Personalizing Notifications

Add-on

Dashboard

How to personalize notifications sent by the add-on

Steps to personalize notifications:

From your Google Form, open the add-on.
Click on the 'Settings' tab.
Click on the 'Email Editor' button.
A separate window will open. Use the tabs on the left to navigate and personalize the different notification types.
Once done, click the 'Save & close' button.

A summary of what can and cannot be changed is included below:

Element	Details
Subject	May be amended through the Email Editor. You can also include form response data by including the question title between << and >> markers.
Header	The header (request # \| # of recipients \| request date) is not able to be personalized, although it can be translated (refer to the info tip below). By default, the Request # includes a hyperlink for users to track the status of the request. If you do not want users to be able to track requests, refer to the below section titled 'Remove tracking links from notifications'.
Title	Taken from the title of your form. Note, you must re-save your settings after the title is changed for it to take effect.
Private message	May be included on individual recipient notifications. Go to the 'Recipients' tab > click the 'More' icon, then click 'Other recipient settings'. The private message is positioned above the body of your notification.
Body	May be amended through the Email Editor to include additional markers or content that you require. The <<Form Response Table>> marker will include all questions that have been responded to unless you have specified questions to be hidden. To hide questions, refer to the below section titled 'Hide questions from notifications'. The <<Recipient Comments>> marker will include the approval history of previous recipients and any comments provided with their response. The <<Edit Response URL>> marker will include a link to allow the user to edit the original form response. You may also include any question title between << and >> markers. You may also include a calculated field, as described within the blog How to use Array Formulas with Google Forms For content that is specific to one recipient, use the private message.
Response links	The response links (e.g., Approve, Decline, Comment) will be different based on the role type you select for your recipient, but are not able to be further personalized.
Footer	The footer is a requirement of Gmail and other mail providers when sending transactional emails and is therefore not able to be personalized, although it can be translated (refer to the info tip below).
Sender name	May be amended through the Email Editor. Refer below for further details.
Sender email address	Will be the email account that you used to set up the add-on. You can also use a generic account like formapprovals@example.com. To change the email account, refer to the question how do I change the addon administrator on our FAQ page. You can also choose to have emails sent from the formapprovals.com domain when subscribing to a paid plan.

Any information on a notification that cannot be customized (i.e., the Header and Footer as described above) will be translated automatically to your local language based on the Locale set in your spreadsheet settings. Learn more about language support.

Change the name which emails are sent from

Generate a PDF of form response and approval records

There are two ways you can generate a PDF of your form response and approval records:

Export a PDF from the dashboard

Quick export of a completed request — no template setup required.

Include a custom PDF attachment on email notifications

Create a template that the add-on populates and attaches to notifications as a PDF.

If you would like the add-on to generate a custom Google Doc, Sheet or Slide complete with your form response and approval history, and include it as a PDF attachment on your email notifications, follow these steps:

Steps to add a PDF attachment:

From your Google Form, open the add-on.
Click on the 'Settings' tab.
Click on the 'Email Editor' button.
Within the Email Editor, click 'Other', then click '+ add attachment'.
Select the notification types that you would like the attachment included on.
Enter a name for the generated file. This name may also include any marker relating to the form response (e.g., <<Request Number>> or a question title between << and >> markers).
Select a Google Doc, Google Sheet or Google Slide template that contains markers. Here is an example Purchase Order Request Doc template, an example Purchase Order Request Sheet template, and an example Time Off Request Doc template.

Each time a form submission is made, the add-on will make a copy of the template, replace any markers that you have included, save a copy of the updated file in your Google Drive, and include the file as a PDF on the notifications you specified.

Generated files are stored automatically in the same folder as the template. So, if you move the template to a new folder, files will be generated in the new folder from that point forward.

Within your attachment template, you may use any of the below mentioned markers:

Marker	Description
Markers available for information relating to the form response
<<Request Date>>	The date and time the request was submitted
<<Request Number>>	The number assigned by the add-on for the request
<<Email Address>>	The email address of the requestor
<<Form Response Table>>	Includes a table of all questions and their form responses. Use this marker for a complete summary, or create your own custom table by using individual question markers (as described below)
Any question title between << and >> markers	For example, if your question is "What is your Full Name?", use the marker <<What is your Full Name?>>. The add-on will replace the marker with the response to that question. Copy the value from your Google Form question and paste it into your template to ensure it exactly matches the value between the markers (including spaces and capitalization).
Any calculated field between << and >> markers	For example, you may want to include a calculation of the Tax or Total amount. To do this, add a new column to your spreadsheet and use the ARRAYFORMULA so it auto calculates the value with each form submission. For guidance on using Array Formulas, refer to the blog How to use Array Formulas with Google Forms
Markers available for information relating to the approval history
<<Overall Status>>	The status of the request as a whole
<<Recipient 1>>	The email address of the first recipient
<<Recipient 1 Status>>	The status of the first recipient
<<Recipient 1 Issue Date>>	The date and time the request was sent to the first recipient
<<Recipient 1 Response Date>>	The date and time the request was responded to by the first recipient
<<Recipient 1 Comment>>	The comment provided by the first recipient with their response
<<Recipient 1 Signature>>	The signature provided by the first recipient. This marker is only applicable to recipients with the 'Needs to Sign' role type. This marker is currently only available for use in Google Doc templates.

When using Multiple choice grid or Checkbox grid question types, use the markers <<Your question title [row label]>>, where row label is the label of each grid row in your question.

Tips for attachment templates

When using the approval history markers (e.g., <<Recipient 1 Signature>>), the recipient number is based on the recipient's position in the workflow after all logic / conditions have been evaluated. That is, their position as shown within the Detailed Approval Records sheet. If their position changes on each request, add markers for each possible position.
If you have file upload questions that accept images and want the images to be included in your attachment as inline images, share the file upload folder with 'Anyone with the link' (viewer access) and include "|Inline" in your marker name (e.g., a question titled 'Upload your image' should be included as <<Upload your image|Inline>>).

Remove tracking links from notifications

Hide questions from notifications

How to set link expiration

What's next:

Learn how to use file upload questions.
Learn how to track requests.

Element

Details

Subject

May be amended through the Email Editor. You can also include form response data by including the question title between << and >> markers.

Header

The header (request # | # of recipients | request date) is not able to be personalized, although it can be translated (refer to the info tip below). By default, the Request # includes a hyperlink for users to track the status of the request. If you do not want users to be able to track requests, refer to the below section titled 'Remove tracking links from notifications'.

Title

Taken from the title of your form. Note, you must re-save your settings after the title is changed for it to take effect.

Private message

May be included on individual recipient notifications. Go to the 'Recipients' tab > click the 'More' icon, then click 'Other recipient settings'. The private message is positioned above the body of your notification.

Body

May be amended through the Email Editor to include additional markers or content that you require.

The <<Form Response Table>> marker will include all questions that have been responded to unless you have specified questions to be hidden. To hide questions, refer to the below section titled 'Hide questions from notifications'.
The <<Recipient Comments>> marker will include the approval history of previous recipients and any comments provided with their response.
The <<Edit Response URL>> marker will include a link to allow the user to edit the original form response.
You may also include any question title between << and >> markers.
You may also include a calculated field, as described within the blog How to use Array Formulas with Google Forms

For content that is specific to one recipient, use the private message.

Response links

The response links (e.g., Approve, Decline, Comment) will be different based on the role type you select for your recipient, but are not able to be further personalized.

Footer

The footer is a requirement of Gmail and other mail providers when sending transactional emails and is therefore not able to be personalized, although it can be translated (refer to the info tip below).

Sender name

May be amended through the Email Editor. Refer below for further details.

Sender email address

Will be the email account that you used to set up the add-on. You can also use a generic account like formapprovals@example.com. To change the email account, refer to the question how do I change the addon administrator on our FAQ page. You can also choose to have emails sent from the formapprovals.com domain when subscribing to a paid plan.

Marker

Description

Markers available for information relating to the form response

<<Request Date>>

The date and time the request was submitted

<<Request Number>>

The number assigned by the add-on for the request

<<Email Address>>

The email address of the requestor

<<Form Response Table>>

Includes a table of all questions and their form responses. Use this marker for a complete summary, or create your own custom table by using individual question markers (as described below)

Any question title between << and >> markers

For example, if your question is "What is your Full Name?", use the marker <<What is your Full Name?>>. The add-on will replace the marker with the response to that question. Copy the value from your Google Form question and paste it into your template to ensure it exactly matches the value between the markers (including spaces and capitalization).

Any calculated field between << and >> markers

For example, you may want to include a calculation of the Tax or Total amount. To do this, add a new column to your spreadsheet and use the ARRAYFORMULA so it auto calculates the value with each form submission. For guidance on using Array Formulas, refer to the blog How to use Array Formulas with Google Forms

Markers available for information relating to the approval history

<<Overall Status>>

The status of the request as a whole

<<Recipient 1>>

The email address of the first recipient

<<Recipient 1 Status>>

The status of the first recipient

<<Recipient 1 Issue Date>>

The date and time the request was sent to the first recipient

<<Recipient 1 Response Date>>

The date and time the request was responded to by the first recipient

<<Recipient 1 Comment>>

The comment provided by the first recipient with their response

<<Recipient 1 Signature>>

The signature provided by the first recipient. This marker is only applicable to recipients with the 'Needs to Sign' role type. This marker is currently only available for use in Google Doc templates.