How to Hide Fields on Both PDFs from Within the Advanced Form Builder

GoCanvas allows you to hide fields on either PDF that is generated when you complete a submission. This allows your users to see the field on their devices while completing the submission but not appear on the PDF that you can download from GoCanvas or email any additional recipients.

This settings is most useful for Standard PDF as there are limited ways to customize the Standard PDF whereas the Designer PDF has more options for customization. It is important to note that these settings do apply to both.

You can also set a field or screen to show up on the PDF if you actually use and enter data into it. If the field or screen is blank, it will not be visible on the PDF when this setting is chosen. Similarly, you can choose to display a field only if the default field value is changed. Here are some common uses for this feature:

• Inspections - You only want items that fail an inspection to show up on the PDF.
• Calculations - You don't want certain calculations or fields used in calculations to show up on the PDF at all. You may not want your customer to see your calculations or maybe you have extra calculations that you have done to arrive at the value you want. Sometimes when using calculations in GoCanvas you might need to do multiple calculations to arrive at the value you want. Hiding those extra calculations on the PDF probably makes sense.
• Blank Fields - The most common use of this feature is hiding blank fields. If you don't fill in a field within your GoCanvas form then you may not want that blank field (and field label) to show up on your PDF. You can set up a field so it only shows up if you enter a value into it.

GoCanvas has a feature called Show This Field on PDF that you'll find in the More Field Settings for each field or in the Screen Settings for each screen. Follow the steps below to set up this feature:

​For Fields

1. Launch the Form Builder for your form.

2. Click on the field in your form that you would like to set a PDF Visible option. This will open the Field Settings.

3. Click More.

4. Click on the Show This Field on PDF drop down to change the PDF Visible settings.

5. Publish to device once you have finished making any form revisions. Your PDFs will now retain the new PDF Visible settings.

For Screens

1. Launch the Form Builder for your form.

2. Click on the name of your screen from the App Outline that you would like to set a PDF Visible option.

3. If not already open, click the Gear icon to open the Screen Settings.

4. Click on the Show This Field on PDF drop down to change the PDF Visible settings.

5. Publish to device once you have finished making any form revisions. Your PDFs will now retain the new PDF Visible settings.

PDF Visible Options

• Always: The field label and value will always show up on the PDF even if it is left blank.
• Never: The field label and value entered will never show up on the PDF.
• Only if field is not empty: The field label and value entered will only show up on the PDF if you enter a value in the field. If it is left blank it will NOT show up on the PDF.
• Only if default value has been changed: The field label and value entered will only show up on the PDF if you change the value from the default value, which you would set in the option called Default Value. You will find this just below the Field Label. This is great for inspections when you just want to show items that fail an inspection. Set your default value to "passed" or "ok" for all fields that are part of the inspection. If you flag an item as "failed" then it will show up because you changed the default value.
• Only if default value has been changed & field is not empty: The field label and value entered will show up if you change the default but do NOT leave the field blank. If you leave the field blank it will not show up.
• Only to addresses set on the Email Options page: The field label and value entered will only show up on the version of the PDF sent to the e-mail addresses you specify in the E-mail Options page for the form. For example, if you specify that each time you fill in a form that it always gets emailed to team@gocanvas.com then this particular PDF Visible setting will only display the field on the version sent to that address. If your user enters a customer's email address too, then that version will NOT contain this field label and field value. This is for situations where you need someone in the office to see what was entered into a field but you don't want your customer to see it. Learn more about E-mail Options.
• Fields on this screen have been set to different visibility options: This applies to Screen Settings if the PDF Visibility field setting has been applied to one or more fields on the screen. Selecting a different option will revert all other fields on the screen to the same settings, including the ones edited individually.

The other option that is similar is the Show This Field on Web option. What we are referring to is the view you see in the Submissions area if you just click on an individual submission to view it on the web. You have the same choices except for the very last one since this is not related to emailing a PDF.