Create & Edit Project Report Templates

Overview

In order to use project reports you need to create a template first and ensure it's available in your project. A project report template consists of a PDF form and additional options described in this article.

You can upload your own custom-made PDF form or use one of the pre-built PDF forms when creating a new template. As part of the template you need to specify who can use the template and whether and how photos and tickets can be attached. In addition, you can define presets for fields and map fields to PlanRadar data to create dynamic dropdowns.

To get started with project reports you should first read the fundamentals about Project Reports.

How to access Project Report Templates

1. Hover over Templates
2. Click Project Reports

Prepare your own PDF form

Creating your own PDF form requires two preparation steps before you can proceed with template creation in PlanRadar:

1. Use Microsoft Word or similar tools to create the layout and content of your desired report. You should include a header or footer with your logo and insert any tables and boxes that will represent the fields that can be filled by users. Save it as a PDF file and proceed with step 2.
2. Use Acrobat Pro or Wondershare PDFelement to load this PDF document and add all the required dynamic form fields. Both tools provide a smart auto-detection tool that can recognise table cells as text fields. You can also add numeric fields, signature fields, and more.
3. Proceed with creating a project report template in PlanRadar and upload your PDF form.

Supported field types are texts, numbers, and date values. Javascript to support dynamic calculations, validation rules, etc. is currently not supported.

Please note that users creating project reports based on your template cannot add additional table rows or pages.

Create a Project Report Template

To create a new project report template:

1. Click Create template
   
   
2. Click Upload a PDF form and select the PDF in the file browser
   
   
3. OR open the drop down to Select a pre-built PDF Form e.g. Site report
   
   
4. Enter a title
   OR keep the suggested title from the PDF.
   
5. Set visibility permissions to define who can use the template.
   Choose between All users (default), In-house users only (excluding subcontractors) or Author only (to hide from anyone except yourself).
   
6. Allow photo attachments is selected by default.
   Deselect the checkbox to prevent the attachment of photos.
   
7. Select the desired image size of attached photos in the drop down menu (default is medium).
   
8. Select the desired image description in the drop down menu to define which metadata you want to show under each photo (default is all: Date, time and caption).
   
9. Allow ticket attachment is selected by default
   Clear the checkbox to prevent the attachment of tickets.
   
10. Click Create template
11. The template gets created and the field mapping editor is automatically opened to optionally define field mappings – see below.
    Click Skip Mapping if you don't want to add field mappings now.
    

Form fields can get pre-filled when creating a report based on field mappings. You can also map lists to convert PDF form fields into dynamic dropdowns – read more in Create & Edit Field Mappings.

Edit a Project Report Template

Everything that you can define during the creation of a template can be changed later:

1. Click the Edit button next to the template
   
2. Make your changes and click Update template
   

Current project report drafts of users can still be completed and submitted based of the previous version.

Related Articles

Manage Project Report Templates

Restrict Project Report Templates to Specific Projects