Tip of the Month for: January 2015

Improvements to Working with PDF's in Answers

Answers 4.5 (released in September) included enhancements to make it easier for users to work with forms created from Answers as PDF previews. 

Any Answers form that can be previewed such as the list below can now be saved into a file right from within Answers after you have finished previewing the form to make dealing with and using the PDF version of the form easier.

• Quotes
• Order Acknowledgements
• Pick Tickets
• Purchase Orders
• Invoice Reprints (new in this release)

When viewing forms as a PDF in most versions of Adobe ® Acrobat Reader ® you can save the form you are viewing right from within Adobe®, so this method has always been an option.

However, when saved from within Answers, you will automatically be taken to the folder in which you saved the form, making it easier to take further action on the saved document as allowed by Windows such as:

• Copying & Pasting

• Dragging & Dropping

• Attaching to an Email you have already started or are replying to

In the past, users would click on a [Close] button once they were finished previewing the PDF version of the Answers Form.  Now, they can also click on a new [Save As...] button which allows the user to choose where they want to save the PDF version of the form and what they want to name it.  Both of these make it easier to find so that further action can be taken on the PDF form if desired.

A few practical examples of this are:

• Replying to an email where you have been asked for another copy of an Invoice

• Replying to an email where you have been sent an RFQ and want to reply with a Quote attached

• Replying to a P/O you received from a customer where you want to reply and attach an Order Acknowledgement

For example: Account Analysis, Analysis History, and Invoice History tabs and now all allow previewing or saving a copy of invoice reprints in addition to being able to print, fax, and email them.  This will make it more convenient when users receive an email from a customer requesting copies of invoices.  Instead of having to send them a new email which has been the case in the past, now they can save a copy of one or more invoices into any folder they have permission to use (even their desktop) and give the file any name they want (although it will default to a friendly name like that used on automatically sent emails). Once the copy of the invoices is saved, the user is automatically taken to that folder where they can perform any standard Windows functions with the saved file of invoices, including copying/pasting, dragging/dropping, or attaching it to an email.