Exporting to create a word document

[Rachel_Hought]

Hi I am looking for a way that I can export to a word document. I work on a local magazine published in several different areas. One of the features of the magazine is a list of local clubs and societies. We currently just have the list in Word which we then copy and paste the relevant parts each month into our design package. As we cover 7 areas and some of the clubs cover both areas every time we make a change we have to check 7 word files to make the change in each. There must be an easier way! I was hoping I could create a database with all the info and export the info to be printed onto a word document but can only see that I can do this to a CSV file which is no good for then placing into the magazine. Any help would be appreciated

[Bill_French]

Hi Rachel and welcome to the community.

Rachel_Hought:

As we cover 7 areas and some of the clubs cover both areas every time we make a change we have to check 7 word files to make the change in each. There must be an easier way!

Indeed, there must, and there is - process automation. It’s not integral to Airtable; you have to build it using the Airtable API and other services that make it relatively easy to construct Word documents.

Rachel_Hought:

As we cover 7 areas and some of the clubs cover both areas every time we make a change we have to check 7 word files to make the change in each.

Ideally, you should be able to just focus on the data; everything else should be automated, like this (note - the red lines are fully automated steps):

Ideally…

• The entire process should be automated; users should focus only on the data.
• The process should eliminate every possible manual step.
• There should be only one Word document that contains a synopsis of all changes to be published.

But I must ask the obvious question -

Why not have the process automation simply update the design document directly via its API and cut Word out of the process altogether?

Alternatively, there may be a Zapier recipe to push data records into a Word document via Office365, but I’m not seeing one.

[M_k]

Hi @Rachel_Hought and @Bill.French

How about Integromat?

I believe there is a MS Word app.

Just thought I would throw in another suggestion, I hope you don’t mind.

Thank you,
Mary

[Bill_French]

M_k:

How about Integromat?

I’m almost certain there are ways to push Airtable data into Microsoft Word documents using the no-code integration frameworks but there are some devils in those details. For example -

Integromat relies on a word template and targeted placeholders for content values (like a mail merge). It’s not clear to me if more than individual field values (i.e., complete lists and columns of data) could be sent to a placeholder in a document.

I also don’t see how it would be possible to do this unless it’s via Office365, so you’d have to have that service as well.

I’ll bet @cor knows the answer.

[ScottWorld]

There are many different ways to create a Word document from Airtable.

A few ideas:

Built in directly into Airtable is the Formstack Documents block, which lets you create Word documents using a paid Formstack account.

You could also use this extension, which requires a paid DocuPilot account.

But, as @M_k suggested:

In my opinion. the #1 best way to automate anything in Airtable — including creating Word documents — is to use Make. They are, in my opinion, the most robust and most advanced and most fully-featured no-code automation platform available for Airtable. I highly recommended them for all your automations. They are also 100% free for many people! They have a Microsoft Word Template module built right into Make!

p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld

[Sergio]

Hi

Try using the plumsail documents extension for Airtable. To transfer your list of objects into a Word document.

You can use a Word document as a template but use special tokens in the place where you need to insert the list.

- With plumsail documents you create a process using your template.
- Configure the outgoing file format and its delivery
- Add the plumsail documents extension to your database
- Select a process and match the template field with data from Airtable
- A button will appear when you click on it, and a word document will be created

You can read more here https://plumsail.com/docs/documents/v1.x/getting-started/use-from-airtable.html

Both applications have a trial so you can try it. Good luck!