How to add new Sections, Columns, and Pages to the PDF

NOTE: This article refers to the GoCanvas PDF Designer. If you are looking to customize the Standard PDF, please click here.

If you want to decrease the number of pages in your PDF output or streamline the overall appearance, adding sections and columns are a great way to save space.

Launch the PDF Designer by either toggling to it using the button at the top of the Form Builder or by going to the PDF Options in the Form Settings page and pressing Launch PDF Designer in the upper right corner of the page.

Adding Sections to your PDF

To add a new section, hover your pointer over a blank area in your design. The Click to add Section option will appear in the first available position for a new section to be added. What if you don't want to add a field to that location? Keep selecting the Click to add Section button until you have a section added in the needed area of your design. Any unpopulated sections will appear blank in the output.

Adding Columns to your PDF

You can further customize your sections by dividing them into columns. Hover your pointer over an existing column to reveal the section properties. Click Add Column when you want to divide a section, or click Remove Column when columns should be deleted. You can add a column to a section at any time.

NOTE: If a field has already been added to a section, clicking the Add Column button will place a blank column to the right of the field.

By default, columns are equally sized when added to a section. You can resize the width of columns by placing your pointer over the section and dragging the column divider left or right.

Adding pages to your PDF

To force information to be entered on a new page of the PDF, open the Elements tab.

Click on the Page Break icon and drag the option to your PDF design. You should see a solid, blue line appear under the section where you would like to force additional information to appear on a new page.

You can delete page breaks by placing your curser between pages in the PDF Designer. This will reveal the Delete option to the right.

You can also set a page break to follow a field from the Advanced Form Builder. In the More area of the field settings, there is an option to include a Page Break After:

This property is used to start a new page after a field on a submission saved as a PDF. This property can be set for all field types.