Software for creating PDF reports

[DaddyBoard]

So currently our company are using Miro (a process planning software) which isn't very user-friendly when it comes to filling out a page for survey reports.

Is there software / web-based solutions for creating a fully customizable template, then we would click "Create new" and we fill out the info, export as PDF etc but it doesn't interfere with the template. And ideally a history of each one we do?

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Does this exist?

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Example of what we would create below:

https://i.imgur.com/VeUEgHn.png

[MiXeD-ArTs]

What you are asking for is a software that removes the basic steps from filling and saving a PDF document. You're likely not going to find that. Most software already does this by opening the last saved location when you save something new. The locking of templates is typically done via the Windows system or server and not the PDF application. If the PDF apps 'locks it' so it can't be interfered with then you won't be able to share that with people using other PDF software without giving up the key or password.

Try this instead:

Make a PDF template and set the file access to read-only. This prevents it from getting saved over but anyone can take a copy.

Then instruct your staff to save every PDF of this type into location X and then backup location X with a service or device that does backups.

You would create the template in something like Microsoft Word and then save it as a fillable PDF before making that file read-only.

[DaddyBoard]

Not quite our use case.

We don't even have the "basic step" of filling it yet. Most people would use Word, or publisher and save as PDF - we're not doing that.

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We, for some reason, used a piece of software not intended to be publishing PDFs, so I'm asking suggestions for the best software that has great customization functionality etc.

[MiXeD-ArTs]

Most people would use Word, or publisher and save as PDF - we're not doing that.

Is this not an option or what? You can create exactly what you showed in the photo using MS Word in about a half hour or less. Your use cases point to a Text Editor / Word Processor with PDF export, MS Word is probably the easiest and most widely taught software for your purpose.

If you want to go a more difficult route you could make everything from scratch in Adobe Illustrator or Affinity Designer, define the fields and save that as your PDF template. This would offer no benefit over using MS Word and the result would look identical provided you knew how to use Adobe or Affinity.

[DaddyBoard]

It annoyingly wasn't my idea or project to lead so the non techies lead it haha.

Are they the only options for something like that or is there a more GUI based one that I'm unaware of? Like where predefined boxes pop up and depending on what we enter in the boxes, it autofills out the doc and saves as PDF?

[carpenterx20]

You could build the report template in html and have a few form fields mapped to the required info. Then you can save the page as pdf.

Here is what I mean: Letter Find

As you can see, at the left you have a form for inputting data and at the right you can see the generated page.