Changelog

Follow up on the latest improvements andย updates.

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A few powerful features have been added to DocsAutomator:
  • Embedded template experience
  • Previews for all data sources (incl. data auto-generated with AI)
  • Custom sort order for groups
  • A few smaller improvements + bug fixes: Count as a group calculation option, emails for errors, renaming automations from your dashboard
๐ŸŽจ Embedded template experience
Instead of editing your templates in a separate window, templates are now embedded in DocsAutomator's interface. In addition, you will find helpers making it easier to add placeholders / line items with the right syntax.
Document Previews for All Data Sources (+ AI generated sample data)
๐Ÿ”Ž Previews for all data sources (+ AI generated data)
All data sources now have a preview feature in DocsAutomator's interface. In addition, you can generate sample data with AI (available for Glide, Noloco, Zapier and API).
๐Ÿ”€ Custom sort order for groups
If you are grouping line items, you can now manually set the order of groups.
๐Ÿ› Smaller improvements + bugs
  • Group calculations have "count" as an option now
  • You receive error notitfications via email (and can specify multiple recipients under settings)
  • You can rename your automations from your dashboard
  • Smaller bugs and quality of life improvements :)
๐Ÿ”ข
Auto Row Numbers
You can now add auto row numbers to line items which will add an extra column with the row number to your line item table rows.
๐Ÿงฎ
Group Calculations
When grouping is enabled, a row with column calculations can now be added at the end of every group. Calculations include sums, averages, min, max and medians. Formatting is detected automatically.
๐Ÿซฃ
Hiding of Group Key Columns
DocsAutomator now gives you the option to hide the column that contains the grouping key.
Full update on YouTube:
Smaller improvements & bug fixes:
  • Zapier: Integration now supports markdown
  • Zapier: ClickUp ID bug is fixed
  • Airtable: Checkboxes ticked off are now displayed properly
  • Multi use placeholders paragraph deletion bug fixed
๐Ÿ“„ Save PDFs in Google Drive
DocsAutomator now allows you to save generated PDFs automatically in Google Drive. You enable this setting at the end of your automations in a new area called "Actions After Document Generation". To learn more, click on the link below.
Screenshot 2024-07-19 at 12
๐Ÿ› Bug fixes + Quality of Life Improvements
  • Markdown / rich text handling has been significantly improved, especially for Airtable rich text fields
  • Setting multiple paragraph / row deletions per paragraph / row doesn't lead to errors anymore
  • Run history is now available on the free plan
๐ŸŒŸ Grouping Line Items
DocsAutomator now allows you to group line items according to values for a certain line item placeholder. In the example below, you see a group for every task status. DocsAutomator automatically adds a "header row" for every group and you have various options to style that header row. Click on the link below to learn more (incl. video demo).
Screenshot 2024-05-31 at 15
๐Ÿ”— Zapier Embedded
You can now create Zaps straight from the DocsAutomator interface. If you select Zapier as your data source, you will find Zapier embedded at the end of the page under "Set up Document Creation":
๐Ÿ› Bug fixes + quality of life improvements
  • DocsAutomator's search bar now allows for searching for automation IDs in addition to automation names
  • Automation IDs can now be copied from your dashboard and automations list
  • ClickUp Custom Task IDs are now supported
๐Ÿ”— Zapier Integration
DocsAutomator now integrates with Zapier and the integration includes all(!) of DocsAutomator's features. To get started, head over to DocsAutomator's (brand new) knowledge base! You will find two videos there: A "getting started" video + an advanced video for adding line items and images via Zapier.
๐Ÿ” Email + Password Login
You can now login to DocsAutomator with email and password. If you have signed up with your Google account, go through the "forgot your password?" flow to create a password for the first time. You are then able to share your credentials with others.
๐Ÿ“š New, updated knowledge base
DocsAutomator's knowledge base has been rebuilt from the ground up! It features a lot more articles + in-depth guides and will be expanded over the next weeks and months!
๐Ÿ“‹ V3 Simplified Line Items Syntax
As part of DocsAutomator v3, line items have been simplified significantly. Adding multiple line items is a lot easier now, especially from Glide and via API. Please see the Glide show case below:
๐Ÿ› Bug fixes + quality of life improvements
  • When hovering over placeholders in DocsAutomator, you now see a preview of the placeholder (helpful when they're long and get truncated)
  • ClickUp integration: Multiple images can now be added
  • Image pre-processing: PNGs are not converted (to preserve potential transparency)
  • Airtable rating emojis are printed in documents
  • Conditional rendering for numbers: Bug fixed where numbers were not respected as conditions
โœ… Automatic Template Check
Whenever you open an automation or refresh your Google Doc template, DocsAutomator now runs a test to detect any problems with your template.
๐Ÿงช Preview any Airtable Record
You can now preview any Airtable record by adding the record id in the preview area. Previously, only a list of 20 random records was available (still is if you click on "List"), which was limiting for large datasets.
๐Ÿ”Ž Search Automations
The dashboard now has a search bar to find automations more easily.
๐Ÿ”— Create documents via Webhook
Creating documents via Webhook (relevant for Airtable and ClickUp at the moment) is back in its original form. You'll find it at the end of your Airtable / ClickUp automations in the "Set up Document Creation" section. There is a slight change in that the document now renders in the opening window after it's created. You can safely close the window though and not wait for its completion.
Please watch the following video from its original release last year to learn more about it: https://youtu.be/4-d0gm8ZjIY?si=7Ml_t_heFXIJs69C

new

improved

DocsAutomator v3

DocsAutomator v3 is a completely new & much improved version of DocsAutomator. This blog post describes all updates & changes:
DocsAutomator has improved with a new integration (Noloco), a new run history feature ๐Ÿƒโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ•’, new options to fine-tune the quality and size of images ๐Ÿ–ผ๏ธ and a few bug fixes ๐Ÿ›.
Please find all updates below!
1) ๐Ÿ”— Noloco Integration
DocsAutomator now natively integrates with Noloco. Noloco is a no-code platform for teams to create internal tools on top of their data in PostgreSQL, MySQL, Airtable & Google Sheets.
The integration is super well done (shoutout to Darragh Mc Kay, Matt Harrison and the team) and makes document creation a breeze. Check it out! Demo: https://youtu.be/s_4gCjS5aPQ?si=RotoAfTSzUoM6zCE
2) ๐Ÿƒโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ•’ Run History (paid accounts only)
Paid accounts now have access to a log of all document creation attempts, including errors and corresponding error messages.
This makes debugging a lot easier, especially for Glide, Noloco and other API integrations.
Please note that logging only started March 1, 2024. DocsAutomator only logs what's necessary for display and debugging purposes. Values for placeholders are never logged and the retention period is 1 year.
Screenshot 2024-03-07 at 14
3) ๐Ÿ–ผ๏ธ Set Image Quality + Max. Width
You can now set the image quality and maximum width for your images globally in your automation settings. Following last week's announcement of the new automatic image conversion, compression and resizing feature, this gives you more control over how images are displayed in your documents and helps you optimize the file size of generated documents.
The quality setting defines the compression level from "low" to "best. The max. width defines how much images are scaled down. As an example: if an image passed is 4000 x 4000px, it would then be scaled down to 600 x 600px. Images smaller than 600px in width are not upscaled.
Group 1
4) Bug fixes
  1. In case of errors during document creation, created Google Docs are now deleted.
  2. Airtable only: Legal page format is now displayed correctly in previews.
  3. Airtable only: Empty line items don't cause an error any more.
DocsAutomator now includes automatic image resizing, compression, and conversion. This update is designed to simplify your document preparation process by ensuring images meet DocsAutomatorโ€™s requirements without any manual adjustments or preprocessing.
Features at a Glance:
  • Resizing: Automatically adjusts images to a maximum width of 600px. Smaller images are not enlarged to maintain their original quality.
  • Compression: Reduces image file size beyond resizing with minimal impact on quality, helping documents stay within the 10MB export limit.
  • Conversion: Supports a wide range of image formats (JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PDF, SVG, WebP, and others)
All these adjustments happen automatically in the background with every request, in order to adhere to DocsAutomator's 10MB export file size limit.
Besides minor bug fixes, there have been three bigger updates:
  1. Airtable only: AI fields are now supported
  2. Airtable only: Numbers can now optionally be formatted according to locale settings (see preview in automation settings)
  3. PDF expiration date: Expiration dates can now be set in automation settings, anything from "no expiration" to "immediate". The default is "no expiration"
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