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Footer
The footer bar below the canvas gives you access to tools shared across a form: Lists, Trees, States, Workflow, Stylesheets, and Merge documents.
A mini designer for creating, editing, and deleting list definitions, which determine the selectable items available in a list field. Lists support three creation modes:
- Manual: a static, single-level list you maintain by hand (name, display text, optional color). Good for status selections or small, non-data-driven option lists.
- Dataclip: a dynamic list built from a dataclip: pick the dataclip, a header for the display value, and optionally a color header and a barcode header. Only dataclip-mode lists support barcode values and filtering (by linked fields, or by variable-based filters comparing a runtime variable against a value per item).
- AI: generates a manual/static list from a prompt; the result behaves like a normal manual list afterward.
Works the same way as Lists, but items can contain sub-items, giving you a hierarchical structure instead of a flat list: used by fields that support tree structures. Trees support Manual mode (name, display text, optional color, with nested child items) and Dataclip mode (a display header, a parent header that determines the parent-child hierarchy, and optionally a color and barcode header), including the same barcode and variable-based filtering options as Lists. AI mode isn’t supported for trees.
States
Section titled “States”A mini designer for state lists, used exclusively by the State field and the Workflow field. A state list is a single-level collection of state items, each with a name, a translated display text, an optional color and icon, and an internal state:
| Internal state | Description |
|---|---|
| Open | Any authorized user can edit and save changes to the message. |
| Closed | The message becomes locked and can no longer be changed. |
| Closed for user | Users can’t save changes manually: updates are only possible through the API, typically via dataflows. |
Typical uses: approval workflows, ticketing states, order processing stages, and locking completed forms.
Workflow
Section titled “Workflow”A mini designer, available only in the Forms designer, for workflow definitions used by the Workflow field. A workflow is built on top of a state list (from States) and consists of workflow steps, each linked to a state and a display text. Each step supports three actions:
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Complete | Moves the workflow to another step. |
| Reject | Moves the workflow to another step, typically backwards or to a rejection state. |
| Assign | Assigns users without changing the current step. |
Each action can automatically assign users, based on an assignment type: a default user, users from an authorization group (optionally letting the transitioning user pick from that group), users from the ancestors above the current user in the authorization structure, users from the message’s assignment history, the previously assigned user (back last), or the original creator of the message (back to creator). Most types optionally notify newly assigned users.
Stylesheets
Section titled “Stylesheets”Create stylesheets that set fields in a default (company) styling format, so you can apply consistent styling quickly across forms and dashboards.
Merge documents
Section titled “Merge documents”Merge documents export a form message to a styled Word or PDF file, using field values inserted into a Word template.
- Prepare the Word file: install the Any2Info Word add-in, log in and pick a collection, then select the form definition to pick fields from. Enable Field Codes, and double-click a field to insert its field code at the cursor. The field’s value is inserted at that position when exporting.
- Upload it: open the form definition, open the Merge documents tab at the bottom of the screen, and upload the Word document.
- Attach it: in the form definition’s Properties, add the uploaded document under Merge documents, and enable Share document.
Once attached, open a form message, use the ellipsis menu, and choose Share PDF/Word to export it with the selected document.
Special values
Section titled “Special values”A merge document supports special field codes for formatting:
| Code | Applies to | Effect |
|---|---|---|
{A2I:<field>} |
Any | Inserts the field’s value. |
{A2I:<field>|Check{"☑":,"☐":}|} |
Boolean | Inserts a checked or unchecked checkbox depending on the value. |
{A2I:<field>|Date{"format":"<ISO 8601 format>"}|} |
Date/Datetime | Inserts the value formatted as specified. |
{A2I:<field>|Image{"maxheight":,"maxwidth":}|} |
Media/Image/Signature | Inserts the value, resized to the given dimensions. |
{A2I:<field>|Markdown|} |
Text | Inserts the value, converting Markdown to HTML. |
Subforms need extra care: enclose the subform’s fields in a table, and set the table’s alt text (via its Properties) to the subform’s own field code: then insert the subform’s fields as normal inside that table.
Default export document
Section titled “Default export document”Under Properties → Sharing, you can set a merge document as the default export. When a form definition or message is exported without picking a specific document, this one is used as the base: its header, footer, and other attributes carry over, and any field codes inherit their styling from it (for example, if a Group field’s title is styled in green in the template, every Group title in the export is green).
- Field codes can go anywhere in the document, including headers and footers.
- Give merge documents clear, distinct names if you have several.
- Remove merge documents you no longer use from the list.
- Set a default export document if you want a consistent logo, page numbers, or other elements on every export.