Im not sure where Airtable is headed. But id be happy to print a customer a nice Paper with all the Products he ordered. I guess id like to make different form views like in Filemaker.
I think an ideal argument for being able to export data via XML etc is so that individual components of a document such as a proposal or insurance policy can be maintained via Airtable, and then those elements can be exported to populate a custom printed document with the customer’s info, terms, etc. That’s the functionality I would most appreciate.
It would be nice to have a print option that had the pictures in a bigger size. I use airtable as a client database and have a profile picture for each person. When I go to print a list of clients it would be nice to have the pictures bigger so you can actually see what the individual looks like. Right now I have to print each clients profile individually if I want to have their picture big enough. Any suggestions? Also is this anything airtables developers plan to implement in the future?
I’m using Airtable to track customers that take out a warranty for one of my products.
The data I need is already in Airtable, but I’m duplicating it all by making a piece of branded documentation for the customer to take away. If I could generate the print out within Airtable itself that would be killer.
Adding the word processing capabilities to make the documents within Airtable itself would probably be a lot of work, but I bet there’d be a smart way to do this with a Google Docs integration.
Something like - Set a Google Doc as a template file, fill it with markers like $$Customer Name$$, $$Customer Address$$ etc as a signal for where Airtable should put the information from the record, and then Airtable generates additional documents based on the initial template file with the Customer Name and Address filled out accordingly.
You could have a new field type for Actions where you’d process these on the fly. So there could be a Create Printout button which would tell Google Docs to make a new documents based on the record Create Printout was clicked in. Then, since that document had been generated, the button could change to View Printout.
I have recently joined air table. The product is great and Easy to use. I found that it lacks in formatted reports.
It would be nice to be able to be able to print documents frequently needed in any business operation like Work Orders, invoices, Purchase orders, Pay slips.
To be able to be used in business environment, this capability is must. Hope this feature will be added soon.
I just joined air table over the weekend and really, really like what I see. I own a small human-services agency. Air table’s spreadsheet as a DB functionality has fantastic promise to help me manage client and employee details, in a team environment. To really deliver on that promise, however, I require the ability to output data in a custom template or at least in form view (provided we could control data was presented on the form).
Just wanted to let you all know that we are reading your feedback and taking it into consideration! Based on the popularity of this topic, it seems like more options for printing are really important for a lot of our users.
Patrick, Rick, and Joe—all of you mentioned your desire for a printable form view. Would any of you care to expand on what you mean by that? Did you mean having all of the information for a single record in a single page, with all of the fields aligned vertically (like how Andrew mentioned, way back at the beginning of this thread)? How does the current layout of our forms/our expanded records compare to your ideal printable form view?
Thanks again, everyone, for all of your feedback. Please keep the suggestions coming!
Katherine,
I meant a similar situation as the old Bento many of us used prior to Airtable where I might setup a custom print option. This custom print option would allow me to print only fields I would select to be printed and fit to a standard page size (8.5x11).
Example:
I have an event setup where we photograph and sell products. We would like to use Airtable to document many facets of the session including the clients name, address, image number chosen, package ordered etc…
I need the ability to print this information and pass it on to the client as a receipt of which items were purchased as well as the cost associated and a couple of other fields but NOT include all field in the database as we have up to 40 fields that are not necessary to be printed on the page.
We would need these items
Ability to pick fields printed
Ability to arrange the fields on the page in columns (not just one field per line)
Not a priority but the ability to choose the paper size I would be printing on.
Ability to include headers and footers (in other words brand the print with company logo, info, etc.) Also nice but not an immediate necessity.
Ability to save this information into a favorite, or default for that particular database template.
Maybe the way to do this for individual records should be similar to mail merge?
Have a new field type called Document Merge. Within the field options would be 2 settings, one to upload a template document, and the second to set a name parameter. Then within each record would be a field containing a button that called the name parameter (For example ‘View Invoice’ or ‘Customer Summary’)
The template document could have a structure like:
Yes Yes! I run inventories, and invoicing through filemaker, but their iOS options are clunky and severally limited. If air table had the ability for me to layout an invoice, like an input form but already filled in, that would rule. The ability to sum numbers columns would be handy as well, and options for print layouts seems like a must for me.
