How to show hidden feilds in the printed form?

i am trying to transition a form we have into an online form, but am having trouble with the fact that what i see on the screen is not translating to what i'm getting on the page when i print.

i started by making a simple form, with fields for the client to fill out, a checkbox field for options, a longtext field for comments, a sig field with its label showing the legalese needed (not too long), captcha & submit fields, and a field that is needed for 'administration use only' - so, only by us as we process the form.

i can understand the longtext field not printing if there are no comments. i can deal with that. But i NEED the admin-only field to print, regardless - and since it's got nothing that can be edited by the client, i can't see why it won't print.

i thought that it would print when hidden. No.

i thought that it would print when not hidden. No.

i cannot find anywhere to mark it as a field that *must* be printed. i even tried to create a printable PDF and added the link to the notification emails - which gets me a hardcopy with the field, but not where i want it.

i would *prefer* to go into Jotform, open that form's inbox, and print from there. That's how i handle all the other forms we have. How do i print the non-editable fields?

The link to the field as seen by the client - i would prefer the Admin-Use field to be hidden, but if necessary (since it can't be edited) it can be visible.

Hi obpeoplesfood,

Thanks for reaching out to Jotform Support. Can you share where you are trying to print the form? I tried printing it upon before form submission and this is what I'm getting:

Once we hear back from you, we'll be able to move forward with a solution.

My routine is to go into the Jotform form inbox, select the form, click on the dots, then select Print. The result is the screenshot i included. You seem to be printing the pdf, which is one page too long (this has to be a single-sheet, preferably one-side but two is do-able, hardcopy). If the pdf is the way i have to do this, then i'll re-format it to how we need it printed and see how that works.

i take it you used the {edit_link} on the notification email. But i have {pdf_link} set up in the notification email. i can see now that the form and pdf form are completely separate? i also notice that i do not see your submission in the form inbox. Are these actually two different forms, functionally, on the back-end? And your form is completely different from the one i was designing at https://www.jotform.com/pdf-editor/251497225512153/, which is the one with the {edit_link} on the email.

So confused - have three different tabs open, with one on the form build, one on the pdf build, and one on the inbox. i also have a pdf created by the {pdf_link} which looks different from everything:

i am used to designing databases where i have the fields i need in the db, then the data-input form, on-screen, can be designed completely separately from the hardcopy form, so that fancy GUI elements can be eliminated and fields invisible to the GUI can be made visible for printing. i thought i could do that here. i need to understand when i'm designing for the GUI, and when i'm designing for hardcopy.

Summary: it looks like you have set up the notification email with the {edit_link}, where i have {pdf_link} - if these are all actually the same form, how can they have different notification emails? The client will preferably just click on a link we will supply them to fill out the form. It looks like we would need to send them an editable-pdf link version of it to get the hardcopy we need?

Hi obpeoplesfood,

I cloned your form to test it, and I easily replicated the issue. There is an easy fix for this, we just need to updating your Autoresponder Email. Autoresponder is the email automatically sent to the person who fills out your form. Let me show you how:

1. In your Form Builder, click on the Settings tab at the top. Select Emails from the left menu, then click + Add Email.
2. Choose Autoresponder Email. In the email content editor, you can customize the layout by adding fields, insert a new row and use the + Form Fields dropdown to select the field(s) you want. To hide a field, simply delete the corresponding row or field from the content.

The email notification that your client will receive will look like this:

Give it a try and let us know if you need any help.

We do not wish to send an autoresponse to the client.

Ideally, the use steps would be:

1. Client calls or emails, inquiring about equity refund.
2. We email them the link to the Jotform.
3. We get a notification after they submit the form.
4. We go to Jotform, open that form's inbox, select the client's form and print it.

Steps 3 & 4 are how all our other Jotforms are handled. But this one, with that paragraph field that *must* be printed, is being a pain when done this way; even when left visible in the form that field will *not* print in step 4.

Am i correct in surmising that printing by this method prints *only those fields that have been populated by the client*?

i've already added {pdf_link} to our notification email. It looks like that may be the only way to do this so that the field prints? If so, i'll reformat that pdf so that it prints the way we want (ie: no backgrounds and a smaller header).

Hi obpeoplesfood,

When you print a submission directly from the Jotform Inbox or Tables, only the fields that have been populated by the client will appear in the printout. Fields that are hidden or not filled by the client, such as your admin-only field, will not print using this method.

The recommended way to ensure all fields, including admin-only or hidden fields, are printed is to use the PDF Editor to customize a PDF version of your form submission. You can add all the fields you want to appear on the hardcopy, regardless of whether they were filled by the client or not. Then, include the {pdf_link} in your notification emails so you can access this formatted PDF for printing.

This explains why your admin-only field does not print from the Inbox print option and why the PDF you created with the PDF Editor shows the field. You can reformat the PDF to meet your print layout preferences.

Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

i'll set it down that Refund Requests need to be printed from the link in the email, then design the pdf accordingly. Thank you.