Yes, you can automatically prefill survey forms with personalized data from spreadsheets. This feature saves time, reduces errors, and creates a better experience for respondents.

What prefilling does

The Prefill Forms feature allows you to:

• Insert personalized information (names, dates, IDs) directly into printed surveys
• Link prefilled data to survey responses for analysis
• Generate hundreds of customized forms from a single template

Displaying custom information on your survey

To add personalized content to your surveys, use placeholder variables in double curly braces {{variable_name}}. These placeholders are automatically replaced with data from your spreadsheet when printing.

How to add placeholders

1. In the survey editor, type your placeholder text surrounded by double curly braces
2. The placeholder name must match a column header in your spreadsheet exactly
3. Always wrap dynamic text in height tags to prevent layout shifts

Example:

[height=2cm]Thank you for visiting {{location_name}} on {{visit_date}}. We value your feedback![/height]

Spreadsheet format

Create a spreadsheet with columns matching your placeholder names:

ID	location_name	visit_date
123	XYZ Restaurant	2025-01-01
124	ABC Venue	2025-02-01

When printed, each survey will show:

• "Thank you for visiting XYZ Restaurant on 2025-01-01. We value your feedback!"
• "Thank you for visiting ABC Venue on 2025-02-01. We value your feedback!"

Important: Preventing layout shifts

Dynamic text can vary in length, which may shift your survey layout and affect checkbox recognition accuracy. To prevent this, you must wrap all dynamic text in height tags.

Required format:

[height=3cm]Your prefilled text with {{variable}} goes here.[/height]

Optional width control:

[height=3cm][width=10cm]Your prefilled text with {{variable}} goes here.[/width][/height]

Notes:

• The [height=...] tag is mandatory for all dynamic text
• Survey layout remains stable with height tags, but text may overlap if insufficient height is set
• Use centimeters (cm) or inches (in) for measurements
• The system prevents saving surveys without height tags on dynamic text
• Width tags are optional but useful for complex layouts

Linking prefilled data to responses

To analyze responses based on prefilled data, you need to link that data to each survey copy. This allows you to filter and analyze results by location, date, or any other prefilled information.

How to link data

1. Add a "Prefill Data" question for each data field you want to track
2. Match the question name exactly to your spreadsheet column header
3. The system automatically links the data when surveys are scanned

Example setup

For the spreadsheet columns location_name and visit_date:

1. Add a "Prefill Data" question named location_name
2. Add a "Prefill Data" question named visit_date

When scanned, the system uses the unique identifier at the bottom-left corner to match responses with the prefilled data.

Preparing your data spreadsheet

Your spreadsheet (CSV or Excel format) contains all the data that will be prefilled into your surveys.

Spreadsheet structure

• Each row generates one or more survey copies
• Each column header must match either:
  • A placeholder name (e.g., location_name for {{location_name}})
  • A "Prefill Data" question name

Step-by-step process

1. Create your spreadsheet with proper column headers

2. Upload to PaperSurvey

• Go to the Prefill Forms page
• Create a new dataset
• Upload your spreadsheet

3. Generate prefilled surveys

• Select the rows you want to print
• Click "Print" to open the print dialog
• Choose your survey template and print settings

Prerequisites

Unique Page Marking must be enabled in your survey settings. This feature adds QR codes to the bottom of each page, which are essential for linking prefilled data to scanned responses.

• For multi-page surveys: Automatically enabled
• For single-page surveys: Enable "Uniquely mark single-page surveys" in settings

Advanced settings

Custom identifiers

If you have existing unique IDs from your database, you can include an "Identifier" column in your spreadsheet. This helps match survey responses back to your records when using the API.

Best practices:

• Ensure each identifier is truly unique
• Select the identifier column in the print dialog
• Leave blank if unsure - PaperSurvey generates IDs automatically
• Non-unique identifiers will cause processing errors

Controlling copy generation

Number of copies per row:

• Default: One survey per spreadsheet row
• Fixed copies: Set a number in the "Copies" field to print multiple identical surveys
• Variable copies: Add a "Copies" column to your spreadsheet with different values per row

Example with Copies column:

location_name	visit_date	Copies
Store A	2025-01-01	50
Store B	2025-01-02	100

File organization options

Copies per file:

• Split large print jobs into multiple PDFs
• Example: 500 copies with "50 copies per file" creates 10 PDFs
• Leave blank to generate one large PDF

Group in folders:

• Organize PDFs by data field for easier distribution
• Example: Group by location_name creates separate folders for each location
• Useful for printing hundreds of location-specific surveys

Using prefill with web surveys

The same prefill functionality works for web-based surveys. Each row in your spreadsheet can generate a unique survey link with prefilled data.

How to generate web survey links

1. Enable web surveys in your survey settings
2. Navigate to Prefill Forms
3. Select the desired rows from your dataset
4. Click "Generate links to web survey"

Each generated link will contain the prefilled data from that row, creating a personalized survey experience for online respondents.

Common use cases

• Customer feedback: Prefill purchase details, visit dates, and location information
• Employee evaluations: Include employee names, departments, and review periods
• Event registration: Add event details, dates, and participant information
• Quality inspections: Prefill equipment IDs, inspection dates, and location data

Troubleshooting tips

Layout issues after printing:

• Ensure all dynamic text uses [height=...] tags
• Test with longest possible values to avoid text overlap
• If text is cut off or overlapping, increase the height value

Data not linking to responses:

• Verify "Prefill Data" question names match spreadsheet columns exactly
• Check that Unique Page Marking is enabled
• Ensure column headers don't contain special characters

Missing placeholders:

• Remove spaces, punctuation marks from column headers
• Use underscores instead of spaces (e.g., location_name not location name)

Data retention during survey clearing

When you use the "Clear data" function in survey settings:

• All survey responses are deleted
• Prefilled forms data is retained
• This allows you to re-upload previously printed pages
• Your prefill dataset remains available for future use

This design ensures you don't lose your prefill setup when clearing test data or starting a new collection cycle.

Next steps

• Test with a small batch before printing hundreds of copies
• Use the preview feature to verify dynamic text replacement
• Consider using the API for programmatic survey generation
• Export your results with prefilled data included for complete analysis