A web form can fill one of your templates every time someone submits it. You choose the template, decide which question fills which placeholder, and each response produces a finished document: a contract, an application, a certificate, an order form. You get it by email, the respondent can get it too, and every document is kept with its response.
This works with Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.pptx) and Excel (.xlsx) templates that use {placeholders}. If you haven’t made one yet, see How to create templates.
Start a form from a template
The quickest way in. On the Web Forms page, open New form from a template, pick the template, optionally name the form, and click Create form.
ActiveMerge reads the template and adds one question for each placeholder, already connected to it. It guesses the question type from the placeholder’s name: {email} becomes an Email question (and is marked as the respondent’s email), {start_date} a Date question, {phone} a Phone question, and {address} or {notes} a Long text question. Everything else becomes Short text, with the placeholder name turned into a label, so {employee_name} becomes “Employee name”.
Review the questions (reword labels, mark the ones that must be answered, add options where a dropdown fits better), then Publish.
Connect a template to an existing form
- Open the form and go to Settings.
- In Document, choose the Template.
- Choose the File type: Same as the template (a .docx stays a .docx) or PDF.
- Choose who gets the document by email (see Getting the document).
- Click Save settings.
After saving, Settings tells you how many placeholders aren’t filled by any question yet, with a Map them in Build button.
Map questions to placeholders
In the Build tab:
- See every placeholder. Click an empty area so no question is selected. The right-hand panel lists each placeholder in the template and which question fills it, or Not filled. Click a question’s name to jump to it.
- Auto-match by name. This button connects every unfilled placeholder whose name matches a question’s label, ignoring case, spaces and punctuation. “Employee name” matches
{employee_name}and{EmployeeName}. - Map a question by hand. Select the question, then under Fills in the document choose Add a placeholder…. One question can fill several placeholders (for example a name used in the heading and again by the signature line). Remove one with ✕.
Each placeholder takes one question. If you add a placeholder that another question already fills, it moves to the question you’re editing.
Mapped questions show a green → {placeholder} tag in the form. If the tag turns amber, that placeholder is no longer in the template (it was renamed or removed), so map the question to its new name.
A yellow banner above the form shows how many placeholders are still unfilled. If you publish anyway, ActiveMerge asks you to confirm first. Unfilled placeholders, and questions a respondent skipped or couldn’t see, come out blank in the document.
Mapping is part of the form, so publish after changing it. Responses use the mapping of the version they were submitted on.
What can’t be mapped: Signature questions (the drawn signature isn’t placed in the document yet) and Heading blocks. Line-item placeholders such as {item.price} and e-signature fields such as {{sign.signature_1}} aren’t listed, because a single answer can’t fill them.
How answers appear: choices appear as their label (“Sales”, not sales), several checkbox choices are joined with commas, and a consent checkbox appears as Yes or No.
Getting the document
Attach the document to the response emails I get (on by default) attaches the document to your new-response email, instead of the PDF of answers. The answers are still listed in the email itself. This needs Email me each new response to be on in Notifications.
Email the document to the respondent sends them a separate email with their document. This needs a question marked as Respondent’s email in Build.
On the Responses tab, every response that produced a document has a Download document button, whatever your email settings.
In your webhook, if you use one, each response includes the document’s name, file type and a download link that works for 24 hours.
Documents are generated in the background, usually within a few seconds. If generating takes a retry, your email waits for the document. If it still isn’t ready after the last try, you get the response email with the answers PDF, and a separate “Document ready” email once the document is made.
Credits
Each document costs 2 credits, the same as a document generated any other way, and it’s charged to the account that owns the form. A response is never charged twice, even if a step is retried.
If there aren’t enough credits, the response is still saved and you’re still emailed about it. The document step shows as failed with “Not enough credits”. Add credits, open the response and click Retry failed steps.
The response itself doesn’t use credits; it counts toward your monthly responses instead (see Web Forms).
Troubleshooting
Open the response and look at What happened. Each step shows Done or Failed, with the reason underneath.
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Not enough credits to generate the document | Add credits, then Retry failed steps. |
| The document template was removed | The template was deleted. Choose another in Settings → Document. |
| The document could not be generated | Usually a problem in the template file. Open it, check the placeholders are typed as {name}, save it again, and retry. |
| No “Document to respondent” step | The form has no question marked as Respondent’s email, or the respondent left it empty. |
| You got the answers PDF instead of the document | The document wasn’t ready by the last try. You’ll get a “Document ready” email when it is, or retry from the response. |
Documents currently go by email and to the Responses tab. They aren’t saved to your cloud destinations.