air Docs template file does need to be created in Google Docs but we can export it as a Microsoft Word document as the final file.

Hope this helps!

[Sergio]

Hi!

You can use the plumsail documents extension for Airtable.

With it, you can easily export data from an Airtable table to a template prepared in advance in plumsail documents. Data can be exported in any format including PDF format. You will just need to match the table fields with the template fields. You can test this app for free, they give a free 30-day trial.

If you just need to export data from an Excel spreadsheet. Then you may need a connector like Power Automate or Make. Using them, extract data from an Excel table and transfer it to the plumsail docs template.