PDF scheduler allows you to send a PDF report to specified contacts on a regular basis. Those are aggregate reports with all data totaled, as opposed to personalized reports with just one set of information.
An important difference in creating this report compared to a personalized report is that any variables which you include should be averages of answers, rather than using a variable of a single answer. If you were to include personalized variables, then when the reports are sent out, they will only include data of the last response received, rather than aggregating all data
This guide will teach you:
1. Create your PDF report
So to start with, create your PDF report from beginning to end using widgets to design the report with all graphs, tables, and texts that you want to include.
2. Create Scheduler
You'll find this feature under the Share tab of the ReportR options:
Click on Scheduler and click Create Scheduler.
3. Additional Settings
You'll find these options:
- Active - toggle the button to activate/deactivate your Scheduled PDF.
- When - click on the drop-down list and choose if you want to send a report daily, once a week on a specified day, or on the first day of every month. Choose the hour that your report should be sent (in your time zone).
- To - select your list of contact from the drop-down list. You cannot enter email addresses here, you'll only have the option to choose a contact list. So make sure you've got all the lists you need set up already in My Contacts.
- From - type sender's name and email address here.
- Subject - type your subject here. Make it short and to the point so your contacts will know what the email is about.
- Message - here's where you can enter the main body of the email message. You can use the editor icons to change the look of the text, add links, emoticons, and more!
- Filter - click the purple button to add a filter to specify that the email should only be sent if certain criteria is met. This could be for example, that the intro field is equal to "Marketing" and then only the Marketing department would receive the report. Be aware that you will need to have listed already created in My Contacts and make sure it matches up to the filter, for example, a list in My Contacts of the Marketing department contacts.
- Save - clicking this button will save the scheduled email and add the schedule to the schedules list below.
If you want to send a few scheduled report emails from the same PDF report that you've created, simply work through steps 1-7 again. This may be useful if you want to send reports with a separate message to different teams.
You can schedule your Report when a specific amount of response has been collected.
Only 1 PDF download will be added to your monthly PDF limit each time a scheduled email is sent out. Once the email is received, the contacts can download the report from the attachment as many times as they wish.
What's next?
- Conditional Rendering is a way of displaying elements based on a condition. It allows you to create simple conditions inside a widget and reduce the number of widgets and rules. With Conditional Rendering, you can render different UI markups based on certain conditions.
- The custom results by respondent table is a dynamic type of widget that will add records automatically to the table once you have set it up. You can set the maximum number of records to show and set the table to sort records from low to high or high to low.
- The PDF text widget allows you to write and display your content in your report. You can use it to give further information about questions, give feedback or explain a particular answer. This is an absolutely essential building block of your PDF report.