How to generate a printed form with dynamic inputs

Question

Our customer would like to give participation certificates for students undergoing a singing class. Currently they have printed certificates where in they fill the candidate name and the grade he obtained with the teachers signature.

We would like to automate this, so that the dynamic output mentioned above is automatically printed somehow on this sheet. How do we do this? Are there any tools which help you with positioning the dynamic output onto this template sheet.

http://www.123certificates.com provides some of the capabilities but looks like printing will happen on an A-4 sheet, how would you make this print on a dynamic template (either in pdf or word)

Not sure what the correct tags are for this question

Answer 1

You could just use OpenOffice (or MS's suite) with mailing fonctionnality. For precise placement, you could use a document with tables having fixed columns/row length.

For example, you'd have blank OO Writer document, with tables, and you'd positions the wanted fields accordingly. Since it's a certificate, maybe you'll want to put the page in landscape mode.

You'd have another OO Calc document, with the names of all the people you'd want to print a certificate for.

Then you just follow this tutorial on mail merging: http://documentation.openoffice.org/HOW_TO/word_processing/writer2_EN.html

Print your page a few times on a blank sheet to see if everything fits/align properly. Oh, and watch out for long names. Then you can print it on the "real" certificate paper.

Answer 2

I've seen things like this done all the time in office settings and, as Aissen said, it's often referred to as "mail merging" and is used to create things called "form letters." Typically you have a list of data (often in a spreadsheet like Excel) and a corresponding document with "place holders." Each column in the spreadsheet corresponds to a "place holder" on the form/document (certificate in your case) and each row in the sheet represents a separate document/certificate.

It's very easy to do and very well documented online and, fortunately, is one of the primary features of Microsoft Word. Here are some examples:

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Best Example
(VIDEO): Use an excel file to mail merge names into a word document--certificates of completion for a group of students

Other Examples
(Video): Microsoft Word: Mail Merge
(Video): Wdandp Presents: How to Use Mail Merge
(Video): How to Do a Mail Merge in Microsoft Word & Open Office
(MS Support Document): How to use mail merge to create form letters in Word
(Tutorial): Preparing a form letter with Word and Excel

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I hope some of that helps in some way! In the very first video, they are doing EXACTLY what you need.

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