The Paper-less Office Is Alive and Well Thanks to Print to PDF

B
Badge +6

Let's be honest, people like to print things out. You know you do!

 

Allow me to paint a picture... You just filled out that leave request form on your company's intranet and you simply can't resist clicking on print after you submitted it.  Why? Well proof, of course!  We want to be able to have a tangible snapshot of that form, perhaps to print out, on that fancy multi-function copier down the hall, to pin on the wall of our cubicle to help count down the days until our vacation or maybe to stick a copy as a PDF into your OneDrive for Business folder labeled Personal for posterity.

 

But, even though that leave request form was created with Nintex Forms, your web browser made it look like a complete mess thanks to things like background graphics and navigation/menus from SharePoint showing up and even things like certain sections running over onto subsequent pages. Not ideal.

 

But, it's okay... Thanks to all of those crafty software developers here at Nintex, we are introducing Print to PDF in Nintex Forms Enterprise (2010 / 2013)!

 

So now when I open this form in my browser...

 

166367_pastedImage_37.png

 

...and I click on this button in the Ribbon...

 

    166369_pastedImage_39.png

 

I am prompted to Open or Save a PDF file...

 

166372_pastedImage_1.png

 

... that looks like this!

 

166371_pastedImage_0.png

 

Now I have a version of my form as a PDF file that I can print or store wherever I would like!

 

 

Here is a brief video of the Print to PDF functionality in action:

 

 

 

Highlights of this new functionality are:

 

  • No need to create a discreet "print view" of your forms
  • Long term storage for information collected with Nintex forms
  • Easily create a hard copy or transportable file for access in or outside of SharePoint
  • Control over the page layout (breaks and size) of your forms

 

 

So how do you add this functionality to your Nintex forms? It's easy! Just upgrade to the January 2016 release of Nintex Forms Enterprise 2010 or 2013. Then, the next time you open your form, you will have a Print to PDF button on the Ribbon. Also, if you open the Nintex Forms Designer, you will see the Print to PDF settings added to the Forms Settings dialog as pictured below:

 

166373_pastedImage_53.png

 

So there you have it...  Printing a Nintex form has never been easier!

 

Want to read more about all of the great new stuff in Nintex Forms? Check out the release notes below:

 

Nintex Forms 2013 - Release Notes

 

Nintex Forms 2010 - Release Notes

28 replies

K
Badge +8

This looks great and is so helpful.

I
Badge +2

Great feature! Not sure if this is in the pipeline, but I think it will be good to have a workflow action that can take a PDF form and email it as attachment or save it in library.

T
Userlevel 4
Badge +8

I agree with Ivan Yankulov​!  I suggested this as well, at the Ignite Conference when this feature was first discussed

Dan_Stoll
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Baby steps lads

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stolldan
B
Badge +6

Hi Ed,

It's not on our roadmap but out Product Team is looking at it. You can help them gauge interest from the user community by requesting it on the Nintex Uservoice site:

Customer Feedback for Nintex

X
Userlevel 5
Badge +12

That is a good idea!

G
Badge +5

In Nintex Forms for Office 365: 

110 votes,

Save Nintex Form as PDF

Add a feature so we can save a Nintex Form as a PDF and email it. This is especially useful when approvals are required.

"Alex Burton (Admin, Nintex) responded · July 22, 2015

I am pleased to confirm we are planning this feature now for on-premises and 365"

I hope it IS on the roadmap!

EuanGamble
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi Andrew Wolfe​,

You can use the CSS rule "@Media print" to adjust any additional styles for print only.

EuanGamble
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi Gerard Hyland​,

Now that we have implemented Print to PDF for on-premises we are planning the feature for Office365.

Cheers,
Euan

A

What's the recommended approach for tabbed based forms? (in terms of printing) Given that typically you would have just panels stacked one after the other with rules to show hide, is there a rule setting that will present all of the panels and perhaps hide the tab control?

X
Userlevel 5
Badge +12

I haven't tested a built in solution as part of the print control, but you could always create a rule along with say a tab to display all panels.  Just a thought anyways.

EuanGamble
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi Alan Coulter​,

The Print to PDF feature works based on what is visible on the screen so it will only print visible panels.

Cheers,

Euan

Gavin-Adams
Userlevel 4
Badge +12

Print to PDF excellent feature. Greatly helps the value proposition for Form Enterprise.

Part 2 - nintex form print to pdf via a nintex workflow would be great.

(I'll put that into user voice or vote for it).

We are currently using nintex forms and workflows for a leave application system.

The ability for a workflow to convert the nintex form to pdf once leave is completed as an archive would complete this solution.

Cheers

D
Badge +3

Yes, to add "Print to PDF" as a Workflow Action would be great!

What i don't understand is, that this is an enterprise exclusive feature...

B
Badge +6

Hi Derek,

I'm sorry if the decision to include the Print to PDF functionality in Nintex Forms Enterprise disappoints you. I will certainly pass your feedback along to the product team.

That said, here are a few observations that may help explain our position. One does not need Nintex Forms Enterprise to print a form and many of our customers simply do not have occasion to print their forms or they may have another strategy in place to create and print structured documents. But, since a subset of customers need increased functionality, similar to other premium offerings on the market (think print view in InfoPath), we offer Nintex Forms Enterprise which includes not only Print to PDF but a discrete SQL and Web Request controls and entitlement to build one Nintex Mobile Enterprise app.

So as you can see there is an incredible amount of value to consider when deciding to invest in the Enterprise version of Forms.

Best,

Brad

B
Badge +6

For those looking for a way to hide buttons on a form that they are printing to PDF, simply paste the below CSS into the Custom CSS section of the form settings:

@media print

{
input[type=button], input[type=reset], input[type=submit], button {display:none}
}

This rule will prevent any buttons from being rendered in the printed view.

EuanGamble
Userlevel 5
Badge +13

Hi diana Asmar​,

We are currently looking into how we can bring this feature into Office365. We will update Uservoice (http://nintex.uservoice.com) when the status changes.

Cheers,

Euan

X
Userlevel 5
Badge +12

Speaking of which, it would be cool if there was a Print to PDF button control with said logic already built into it.   Might be a good one for the User voice forum if its not there already.

D
Badge +3

Any plans to include this feature in Forms Standard? Or whats very interesting too, integrate it in Workflow Enterprise, so we automatically convert the from to a PDF

A
Badge +4

If you're using Forms Standard, as a workaround I recommend trying to print in Google Chrome (which also offers a basic Print to PDF feature as the default print option). IE isn't nice when it comes to printing Nintex forms that contain panel controls that fall on a page break -- especially if the panel acts as a container for controls which is usually the case.

In IE (but not Chrome), printing a Nintex form where a panel control is on the default page break effectively breaks the basic printing functionality of a Nintex form. Chrome and IE appear to handle Nintex form print mode differently when it comes to page breaks -- Chrome slices through the elements whereas IE pushes elements up or down the page. IE print mode will therefore cause overlapping of elements. This may be a stretch but it may also may be that the “@media print” code or related printing code in Nintex forms may have a bug or an unsupported technique, so IE treats it in a jumbled/overlapping way. Chrome is generally much more forgiving when it comes to bugs or unsupported techniques in a web page. The print handling may simply be a difference in approaches by the browsers though.

B
Badge +6

I can't say that there are any specific plans at this point in time but the product team is always looking for feedback to help prioritize development efforts. That said, please follow the link below to up vote this suggestion on our customer feedback site:

Workflow action to convert Nintex Form to pdf – Customer Feedback for Nintex

G
Userlevel 6
Badge +13

It would appear there is now!!!

https://community.nintex.com/community/tech-blog/blog/2016/07/20/the-continuing-journey-to-a-paper-less-office-in-the-cloud

S
Badge +8

We always hide the sharepoint ribbon on the top cause it looks ugly... is there a way to have he pdf print button in inside the form as a button??

B
Badge +4

Where does the PDF file go when you print to pdf on IPad or mobile devices?

D
Badge +2

Hi, I am also looking into the pdf file that can be send as an attachment to the email to the manager for his review. This is for him to open the file directly. This is also good when the manager is using mobile phone. No need for him to click on the link then enter password and log in. Just click the pdf file.

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