Many may respond this is an old limitation and many requests have been made before on this topic, but please do consider fixing this automation issue we have faced for years.
Please figure out a way to get Headers, Footers, Watermarks, Orientation and clean looking breaks over pages when a large text column splits into portions, etc.
If Appscript (A Google Product) is able to honour most of these features when using Doc Templates with placeholders, then I am confused why in 2025 we still suffer with these limitations in Appsheet using a Doc template due to the rendering engine used.
Year after year I get clients asking why such simple PDF Limitations still exist and I am tired of telling them why. Please could the development team get this as a priority soonest.
I plea again out of love for Appsheet and in hope of a shift in this area, so many years of using HTML workarounds on a no-code platform is too much to ask.
The reason is just a matter of priorities. AppSheet, before it was sold to Google, implemented the PDF generation using a 3rd party vendor. When Google took over, revamping the PDF Generation just hasn’t been at the top of the priority list. To move it up there needs to be some indication of interenst. Yours is a good start.
To gain more traction and interest in this, I would to see if there is an open Feature Idea and post on it. If not, then open a new one.
FYI, there has been a series of Tip/Trick posts by @SkrOYC that detail a different way of producing PDF’s. I haven’t ventured into it yet but I understand it uses tools that give you a LOT more control over the result. See the series below
I have had many students and clients using Google Doc features in template designs and they get so confused and despondent when you tell them all they have designed Is not supported when rendered.
Please consider this an important part of Appsheet development especially when AI, MCP are capabilities already available. So many other platforms already have these simple PDF rendering options working…. (APPSCRIPT can basically do if too)
This will be such a well accepted update among the community members and newcomers..
IMHO, anything that’s not HTML is not the right tool for the job for PDF generation in AppSheet.
GDocs/MSWord is the way to lower the barrier of entry, but for anything production-level, going straight to HTML is removing the unreliability of GDocs/MSWord to HTML conversion that happens behind the scenes, where formatting is lost.
Now, leaving that aside, I’m more than happy to help anyone -including AppSheet’s still-learning Staff- with these kind of scenarios.
I’d be more than happy to see my contribution paying dividens on lowering the learning curve of newcomers. I’d love to help as well if the team/staff needs help to better handle the behind the scenes convertion to HTML so that the end format is more compatible with what we need for reliable and production level PDF reports
Thank you so much for you contributions around this topic and I can agree, the professional level of HTML is beautiful to look at using so many techniques you have shared.
I do beleive the HTML template is perfect as an option to go deeper for those whom are willing to learn or already know HTML.
Thank you for offering your services to the team to help get this part of Appsheet up to standard.
Please do respond to us on this topic and consider as mentioned earlier in thread the willingness of members to assist your team if the feel overwhelmed by this task of better HTML conversion via Docs for general users of the platform.
@MultiTech Do you feel that this is something that can be addressed by team in the day and age of 2025, with today’s technologies, business expectations and the fact there is now MCP for Appsheet, flying cars and Alien calendar Hacks existing on Appsheet
I wasn’t aware they migrated away from the 3rd party platform.
By “revamping” I am eluding to increased functionality/features. As far as I can tell there are NOT any new features. I also don’t see any loss of features. But I am not a mass user of PDF generations - just a handful of templates and a few PDF’s generated daily here and there.
Was the migration just a straight one-for-one? Are you aware of any future plans for expansion?
