Multiple Page Document in Page Designer

[CAHerrmann]

Hello,

I am using Airtable for project management. I am trying to shift some of our proposal generation to Airtable and see some promise with the Page Designer Feature.

Just wondering – is it possible to generate multiple pages from a single record? Basically, for each job, I have several components that take up most of a sheet of paper. I need to have a summary table of work to be completed below that, along with terms and conditions.

Our current proposals are 6 pages long using Microsoft Word

Any thoughts on how to accomplish this?

[Max_Ha]

I’m a big fan of Airtable. The big convenience is to have EVERYTHING in one place. If we have te go back 'n forward with other apps and programs. It’s basicly the same as spreadsheets… I’m actually baffled this simple multiple page option isn’t a thing yet.

[David_Meyers]

Hey AIRTABLE!!! How about a little community feedback to confirm this is on the radar and (hopefully) where it is in the pipeline?!?

[Paul_Warren]

@David_Meyers, I think it’s a safe bet this is not on the plan for the very near future. Airtable has been focused on big improvements: Scripting Block, Custom Blocks, and Automations.

I think the real question is how long until someone builds an open-source custom block to outperform the current Page Designer.

[Greg_Noonan]

$100/month to replicate notepad is not very impressive to me at all.

The greatest thing that could happen is that the SaaS craze dies out and people start to create actual value again.

[Greg_Noonan]

You can design business cards!! Ya know, like you never would ever do in Airtable

[Greg_Noonan]

It’s the single biggest shortcoming to the entire platform. Keeping huge amounts of data all linked together is amazing, but Airtable is virtually impossible to export outside of the native environment.

Replicating thousands of records that should just be printable is sort of a MVP thing in my mind, like what’s the point of using the program if I can’t generate output, we already had excel and I didn’t have to pay/month for that.

[Paul_Warren]

@Lynnsey_Schneider,

If you are looking for a one page per row solution, then the page designer is probably perfect for you. You would design the page for an individual recipie. Then you can print all of the records in a specific view. One record per page.

The major failing of the page designer block is desiring multi-page PDFs for a single record.

In fact, my biggest issue is that the page designer block lacks the ability to change the page length based on the length of the record’s content. I have some short records and some very long ones.

[Lynnsey_Schneid]

Thanks @Paul_Warren. My main requirement is actually to be able to create single page documents, combining multiple rows of data. An example would be a project plan, a weekly meal planner, or a travel itinerary.

My hack at the moment is to export the table as a CSV, and dumping it into something like Miro or Sketch to do the visual design. Every time the data changes I have to do that again which is a giant nuisance.

Any suggestions for a better solution / workflow would be great.

[Paul_Warren]

Here are a couple of videos on the page designer block that I think will help you. I believe this could work for you, but it would depend on how nice it needs to look. Currently there is very limited control of the display of linked records:

[Lynnsey_Schneid]

Thanks Scott. I’ll look into Docupilot. I’d be converting from my weak local currency to USD so Formstack isn’t an option.