Using the Advanced Autofill Menu Field

The Advanced Autofill Menu is a field that can automate and limit variable data entries for your templates. It automatically populates information, like an address, into a product. An example would be if your business cards need pre-determined addresses to choose from, you can use an Adv. Autofill Menu to populate those choices for you.

How to use Advanced Autofill

To start, drag out an Adv. Autofill Menu from your power fields selection on the left of your order form. Name the field and label the caption. Next, you will add your first (default) option. "Select One..." is always a good choice and what we recommend. Next, add another option on a new line. In this example, below we have added the city of Plano as the choice.

The next step is to place your cursor behind your first Autofill choice. In this example, my cursor is behind Plano. This will dictate where the Autofill rules will apply.

After you click Add Autofill Rule, you will be able to select what field you are filling, in the example the street is the first rule. A popup allows you to indicate what fills. Here I put the street address. Once you hit okay, you will see the rule populate

Continue adding the rules and information until you have each piece of information ready. In the example, we filled out the City, State, Zip, and Phone.

Once complete you can view the product and test to see how the Autofill is working. Choose your dropdown selection and all the fields you set rules for should now fill in and be reflected on the proof.

Currently, users will be able to edit the template fields after making their choice in the Autofill dropdown. This is great for customizing various bits of information after the fact, but sometimes you want to restrict their editing capabilities. To accomplish this open the EZMerge Template and hide the fields for the rules you have applied. The function of the Autofill will still be there and take away the ability to view/edit the field manually. In our example, the phone is visible so it could be customized.

After that change, you can no longer edit the fields but will notice that the template still shows the information.

Additional tools to help build Autofill Rules

We provide an excel based tool that will assist in creating a bulk rule set for large-scale Autofill projects. Click Here to be taken to the article and the download.

Examples of Autofill:

• Assigning to a Checkbox
  Enter "checked" (w/o quotes) to have the form's checkbox auto-checked. The Field Value window will look like this:
  @={udf_YourFieldName}=checked
  If you do not specify "checked", the checkbox will get unchecked instead.
• Assigning to a Date Picker
  Enter a date to be auto-entered in the field. Use the format (mm/dd/yyyy by default) that you have set for your date field. The Field Value window will look like this:
  @={udf_YourDateField}=11/16/2010
• Assigning to an ezMerge Image Menu
  Enter the image file path from your image library to be auto-selected from the form's Menu (e.g., "Providers/6315/Files/0/WaterLogo.jpg"). Use the image path exactly as it appears in the image src attribute in your image library. The Field Value window will look like:
  @={udf_YourLogoField}=Providers/6315/Files/0/WaterLogo.jpg
• Assigning to a Menu
  Enter the item name to be auto-selected from the form's Menu (e.g., "20# Bond" w/o quotes). Use the item name exactly as it appears in the actual list as seen on the Send Files & Orders page.
  The Field Value window will look like this:
  @={udf_YourPaperField}=20# Bond
• Assigning to a Notes field
  Enter the text to be auto-entered in the form's Notes field (e.g., "Rush Order" w/o quotes).
  The Field Value window will look like this:
  @={udf_YourNotesField}Rush Order
• Assigning to a Number field
  Enter a number to be auto-entered in the form's Number field (e.g., "555-1234" w/o quotes).
  The Field Value window will look like this:
  @={udf_YourPhoneField}=555-1234
• Assigning to a Radio Button
  Enter the button label (e.g., "Medium" w/o quotes) to have that button auto-selected.
  The Field Value window will look like this:
  @={udf_YourSizeField}=Medium
• Assigning to a Text field
  Enter the text to be auto-entered in the form's Text field (e.g., "Vandelay Industries" w/o quotes).
  The Field Value window will look like this:
  @={udf_YourCompanyField}=Vandelay Industries