How to Print WordPress Form Entries to PDF

How to Print WordPress Form Entries to PDF (The Easy Way)

by Claire Broadley on Sep 21, 2020
LinkedIn

Do you want to print entries from your WordPress form to PDF? Creating a PDF copy of an entry makes it easy to save and email your form submissions.

In this article, we’ll show you the easy way to use a WordPress plugin to print your form entries.

Create Your WordPress Form Now

Why Use a WordPress Print Form Plugin?

Sometimes you’ll want to archive or print entries from your WordPress forms. Adobe’s PDF format is a great way to save a copy of the entry.

Using a WordPress plugin is much easier than manually printing each submission to PDF.

WPForms is the best form builder plugin for WordPress. As well as creating forms, it also lets you:

WPForms is the best WordPress Form Builder plugin. Get it for free!
  • Save entries in the WordPress dashboard
  • Take payments: you can use Square, try Stripe vs PayPal, or use Authorize.Net to collect payments
  • Create charts from surveys and polls.

We’re going to use WPForms as our form printing plugin because of all the powerful features it has.

How to Print WordPress Form Entries to PDF

In WPForms, printing a form entry to PDF is really easy. Before we start, we’ll show you how to install WPForms just in case you haven’t done that yet.

Here are the steps in this guide:

  1. Install the WPForms Plugin
  2. View Your WordPress Form Entry
  3. Print Your WordPress Form Entry to PDF

If you already have a form with entries you want to print, you can skip the first section.

Step 1: Install the WPForms Plugin

We’re going to use the WPForms plugin to print form entries to PDF.

If you don’t already have it installed, you’ll want to install WPForms now. If you need help, read how to install a WordPress plugin and then jump back to this article when you’re done.

Next, you’ll need to create a form if you don’t already have one set up.

It’s easy to make a form in less than 5 minutes. You can quickly use a template, like the Simple Contact Form.

Contact form template

Check out our tutorial on how to create a simple contact form if you need some help.

If you’re already using Ninja Forms, Contact Form 7, or Pirate Forms, you can easily import your forms into WPForms to improve them.

Great! Now you have your form ready, let’s learn how to save your WordPress form entries to PDF.

Step 2: View Your WordPress Form Entry

For this part of the tutorial, you’ll need at least one form entry that you can print out.

If you don’t have any entries yet, you can go ahead and fill out your form with a test entry now.

WordPress form entry to PDF

We’re ready to get started!

In the WordPress dashboard, click WPForms. Click the name of the form with the entry that you want to turn into a PDF.

Select the form with the entry you want to print to PDF

Now you can see all of the entries for that form.

We’re going to click View next to an entry to open all of the details.

View WordPress form entry

Now we can see the entry in full. The part we want to look at is underneath in the Actions section. Here, you’ll find a bunch of useful links that let you:

  • Print or Export the entry
  • Resend the email notifications
  • Mark the entry as Unread in the WordPress dashboard
  • Star the entry so you can easily find it later.

Go ahead and click Print.

WPForms form entry print icon

The Print option lets you save the form entry as a PDF. We’ll show you how to do this next.

Step 3: Print Your WordPress Form Entry to PDF

Great! So you’ve clicked Print on your form entry. Let’s look at the options here.

First, you’ll notice that the form entry has opened up in its own tab and we can see it in a fullscreen layout.

At the top, click the link to try the Compact View.

Print preview of WordPress form entry

The Compact View shows the entry with less space around it. This is what it looks like:

Compact view of WordPress form entry in print preview

Compact view is really useful for forms with lots of fields. It will reduce the number of pages in your PDF.

Our entry is pretty short, so let’s switch back to the Normal view. Then click the Print button at the top.

Print button on WordPress form entry

Now we just need to choose the right settings in the Print dialog.

The next few screenshots show how to print a PDF in Chrome. If you use a different browser, the options will look a little different.

Here’s the print dialog with a preview of the form next to it. Did you notice how the dropdown says Save as PDF at the top?

If yours says the name of your printer, go ahead and click the Destination dropdown to change it to Save as PDF or Microsoft Print to PDF.

Choose printer to print WordPress form to PDF

If you don’t see the option to save to PDF, you’ll need to check your browser documentation to find out how to enable it.

Also, did you notice that we checked Background graphics? If you want to see the colored rows in the PDF, be sure to check this now:

WordPress form to PDF options

All done. Click Save to save the form entry as a PDF.

And that’s it! Your final PDF will look similar to this. You might have a little more space around the entry depending on the settings you use.

WordPress form entry - printed to PDF

Great! Now your form entry is in its own PDF file that you can attach to emails or save on your computer.

Create Your WordPress Form Now

Next Step: Export Form Entries to CSV or Excel

Did you know that you can export form entries in different ways? Check out this tutorial on how to export form entries to CSV or how to export form entries to Excel.

Ready to do more with your forms? Get started today with the easiest WordPress form builder plugin. WPForms Pro includes powerful entry export options and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

If this article helped you out, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more free WordPress tutorials and guides.

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Comments

  1. Is it possible to have an email of the entry emailed automatically? Otherwise you have to manually create a PDF every time a new entry comes in.

    Reply

    1. Hey Andrew – I am afraid, currently there is no built-in feature to convert the entries automatically to pdf. We have a feature request opened for this. I have gone ahead and added your vote to it so that the dev team can consider this for the future.

      I am sorry for the inconvenience!

      Reply

      2. Hi Libby – Sure, I have gone ahead and added your vote to the feature request.

        Thanks 🙂

      4. Hey Desiree – Thanks for the suggestion. I have gone ahead and added your vote to the feature request.

        Have a good one 🙂

      5. Hello. Where can we vote? I’d like add my vote as well. Is a must if we want to use WPforms to get donations or payments as I need to deliver a pdf as receipt.
        Thanks

      6. Hey Jorge – I have gone ahead and added your vote to the feature request. If it helps, you can modify your email notification message and add all relevant details there and the users can print that email meanwhile. I understand this might not be an ideal workaround for you. We will keep this feature on our radar for the future.

        Sorry for the inconvenience.

      8. Hey Jérémie- I have gone ahead and added your vote to the feature request.

        Have a good one 🙂

      10. Hey Steve- We appreciate your interest here! Yes, I have added your vote to the feature request list.

        Have a good one 🙂

      14. Hey Michelle – I am afraid I can’t provide any ETA on this, but I have gone ahead and added your vote to the feature request.

        Thanks for your patience!

      15. I would like to add my vote to this as well. It’s currently a function we can use in Gravity Forms and may be the one thing that is keeping me from moving all clients to WPForms. Thank you!

      16. Hey Michelle – I totally understand how helpful it can be to email pdf of the entries automatically. I have gone ahead and added your vote to the feature request. Meanwhile, you might try creating the pdf for individual entries as mentioned in this tutorial.

        Thanks for your patience.

      17. This article doesn’t help much. I require the form submissions to arrive into my inbox as a PDF attachment. Other forms such as Ninja Forms have this feature, I would have thought this would have been standard for WP Forms?

      18. Hey Khalid- I am sorry for the trouble you are facing here but currently, we don’t an inbuilt feature to send submissions as PDF in Email Notification. I’ve added your vote to our feature-request list.

        Thank you 🙂

      19. Add me in for this too! It’d be great to have the option for form responses to be automatically attached to the notification email as a .pdf also

      20. Hi Tom 🙂 No problem, I’ve added your vote and details to this feature request!

      24. Hi Sarah! Your vote has been added to this particular feature request 🙂 Thanks!

      25. Please add my vote for this too, this needs to be built in. Performing the manual steps outlined here is simply not viable for many sites.

      26. Hey Chris- I agree how useful the PDF addon in a Notification email can be! I have added your vote to the enhancement list.

        Thanks, and sorry!

      27. Can you add my vote for an automatic pdf created and emailed from form submission

      28. Hi Darren! I’ve added your vote to this particular feature request! Thank you for taking the time to let us know what you’d like to be seeing included to WPForms in the future.

        Your email address has been added to the list, so when there are updates regarding this feature request, you’ll be receiving those updates as well 🙂

      29. I vote for this too. it would be such a handy feature to keep some recipients out of the admin dashboard 🙂

      30. Hi Noel,

        I have added your vote and thank you for sharing your valuable feedback on the benefits of this feature!

        Have a good one 🙂

      31. As someone who is contemplating moving an institute’s entire form system over to WPForms from Ninja Forms, I absolutely think this feature and request is essential.

        I also see that the original post is almost a year old now… count this as my vote and a call for some kind of update on a timeline.

      32. Hi Lucio! I’ve added your vote and details to this feature request, so you’ll receive news about it when there are updates. Unfortunately we do not have a timeline to provide at the moment, but it is definitely in the works.

        If you have any further questions about this, please contact us 🙂

      36. Hi Jan! Thanks for reaching out to us! I’ve noted your interest in this feature and have added your vote 🙂

      38. Hi Fr! I’m sorry but our PDF addon is still not available yet as it is a work in progress. I’ve noted your interest in this feature and added your email address to our list so that when we do have news to share about it, you’ll receive updates.

        I apologize that we’re not able to provide you with what you’re looking for at the moment.

        If you have any further questions about this, please contact us 🙂

    1. Hey Lori- I’m sorry, but I’m not sure that I understand your question – but we’d be happy to help! Could you please contact us in support with some extra details about what you’d like to be able to do?
      Thanks 🙂

      Reply

    1. Hey April – I am afraid currently only logged in users can edit the entries. If your users are registered users on your site and they can log in, I would suggest going through this article and allow required access to different user roles and then they can edit the entries.

      I hope this helps!

      Reply

  4. Feature Request:
    I have an existing PDF form with spaces for First Name and Last Name. I also have a WPForm that has FirstName and Last Name. I would (as would many others) like to be able for WPForm extension to be able to map WPForm First Name data to PDF First Name field, and WPForm Last Name data into the PDF Last Name field.

    I would like the form to have an option like []Fill in and save PDFForm.pdf

    Then when you check the box and click Submit, it will put the proper data in corresponding places in the form and save the form to a .pdf file.

    Reply

    1. Hey Christopher – I apologize! We currently don’t have a way to map WPForms fields to a PDF form. I do agree it would be super helpful and I’ve added a vote to our Feature request list.

      If you need any further help on this please feel welcome to reach out to our support team.

      Have a good one. 🙂

      Reply

  5. I see that there is a “Feature Request” to add a feature of sending the form as a PDF. Is there any movement on this? Was it adopted into a feature? I also DESPERATELY need this feature, as I have a few clients who need the form submission in a PDF or Jpeg, but we cannot use the internal entries feature for security reasons.

    Reply

    1. Hey Cody – I totally understand how useful it would be to have this feature. I am afraid we can’t provide any ETA on this at the moment. I have gone ahead and added your vote to keep it on our radar as we plan out our roadmap for the future.

      Thanks for your patience.

      Reply

      2. Hey Derral- Thank you for your interest here! I have gone ahead and added your vote to the feature request list.

        Have a good one 🙂

    1. Hey Kym- I’ve added a vote to our feature request list and we’ll keep it on our radar as we plan out our roadmap for the future.

      We appreciate your interest 🙂

      Reply

  8. I vote for PDF delivery as well. That is what I was looking for when I came to this post. Thank you.

    Reply

    1. Hi Zelda- Thanks for the suggestion. I have gone ahead and added your vote to the feature request.

      Have a good one 🙂

      Reply

    1. Hey John- Thank you for your interest here! I have added your vote to the feature request list!

      Thanks, and have a good one 🙂

      Reply

  10. I have a few enquiries to make:
    1. Is it possible for a user to print a summary after the form is filled from the front end?

    An example is after filling school admission forms, one is able to get a printable version of the details he/she has entered. They print or save as pdf for reference.

    2. I would also like to know if it possible for users to fill forms, and continue later. In that case, if a code will be generated for the user if they are exiting without completing the form, that they re-enter to continue from where they stopped.

    Reply

    1. Hey Eric! We don’t have a built in option for printing a summary for your users, but you can achieve a similar result by either including your form’s just collected data into the form’s confirmation message, or in a Notification email. You’ll need to leave some information for your users to print the data via their browsers built in print feature.

      As for allowing users to partially fill forms for later completion, currently our plugin does not have this feature. I do agree it would be super helpful, though. I’ve made a note of the feature request and we’ll keep it on our radar as we plan out our roadmap for the future.

      If you have a WPForms license, you have access to our email support, so please submit a support ticket.
      Otherwise, we provide limited complimentary support in the WPForms Lite WordPress.org support forum.

      I hope this helps!

      Reply

  12. Add my vote to this list please. Would be great if the PDF is attached automatically to the email too.

    Reply

  13. Please add my vote to this. The text email of form entries makes it add to attach to client profile.
    FYI – forminator and E2Pdf have this feature.

    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Hi Tayo! I’ve added your vote and details to this feature request, so you’ll receive any updates about it when it becomes available 🙂

      Thanks!

      Reply

  14. Hello there,
    I’m adding my vote to this list too. Would be great if the PDF is attached automatically to the email. Please let us know !

    Reply

    1. Hello Raïssa! I’ve included your vote to this feature request, as well as your information, so when we have updates regarding this feature you’ll get notified 🙂

      Thanks!

      Reply

  15. I would like to add my vote as well for the PDF automatically as an attachment. I would also like to request a feature of exporting multiple entries as PDFs.

    Reply

    1. Hi Felicia- We have added your suggestion and vote on the list of feature requests.

      We appreciate your interest here 🙂

      Reply

  16. I would like to add my vote as well for the PDF automatically as an attachment. It is essential in my opinion to remove this very repetitive and restrictive manual task that can be done automatically. Let me know. Thank you

    Reply

    1. Hi Loïc! Thanks for letting us know 🙂 I’ve added your vote and information to this particular feature request, so you’ll be receiving an update when it becomes available. While we don’t have a delivery date for this feature yet, it is in progress, so please bear with us a while longer 🙂

      Reply

    1. Hi John,

      Thanks for sharing your vote here! I have added to the list. Currently there is no ETA on this feature. I agree it would be pretty useful; So I have added your vote the list. This way you’ll be notified if the feature is approved and made live.

      Thanks again for the suggestion and I am sorry for the inconvenience!

      Reply

    1. Hi Vanessa!

      I apologize but at this time we do not have any updates regarding the development of the PDF addon. It is something that we’re working on adding in a future update though 🙂

      I’ve added your email to our list to receive updates about this particular feature request, so when there is news about it, you’ll receive updates.

      Thanks!

      Reply

      2. Sure thing Tyler! It is done and your email has been added to the list as well, so when there is news about this feature, you’ll receive updates.

        Thanks!

    1. Hi Adam! At this time we don’t have an ETA for when the PDF addon would be released, but it is definitely coming up 🙂

      I’ve noted your interest in this feature and added your email to our list to receive updates about this feature.

      Reply

  21. Wow…what a bummer that this email a PDF feature has not been finished yet. I just purchased this WPForms Pro version to allow us to have clients online sign a waiver of liability, release, hold harmless, etc….forwarding a PDF copy to the person who just did all the signing is the standard practice for follow up….you guys need to knock this problem out soon…

    Reply

    1. Hi Steve! I apologize that we don’t have the PDF addon ready yet, nor do we have an ETA currently. It is something that is in the works though, so please check back in the future 🙂

      I’ve also noted your interest in this feature and added your email to our list, so you’ll receive news about this particular feature as they come available.

      Thanks!

      Reply

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