Reformat a Table with too many Fields in the PDF Designer

September 18, 2024 16:30

Lauren Sunday

Community Manager

If your loop screen or table has so many fields it's unreadable on the PDF, it's easy to reformat the field layout in the PDF Designer.

Change Table Layout

If a table or loop screen has many fields, the columns get very compressed on the PDF Designer, making it practically unusable. This can be rectified by redistributing fields and relabelling column headers to make each field readable.

PDF Designer_Table_Too Many Fields.png

Redistribute Fields

The first step is to add the table to the PDF workspace either by using Auto Layout or dragging and dropping the table into the PDF.

When you hover over a field value in the table, you will notice a four-directional arrow appears that will indicate you can move the field by selecting and dragging it to an alternative column.

PDF Designer_Table_Move Field Cursor.png

Please Note

Be careful to hover until you see that arrow because you may accidentally select the red trash can, which will delete the field value from the table. The only way to return that field to the table is to drag the entire table back into the PDF Designer.

Often, tables have fields that are contextually related to each other and combining them in a column will make sense. An example of this is combining Subtotal, Tax, and Total fields in one column.

PDF Designer_Table_Combine Fields in Columns.png

Delete Excess Columns

Next, in order to more easily read the field labels and column headers, delete the excess columns. PDF Designer_Table_Combine Fields_Delete Columns.png

PDF Designer_Table_Combine Fields_Delete Columns.png

Relabel Column Headers

Column header labels can be replaced by highlighting the label and typing the new header label. PDF Designer_Table_Combine Fields_Relable Headers.png

PDF Designer_Table_Combine Fields_Relable Headers.png

Optional Step: Add Field Labels

The original table layout includes the field label for each field as a column header label. Once those fields are moved around and columns are deleted, valuable context is lost for these fields. You can use the Text element in the PDF Designer to label any or all fields in the table. PDF Designer_Table_Combine Fields_Add Field Labels.gif

PDF Designer_Table_Combine Fields_Add Field Labels.gif

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