Changes / View Change
- Created:
- Status: staging
We rebuilt AutoDocs from the ground up. Designing a document, filling it with your data, and getting it out the door is now a single, reliable workflow.
** A new full-screen document designer**
AutoDocs now opens into a dedicated, full-screen designer instead of a cramped inline editor.
- Drag, drop, and snap. Fields snap to page edges, margins, and each other, with alignment guides as you move them.
- Select several at once and align or evenly distribute them.
- Keyboard control. Arrow keys nudge a field; hold Shift to move faster. Save with Cmd/Ctrl+S. Delete removes a field.
- Zoom and page navigation for multi-page templates, with a crisp preview at any zoom level.
- A layers panel to rename, reorder, and see which page each field lives on.
** What you design is what you get**
The designer now previews text exactly the way the generated PDF will render it — same fonts, same wrapping, same auto-shrinking when text is too long for its box. No more surprises after you generate.
There's also an Actual Render view that pulls back the real generated PDF, merged against a real record, and shows it right in the designer so you can compare your layout against the finished product.
Fields stay exactly where you put them
Field positions are now stored in the document's own measurement system rather than screen pixels. Layouts no longer drift when you reopen a document on a different screen or window size. Existing documents are upgraded automatically the first time you open and save them.
** New field types**
- Checkmarks and symbols. Drop a ✓, ✗, ●, ★, arrow, or other symbol anywhere on the page — useful for checkbox-style forms and approval marks.
- Fill existing PDF form fields. If your uploaded template already has fillable fields, AutoDocs can detect them and map your data straight into them, keeping the form's original look. One click imports every field it finds, with suggested merge tags.
** Lock the finished document**
A new Flatten option makes the generated PDF non-editable — the values are baked in and recipients can't change them. If a template can't be safely locked, AutoDocs tells you why instead of quietly handing back an editable file.
** Generate for many records at once**
- Select up to 50 records and generate them in one go.
- Watch progress per record, retry any that fail, and download everything as one ZIP — retried documents join the same archive.
- If a slow-down occurs, AutoDocs backs off and retries on its own.
** Email documents directly**
Generated documents can now be emailed straight from AutoDocs — no download-and-attach step.
- Send to the record's client contacts automatically, or to a custom list of addresses.
- Reusable subject and body with merge tags, personalized per recipient.
- Works for a single record or a whole batch, with per-record status and retry.
** Personalized to each record**
Merge tags now resolve against the actual record you're generating for — client, case, event, payment, location, portal, and language details all fill in correctly. Previously every record could produce the same generic document.
** More typography control**
Set fonts, size, weight, style, color, line spacing, and alignment for the whole document, then override any of it on individual fields. Text can wrap automatically and shrink to fit its box.
** Faster, safer, more reliable**
Behind the scenes, the PDF service was rebuilt on managed infrastructure with authenticated access, automated testing on every change, and safeguards around uploaded templates. In practice: fewer failed generations, clearer error messages when something's wrong with a template, and no regressions to documents you already rely on — every existing document type generates exactly as before.
** Known limitation**
Documents currently support Latin-based characters. Non-Latin text (for example Chinese, Japanese, or Korean) isn't rendered yet — support is planned.