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New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

  • 1.  New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Posted 07-15-2022 15:42

    Many ProntoForms users in the field are leveraging external documents in PDF format (blueprints, asset diagrams, etc.) while capturing your business-critical information. This external document often requires notes, sketches, signatures and more to be added to your records in order to fully capture site information. I am very happy to say that this week ProntoForms has released our Document Editor functionality.

     

    Here's why we made this:

    #1: This new feature allows you to upload a PDF document as a Document Editor Question Type for you and field team members to annotate and/or capture signatures on it. This ensures consistent documentation throughout the lifecycle of a submission for the entire team. Additionally, the Document Editor allows mobile users to upload PDF's for annotation from their own device, which can be included in the submission.

    #2: The Document Editor functions directly in the ProntoForms App which eliminates any third-party Apps or tools for editing, leading to increased efficiency in the field.

    #3: With the annotated PDF attached to your form submission, all data is contained in one tidy that is sent directly to your system of record.

    Click here to see exactly how to implement this feature on your forms!

     

    Here are a couple of quick Use Cases as outlined by our Product Team: 

    Use Case 1: Blueprint Annotation (PDF added by citizen developer)



    A contractor meets with a client for an on-site job evaluation and quote. The contractor opens their form to gather information about the job, such as cost estimates and additional client requests.

    With a Document Editor question, the contractor opens a PDF from the form (which was added by the citizen developer) with a floor plan of the job site. They mark up the floor plan to show the client where new power sockets will be installed.

    The contractor saves their annotations and completes the rest of the form. If they need to make changes to the file, the contractor can open the PDF again with their previous notes intact.

    After the contractor submits the form, a ProntoForms Admin user can view and download the annotated PDF file on the Form Submissions page.


    Use Case 2: Signed PDFs (Field Technician adds the PDF document to the form)

     


    The Document Editor allows field users to review the PDF document as it was intended, and sign off without having to navigate away from ProntoForms.  For instance, here the field technician is on the site with a customer.  The field technician has a paper document which the customer signs the field technician then uploads the scanned image as a PDF file to the form.  Or if the field technician has the document saved as a PDF file on their mobile device then they can capture the customer's signature on it and upload it to the form.

    Who has their own use case to add to our list? 



    ------------------------------
    Matt MacIntyre
    Customer Success Manager
    ProntoForms
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  • 2.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Adopter
    Posted 07-15-2022 16:40

    This is an awesome feature! Can you please increase the size limit? I will need more than that to optimize some Forms.

     

    Thanks!

     






  • 3.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Posted 07-18-2022 13:25
    Hey Cesar, we will reach out to you directly and work through your request. Thanks for the note!

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    David Casal Del Castillo
    Senior Customer Success Manager
    ProntoForms
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  • 4.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Adopter
    Posted 07-20-2022 09:27
    Our engineering firm, Booth & Associates, has some potentially exciting use-cases for this feature. The primary use would probably be giving our field inspectors the ability to redline as-built drawings in the field. Would be a great way to give our customers a timely and easy-to-access file showing where contractors had to make adjustments during construction in the field compared to the original design.

    Similar to Cesar, we think we would need an increase to the file size limit for this to be really effective. Our estimate is closer to a requirement of 15MB in order for us to handle the majority of files provided by our utility customers.

    ------------------------------
    Matt Lambert
    Vice President of Operations
    PrimeLine Utility Services
    WA
    mlambert@primelineus.com
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Adopter
    Posted 07-21-2022 12:06

    Is it possible to restrict the tools when editing? Some people use the free style pencil and it's hard to understand the handwriting, is it possible to disable specific tools when editing?

     

    Thank you

     

    Cesar

     

     






  • 6.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Posted 07-22-2022 09:31
    Edited by Craig MacMaster 07-22-2022 13:17

    Hi Cesar this is a great question. Currently the only way for us to remove the option is to remove it for all users. Otherwise we would need to make the tool configurable so you would be able to pick and choose which options are available for your team. I really appreciate the question, as the community is a great place to find out if other users are having the same problem. In the end it boils down to the quality of hand writing and perhaps whether the individual is using a stylus. But even with the use of a stylus, legibility can be difficult. 

    Thinking about this more and removing the free style pencil would also remove the ability for the user to draw on top of the PDF which would definitely be limiting for a number of customers.

    I will bring this back to the team to discuss further though. Please let us know if you encounter any other concerns as we appreciate the feedback!


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    Craig MacMaster
    Senior User Experience Designer
    ProntoForms
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Posted 07-28-2022 07:17
    Hi Cesar,

    just wanted to mention that Stu posted a great video on the document editor. A part of the video shows how the voice to text feature can be used when entering text which should alleviate some of the trouble around poor handwriting. Also makes it a lot easier of course for folks who don't like typing on the internal keyboard. I'd be interested to know if this would be help for you.

    Here's a link to the video:
    https://community.prontoforms.com/discussion/document-editor-configuration-for-citizen-developers#bmf35f532b-8ed0-409d-a7a8-00818602573b

    thanks,
    Craig

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    Craig MacMaster
    Senior User Experience Designer
    ProntoForms
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Adopter
    Posted 07-28-2022 09:37

    Thank you, this is great!

     






  • 9.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Adopter
    Posted 01-31-2023 19:30
    Hi Matt,
    This is a great new feature, thank you! It appears to solve one of our prior dilemmas of being able to dispatch a form to another user for them to interact with an attached document. One question we have is whether there's any way to combine the attached PDF and the form output PDF into one document? This would save us a step on the back end when it comes to filing the documentation.

    ------------------------------
    Mark Warwick
    Gas Engineer
    PG&E
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Posted 02-02-2023 09:49

    Hi Mark,

    Interesting idea! I could see how that would make the process more efficient, but at this time our system can't do this nor do I think it is something we would consider in the near/med term.



    ------------------------------
    Natalie Tallon
    Product Manager
    ProntoForms
    ntallon@prontoforms.com
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Posted 09-12-2024 18:03

    For the sake of feedback, our team is looking to accomplish the same thing as Mark. Or to at least have a way the technician using the app can get the document. Right now only an admin can get it from the form submission on a desktop which feels more laborious than necessary.

    Regards,



    ------------------------------
    James Leschinsky
    Field Service Engineer
    nVent
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: New Feature Announcement – Document Editor

    Posted 09-12-2024 19:20

    Hi James,

    Thanks for sharing your feedback there, it's really helpful. About getting those documents to technicians, I wanted to ask about how your team is working currently - did I capture this correctly:

    The mobile user opens a form, and while they're doing their work and filling it out, they're accessing a document to edit, like sketching on a floor plan, or making notations on a blueprint. Once they click to send their submission, currently only your admins are seeing the full picture, the submission and that edited document, and you're saying that's more laborious that way, and you want the mobile user to have the same visibility. 

    You have probably already ruled this out, but just in case, and for anyone reading the thread, there is a way to make sure the mobile user gets their submission and their edited document attachments, via the Email Data Destination. In the LIVE web portal: from the top nav panel, in the Manage Forms menu, click on Data Destinations. Alternatively, once inside a FormSpace, in the top right, click Destinations, then click Email Data Destination.

    Once inside the Email Headers tab, there's the option to 'Send email to the Form Submission Submitter':

    That way, the mobile user gets sent their copy of the submission as it was done, and any file attachments can be sent separately:

    There may be other methods, whether via API, Connections like Google Drive or SharePoint, or more Data Destination settings worth exploring too, depending on your setup and needs. Do let us know if you'd like to dig in further. 



    ------------------------------
    Erika Lapenat
    Technical Content Developer
    TrueContext University
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