Embedded Files
This is the part with the big payoff!
We're going to tell autoCrat to take that merged document, made from the data in our form, and send it as an email attachment. Yeah, this takes some time, but don't forget what it's like to do it with paper.
- With autoCrat, there's no loading of letterhead
- no printing
- no sorting by homeroom
- no passing it down the row to the kid in the last desk
- no label-printing
- no envelopes
- no postage meter.
- AND because you pre-filled the form with the correct email address from your data sheet, no failed emails.
On the "Sheet1" sheet--not "Form Responses"--under Add-ons, open autoCrat.
Click the pencil to edit the job, and advance to Step 8, "Share docs & send emails."
Click Yes under "Share doc?"
I always "Share doc as" a PDF. That way I know that the message can be opened even if the receiver doesn't have a Google account.
In the email--shown below, surrounded by a frame--we're going to fill in "To:" with the form question that holds the recipient's email address; ex., <<PARENT>>.
For "Reply To:" you can type in your own email address. For Progress reports, I want the parent to to respond to the homeroom teacher. So in my form, I have a question for the teacher's name email address--thus I can add the exact words of the form question here, surrounded by << >>. Yes, it's case sensitive.
Now type in the subject line of the email to be sent. You may want to include a student's name, as in this example.
Now under "Add-ons," I open Autocrat again, check each setting, Save, and then click the play button to run the script.
A "trigger" can email the merged document as soon as the response is submitted.
Sometimes I wait till all the responses have been submitted, then click the play button.
For some purposes though, it's great to trigger the email. I use triggers in the "infractions" report, in my lesson plan form, and for PD sign in/attendance certificate. The trigger is very reliable.
Yes, you can have 2 different jobs. In step 7, you might want to add a "merge condition" to one and a different "merge condition" to the other.
autoCrat will create one document per row.
If you click "Yes" in Step 8, it will attach the document to an email to the specified address--or addresses if there's more than one, separated by a comma.
To display this, autoCrat adds 4 new columns to the spreadsheet that holds the responses from the form.
The most important is the last column. It tells you if the email was successfully sent and it records the time.
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