Document Generation - show multi-choice checkboxes on PDF

Hi,

To answer your second question first, no - you should not need to retag every field each time you make a change - only retag what you’ve changed in the form e.g. if you added a new field.  Even if you changed an existing field, you should not need to re-tag it.

For your first question, I’d recommend using MS Word merge fields to do this as you can get them to insert cool symbols such as a tick box (or empty box if the option wasn’t picked).  You’ll want to create a formula for each option using an IF statement and if the option is selected then you’ll use a tick box and if it’s not selected you’ll use an empty box.  The Wingdings 2 font has those options and I’ve included their character codes in the attached word document (82 and 163 respectively).

Here’s where it gets trickier - MS Word has no easy way of searching for text in a formula.  e.g. you can’t issue a statement along the lines of “If the multi-select check box contains ‘orange’ then use a tickbox otherwise use a blank box”.  Therefore the easiest way to get around this is to set individual variables for each option - much easier explained by an example below.

Here’s my sample form with a multi-select checkbox:

Then I’ve gone and created 4 form variables (one per choice):

Now in your Word document, go to Quick parts and insert a field and choose IF from the drop down list:

Paste this formula as a placeholder and hit OK:

IF "formVariable"="true" Y N

Your word document should be showing the letter N.  Right mouse click on that letter and pick “toggle field codes” or you can use the keyboard shortcut ALT-F9.  Now we can have some fun.

You can replace the text formVariable with the appropriate choice variable from the document tagger and you can replace the Y and N with the wingdings symbols (go to Insert | Symbol to do this).  Here’s what mine looks like fully populated:

and here’s what it looks like after a doc gen run:

I’ve attached the word template to this post and you can also import the workflow using this key:

RkrY865HKeL4XCbAwqZKsrozc3u1LHPEvmXogBfuopxJ2VMBG

I hope that helps!

Cheers,

Chris

Thank you - I really appreciate the detailed guidance! Everything worked as expected until I got back to the workflow and opened the document tagger and the form variables are not showing under the start variable section. Could it be that it’s because I have it connected to a column in the list? I noticed that your screenshot with the multiple choice field is not showing the connected to option but that’s the only difference I’m able to come up with. 

As for tagging the template, I’m not sure why I’m not able to just update the field/tag that was changed but I definitely do have to retag the whole thing. It’s not a massive deal, really just only when I’m testing something and making one change at a time. I am definitely replacing the file in the SharePoint library and am making sure to refresh before running the workflow again but that’s the least of my issues right now haha.

Let’s just double check that the form variables are indeed saved by going back into the form designer and checking - they should absolutely be present in the document tagger if they are saved.

For your connect to question, just double checking - are you using Nintex Automation Cloud or Nintex for SharePoint?  Not that it really matters because you don’t need to reference the mutli-select list directly in doc gen as you’re using the form variables instead.

Finally, for the retagging.  That does not sound right and it might not be a big deal for you now with only a few fields to retag but imagine if you had a document with hundreds of tags.  I’d recommend submitting a support case for that one.  As an experiment, change something in your word template - not a tag but just add some extra text somewhere and then run the workflow.  If the document doesn’t not generate properly then there’s an issue.  If you’re storing your template in a SP doc library then you should be able to edit it directly from there by clicking on it and it should open in either the web browser version or your deskop version (depending on your setup).  You should be able to make a change directly and hit save so no need to edit offline and replace the file.

Yes, the variables are definitely saved in the form. We are using the Nintex Forms Responsive Designer and Nintex Automation Cloud. Not sure if this matters but for my multi choice field in the list, I have apple, orange, pear, banana but the control in the form shows this. I’ve tried the variable both with “apple” and “apple|apple” but neither pulls it into the workflow. Either way I don’t think that should matter but something to note.

Sorry for the delay - thank you so much! I’m really excited to try this and I will make sure to report back on how it worked - I really appreciate the help!

EDIT: It’s definitely working to show the checkboxes - very exciting! The only thing I have left to figure out is why not all of the selected options are showing as checked but it’s Friday afternoon and my brain has left the building. Thanks again!  » Cancel that - I had spaces in the quick part field that shouldn’t be there. It’s working beautifully!!

Great result! :)