Merged PDFs

In a Merged PDF template, you combine multiple PDFs into a single document. This feature goes beyond dynamic PDFs, allowing you to combine separate PDFs into a single document. Any of the segments may contain wildcards that merge data values from your form. This feature is used for generating complex documents like mortgages or leases.

PDFs are created and managed using the PDF Wizard. In the Form Designer, from the Post Processing menu, choose PDF Generation.

On This Page

• Creating a Template
• PDF Form Settings
• Generated PDF  Document Settings
• Security
• Merged Documents
• Page Numbering across multiple merged PDFs

Creating a Template

1. In the PDF Population Templates window, click Create New Template. Or if you have already created one or more profiles, click the Create New Template menu item.

2. Note the description of this wizard and click Next. The selection page appears listing four choices.

3. Choose Advanced: Merged PDF Document and click Next to move forward in the wizard.

PDF Form Settings

1. Enter a meaningful name for this profile.

2. In "the Generated PDF filename" field enter the name of the PDF that will be generated. Click the wildcard icon to insert one of the fields from your form in the file name. For example, if you are going to send this PDF to a customer, you might want to include their last name or their order number in the file name.

3. Check the Flatten PDF field. This is the default and the recommended setting. Flattening a PDF simplifies the document so that it is no longer interactive. It also makes it render more quickly.  If you do not check this field, many PDF plugins for browsers and preview extensions for mail programs will not render the form field values, so your PDF may look empty to some users.

4. If needed, click the Edit Rule button to configure the Execution Rule using the standard Logiforms Rules screen. This rule determines if the PDF document will be generated.

5. Click Next to move to Generated PDF Document Settings.

Generated PDF Document Settings

1. The default for Update Option is false. Change to true if you want to regenerate the PDF each time the record is updated. This can cause some performance decrease, which may be significant for high-volume processing. You should also select true if you are testing and troubleshooting.

2. In the PDF Field, choose Create new PDF Form Field or Use Existing PDF Field. Depending on your choice, enter a name for the hidden field on your form that will be created to contain the filename of the PDF, or if you have already created a hidden field to hold the PDF, choose it from the dropdown list that appears.

3. Click Next.

Security

1. If you need to restrict access to the attachments folder where generated PDF documents are stored, check Secure PDF Attachment Directory. If you apply this security option, you can not include a link to the PDF in the body of an email because the directory will no longer be web accessible. You can, however, still attach PDFs to your autoresponder and notification emails.
2. Click Next.

Merged Documents

This is where you select the PDF documents to combine into the final output. You can use PDF's generated for the current form or lookup PDF's generated on another form using a lookup rule.  Each segment is combined into the final output.

1. Click Add to add a .

2. In the Merged PDF Segments Settings window that appears, choose "Use Local PDF", to use a PDF generated (or associated with) the current form,   or "Lookup from alternate Form", to lookup a PDF from another form,  and click Next.

3. Enter a Segment Name that will clearly distinguish this document segment from any others you plan to add.

4. If you chose Use Local PDF, the following settings can be configured:

   Field	Details
   PDF Attachment	From the drop-down list, choose the PDF for this segment. Encrypted or password-protected PDFs cannot be used as segments in a merged document.
   Pages	Enter the number of pages from the segment that you want to include in the final merged document. The default is all. You can enter a single page number (5),  a range (2-4), or a comma-separated list of pages (1, 2, 5).
   Edit Rule	Optional, if you want to apply a rule that will govern the processing of this segment, click to open the rule editor and apply one or more filters.
   Finish	Click to commit this segment as part of the merged document.

5. If you chose Lookup from alternate Form, the following settings can be configured:

   Property	Details
   Edit Rule	Optional, if you want to apply a rule that will govern the processing of this segment, click to open the rule editor and apply one or more filters.
   Lookup Table	Click and select the form with an associated PDF that you need from the dropdown list.
   PDF Attachment	choose the PDF from the dropdown list.
   Edit Lookup Rule	Click to define the rule that will govern the use of this PDF.
   Finish	Click to commit this segment as part of the merged document.

6. Repeat, adding as many segments as required.

7. You can select a segment and Edit or Delete it. You can also change the order using the Up and Down menu items.

8. Click Finish to commit the changes. In a moment, the new merged template will appear in the PDF Population Templates management window.

Page Numbering across multiple merged PDFs

When your merging multiple PDF's together, and using conditional logic and dynamic PDF output, you often won't know the total number of pages, or where one of the merged segments fits into the output.  This can make it difficult to have accurate page numbering on your PDF.   We've solved that issue by adding a second pass of your Merged PDF once it's assembled. Logiforms will run through the final assembled document and look {pagenum}  and {pagetotal} as shown here:

{pagenum} of {pagetotal}

These values will be replaced with their respective page number and total pages in the final generated document.