Page designer multiple page

[Caroline_V]

Hello I am building my invoice template in Page Designer. I was able to build my source table so I can see various tasks to bill to each client. My only isse is that table only show records that fit in the box and in 1 page. How do I format the table element so it show every records I want to show even if it takes multiple pages?

[ScottWorld]

Welcome to the community, @Caroline_V!

I don’t think that is possible to do with Page Designer, but perhaps other people know of some tricks.

Unfortunately, Airtable is extremely weak when it comes to output, so Airtable is not a great standalone tool to use all on its own. Airtable can be a good tool to use as a backend for OTHER more robust applications that are available on the web, but those applications cost additional money.

In general, most people are required to send their data outside of Airtable to other 3rd-party applications somewhere else to create documents.

Airtable offers a Formstack Documents block, but Formstack is extremely expensive.

DocuPilot is cheaper than Formstack, and MiniExtensions uses DocuPilot to create PDF files or Word documents from your Airtable data:

miniExtensions

PDF and Document Generator for Airtable - miniExtensions

Generate PDF files in bulk for Airtable records by integrating with Docupilot. Use this to export custom reports, invoices, etc. Supports scheduling & webhooks.

Integromat is even cheaper than MiniExtensions, and it supports DocuPilot as well. It can also send your data to many other applications on the web as well, so you could send to even more affordable applications:

Integromat

Integromat

Integromat is an easy to use, powerful tool with unique features for automating manual processes. Connect your favorite apps, services and devices with each other without having any programming skills.

[ScottWorld]

Oh, I forgot to mention that I am a professional Airtable consultant and a Registered Integromat Partner, and the Integromat link contains my personal referral code. If you have a budget for this project and you’d like to hire a consultant to help you with any of the above, please feel free to contact me through my website at ScottWorld.com.

[Caroline_V]

Thank you ScottWorld for your response.
So Page Designer does not allow reports exceeding 1 page?
I saw other posts about issue printing reports exceeding 1 page which tells me that multiple page was possible to create at some point?
My goal is to use only Office and AT. I don’t want complicated connections between platforms for security, time and budget reasons.

[ScottWorld]

Yes, you can create a layout size in Page Designer that is smaller than your paper size, and then print multiple records per page (onto multiple pages as well). That would work if you just wanted to print a list of tasks.

But as far as printing a client page with all of their linked tasks on the page (the equivalent of an invoice with linked line items), I don’t know of a way to get the linked tasks to appear on multiple pages.

[Bill_French]

Caroline_V:

So Page Designer does not allow reports exceeding 1 page?

I don’t think this is actually a limitation, but I cannot profess any expertise in this feature as I typically build reports that far exceed the Page Designer Block (examples here and here).

I too have seen many creative posts covering multi-page/multi-line item reports and certainly equal parts frustration and head-scratching. Indeed, Page Designer is weak so it would not surprise me if you ultimately seek out alternative reporting strategies.

I believe @Elias_Gomez_Sainz and @WilliamPorterTech are resident experts in matters of Page Designer reports; perhaps one of them can chime in.

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

I think it has always been 1 page but you make it as long as you want.

[WilliamPorter]

I’m sorry that this is a detour from the main topic.

@Bill.French mentioned me as a resident expert on Page Designer. I wish. What Bill must be remembering is fact that I’ve asked a lot of questions about the Page Designer – not same thing as having contributed a lot of answers. I think that the Page Designer is one of the three or four most unsatisfactory things about Airtable. It’s not just terrible for multipage reports, it’s pretty bad for one-page reports. Almost nothing about Airtable makes me miss FileMaker more than having to create a nicely formatted report.

That said, two thoughts occur to me.

First, we are all doing a lot less formal reporting and much less actual printing than we did say twenty years ago. Law offices no doubt continue to be the largest buyers of printers on the planet; lawyers are very fond of paper. But even the Luddites among the lawyers I work for are getting used to the fact that, if they have a question about a case, they can just get into the app, do a query, and get the answer – and they don’t have to send anything to the printer. Which is a long way of saying that the Page Designer is lousy probably because Airtable’s developers have made a rational decision that the Page Designer just isn’t urgently important to their customers.

Second – and now I’m just repeating what was said earlier in this thread and others – Airtable’s superpower is its ability to connect with other apps. In my opinion, it’s a pain to have to fire up Integromat or Zapier or miniautomations just to print out a nicely formatted list of products or whatever. But at least it’s possible and I gather that, once you learn how to use one of the third-party reporting tools, you can do anything you want. What I more often do is, export to csv, import into Google Sheets, and then print from there. If I had to do it daily, I’d figure out how to automate. But fortunately I don’t.

[Sergio]

Wanted to add that Airtable has an extension called Plumsail Documents. With it, you can send your data from Airtable to any of your customized templates, creating documents in any PDF, docx, etc. format. You can also choose the delivery method for a document created from Airtable records, from saving it to Google Drive or SharePoint, sending it by email or for signature.