Generating Forms as output (or exporting custom reports)?

Hi Heather

I am been working with AirTable for about a year now so not an expert by far. But I know how great it feels when someone can respond to your question so I hope this may be useful.

So here is how I take a spreadsheet (like you I have the information in Excel, CSV, or Google Sheets, etc).

1. Add Base
2. Import from Spreadsheet (this is where I say careful planning will be helpful in terms of the fields, field names and field types. Also, you can import a spreadsheet and if u standardize the fields you can add to an existing base esp since you will have the form created but there are so many ways to approach this)
   3.Now that you have imported your spreadsheet, revisit the Fields and if needed, customize them to your needs
3. Once you have the table or Grid view of your data the way you like it, from VIEWS icon (upper left button menu), click Form
4. It is fairly intuitive on how to add or not display fields or reorder them. Plus you can create a Header image and logo. If you scroll down the form, the user can be redirected to a URL and you can also be notified when someone has used the online form.
5. If you want to embed the form into your Website, that will require the person who manages your Website (if you have that person) where they can create an I-frame and embed the form.

Here is a good link to learn more https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/206058268-Guide-to-forms

Good luck and i hope this helped.

S Rod

Thanks Scott -

I appreciate your response. I do know how to do all that.

I’m not wanting users to input info into blank fields in a form, on a website or via email.

I’m wanting to export or run a report OF the info/data I already HAVE in the base into a document - a professional deliverable OF that content for peers and work associates.

BUT THANK YOUI!

Hi @Heather_Hale,

It depends on what sorts of reports or outputs you’re trying to create from Airtable. Can you be more specific?

Airtable doesn’t natively offer a lot of different options in the way of outputs, but most outputs would be achieved through blocks.

The primary tool we have is the Page Designer Block, which lets you design simple page layouts that you can print. (There is no PDF output support in Airtable, either, but you can use your operating system’s PDF capabilities to create PDF files.)

The Formstack Documents block will let you create Word/PDF files with a paid FormStack Documents account.

Some other blocks might offer you the reporting visualizations that you need, but there’s no real way to output them besides taking a screenshot. (You’ll soon be able to share blocks on the web, but they do pose a security risk because they will reveal all of your data to people that you share them with. If you’re just sharing them with other collaborators, then that’s not a big deal.)

Of course, if you want to export CSV files, you can do that from any view that you create, and then import that data elsewhere.

For anything else, most people are using Integromat or Zapier to connect their Airtable to external apps.

And of course, Airtable has an excellent REST API that other apps can use to pull your Airtable data into them.

Likewise, you can use JavaScript and the scripting block to push your data to external apps as well.

p.s. If you have a budget & would like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to send me a private message!

Thanks Scott. I’m sure I don’t have the budget for it but I’d be happy to send you a sample for you to quote.
Thank you!

Hi there, at miniExtensions, we have some features that could help with this use case.

For example, we have an HTML to PDF automation. This allows you to generate nicely formatted PDFs straight from your Airtable records. This way, you could generate several different documents (for different target roles), each with its own set of information. If you're not familiar with HTML code, ChatGPT can help generate it quickly to get the formatting you need! 

Alternatively, you could simply use miniExtensions forms to send links to record to the relevant people. These would display data from the records and allow for editing of the data, if needed, or be simply for viewing the existing data.

Which one of the two is better depends on your requirements regarding formatting, and offline use. The form needs internet access to load and is a simple form interface, whereas the PDF can obviously be used offline as well and contain basically any formatting you may want! 

You can try out both using a free account 🙂