Import a Form from a Word Document
The Word importer builds a Zegeba form from a Word document: its text, tables and pictures become form elements laid out roughly as they were on the page. A plain document gives you text labels to change into the element types you need. A document with import annotations such as {DATE} or {NUMBER} gives you the right element types straight away, which pays off when there are many forms to bring across.
Before You Start
- Importing needs the Admin or Form Manager role. See Role Matrix.
- The file must be a Word document, .docx. Forms in PDF or Excel are converted to Word first, see below.
- Close the document in Word before importing. A document that is open often fails to import.
- The importer brings across the structure of the form, never data that was typed into it.
Steps
Import the document
- Open Templates > Form Templates.
- Open the ⋮ menu on the collection that should hold the new form and select Import Forms.
- In the Import Form dialog select MS Word file .docx and pick the document.
- Confirm the destination collection and select Import. A new template appears in the collection, named after the document, with the imported design as v1.
- Open the template and select Design to review the result in the Designer.
Tidy up a plain import
Without annotations every paragraph becomes a Text Label element, tables become grids and pictures become multimedia elements. Finish the form in the Designer:
- Change a label into an input by selecting it and setting Element Type under Element Properties > Settings: a date into a Date element, a checkbox column into a Multiple Select, a name into a Text Input.
- Check the text sizes, in particular how they print in the PDF report.
- Style the grids with borders, background colors and padding as needed.
- Resize pictures, and put a picture in a borderless grid row when its placement matters.
Annotate the document for a better import
An annotation is a code in curly brackets placed in the document where the element should be. The most basic one names the element type: {DATE}, {NUMBER}, {TEXT}, {MULTI}. Text just before the code becomes the element's label, so Car No {NUMBER} imports as a Number element labelled Car No. Add an Element ID with a hash: {NUMBER|#part_number}. A label element can carry both: {This is the label I want|#element_id}.
Annotated tables import as grids with the right element in each cell, so a form built this way is ready to use as soon as it lands. Every code, with its options, is listed in Word Import Annotations.
Reuse an import template for many forms
When many documents share the same header, footer or standard choices, build them once as a form in a collection named Import Templates. Its elements are added to every form imported from Word:
- The template's elements go on a page at the start of the new form, unless the document places them with a {START|#element_id} code.
- Standard sets of checkboxes, such as spare parts or weekdays, live in the template as Multiple Select elements. A {SET_DEFAULT_CHECKBOX|#employees} code in the document picks which set a plain checkbox becomes.
Zegeba support can help set this up for a large import.
Forms in PDF or Excel
The importer reads Word files, so convert first:
- Open a PDF in Word and save it as .docx. Word's own converter gives a better result than Acrobat's.
- An Excel table is pasted into Word, annotated if you wish, and saved. A Zegeba grid holds at most 12 columns, so a wider table has to be restructured before import.
- For a very wide table, import only the column headings: copy them in Excel, paste them transposed into a new sheet so they run downwards, paste that column into Word as text only, and import. The headings arrive as text labels you can drag into the grids you build.
FAQs
The import failed. What do I check first?
That the document is not open in Word. Then simplify the document: text boxes, floating pictures and nested tables trip the importer, so move the text into the document body, delete the boxes and try again.
Does the importer bring the answers written in the Word form?
No. It imports the structure of the form, its texts, tables and pictures. Data captured on paper or in Word is not imported.
Can I import the same document again after changing it?
Yes. Each import creates a new template. Delete the one you do not want, or archive it if it already holds entries.
Which Word features come across?
Text, tables and pictures. Headers and footers are imported unless a {SETTINGS|header=false;footer=false} code turns them off. Fonts and colors are approximated and are finished in the Designer.
