Prefill is mail merge for surveys. You upload a spreadsheet, a prefill list, and each row becomes its own survey copy, printed on paper or delivered as a unique web link. A row can be an event, a place, a group, a data collector or a person. When responses come back, every one already carries its row's data, so nothing you knew in advance has to be re-entered or re-matched by hand.
A prefill list can feed a survey in five ways, and you can combine them freely:
| What you want | How to set it up |
|---|---|
| Print a value into an answer field | Give a question the column's name |
| Show a value inside question text | Write {{Column name}} in the text, or choose it from Column value… |
| Attach data invisibly to responses | Add a Prefill Data question and choose the column |
| Send web survey links | Generate one pre-filled link per row |
| Email each person their own link | Send email invitations and reminders from the list (Enterprise and above) |
This guide covers each step in order: building the list, wiring the survey, printing, scanning back, and the web link and email options.
Prefill inside your survey
Each survey has a Prefill page, next to Print, for the lists it uses. It says which columns a list saves into each response, and you select rows there to print copies or create links, with the survey already chosen. On Enterprise plans and above you can send email invitations from it too. With several lists, List: switches between them. The forms, links and responses it counts are this survey's only, and Open the full list shows the list with every survey's forms and links.
The Prefill tab shows once a survey uses prefill: it has a Prefill Data question, a {{Column name}} placeholder in a question's text or help text, a list made for it, or copies or links made from a list. Until then, three links open the page:
- on the Print tab, Print prefilled copies from a list;
- in survey settings, Survey links opens a dialog whose Prefill tab has Set up prefill for this survey;
- on a Prefill Data question in the editor, Lists for this survey.
A survey without a list yet gets a short explanation with examples. Upload a list makes a new list for this survey, and Use an existing list opens one of your team's lists without changing it. Lists stay a team library under More › Prefill lists, because one list often serves several surveys.
Same details for a whole batch? When every copy in a print run, or every response through one link, should carry the same details, such as the event or the data collector, tags are simpler. Add tags such as Event:Riverside open day when you print or create a tracked link, and each tag key gets its own column in exports. Tags and prefill also work together: tag a print run, and prefill each copy in it.
Step 1: Build your prefill list
Upload a spreadsheet (CSV or Excel) with Upload a list on your survey's Prefill page, or create a new list under More › Prefill lists. The header row becomes your columns and every following row becomes one survey copy. You can also start from an empty list and add rows in the browser.
The list is fully editable in place:
- Edit any cell by clicking it. Type the new value and press Enter.
- Add rows one at a time, or import another spreadsheet into the same list.
- Add columns from the menu next to "Import data". A column added as a "copies" column is automatically wired up as the per-row copy count for printing.
- Search and sort every column, and see each row's forms, links and responses in the Forms / links and Responses columns.
Step 2: Wire the survey
The connection between a column and your survey is the name. When you print, each column label is compared against the names of the survey's fillable questions. On a Prefill Data question you choose the column from your lists instead of typing it, so the name is exact. Near matches still work: capitalization, spaces, and punctuation such as underscores, dashes, and question marks are ignored, so a column called session_date is still saved into a question named "Session date". A Prefill Data question saved through a near match says so on its card, with Use exact name to make it exact. Before anything prints, What each copy saves in the print dialog shows which question each column is saved into.
There are three ways a column can reach the survey. Pick per column, and mix them in one survey.
Fill an answer field
Give a question the column's name, and each printed copy carries that row's value in the question's answer area. This works for short text questions, dates (the value is parsed and split into the printed date boxes automatically), numbers, and emails. The respondent skips what you already know, and recognition treats the printed value like any other answer when the form is scanned.
Insert values into the question text
Write a placeholder in double curly braces anywhere in a question, heading, or description:
Thank you for attending the {{Session date}} training. How useful was it for you?Each printed copy replaces the placeholder with that row's value. The placeholder must use the column's name as typed, and spaces just inside the braces are tolerated: {{ Session date }} works too. To choose the column instead of typing it, use Column value… in the formatting toolbar's More formatting menu. It inserts the placeholder and shows whether a question saves that column.
Web forms are stricter: a placeholder works only in question text, and only when a question with that name saves the column, such as a Prefill Data question whose list column is Session date. Anywhere else, such as in help text, the web form shows the placeholder as raw text.
Replaced text can be longer or shorter than the placeholder, which would shift the layout from copy to copy and hurt recognition. Wrap dynamic text in a height box so every copy occupies the same space:
[height=2 lines]Thank you for attending the {{Session date}} training.[/height]A height in lines holds that many lines of text at the survey's text size, and a value that runs longer is shrunk to fit the same space. Add [width=10cm]...[/width] as well when the surrounding layout is tight. Heights and widths also accept centimeters, millimeters or inches, such as [height=2cm] or [width=4in].
Attach data invisibly
Add a Prefill Data question and choose the column in its List column: dropdown. It never appears on the printed or web form, but its value is attached to every response from that copy and shows up in the Responses table, filters, cross tabs, and exports. Its Results label: field gives it a readable name: Responses, charts and exports show the label instead of the column name, and the question keeps saving the same column. Webhook and Zapier labels and API field names still use the question's name, not the results label, and SPSS and R exports leave Prefill Data questions out. When an export uses Customize column order and names, the names set there decide its column headings.
This is the right choice for participant IDs, cohorts, sites, or anything respondents should not see. The survey looks completely generic while every returned sheet stays fully traceable.
Step 3: Print prefilled copies
Select the rows to print, open Collect responses and choose Print paper forms. On the Prefill page of a survey with web surveys off, printing is the only way, so Print paper forms is a button of its own. The dialog walks through everything that matters:
- Survey version. Pick which version to print. From a survey's Prefill page the survey is already chosen, and only its versions are offered. Next to each version you can see how many of your list columns it saves into responses, and What each copy saves, below it, names the question each column is saved into, so a naming mistake is visible before printing.
- Copies per row. Print the same number for every row, or take a per-row number from a column, one form per attendee for most sessions, three for the big one.
- Instructions and duplex. Optionally add an instructions page and enable two-sided printing.
- Group in folders. Split the generated PDFs into folders by any column, for example one folder per location.
Under Advanced Settings you can also pick an identifier column (see below), set how many copies go into each PDF file, and adjust the identifier prefix.
Two requirements to know about:
- Unique Page Marking must be enabled, because each copy is identified by the QR codes printed on the page. Multi-page surveys have this automatically. For a single-page survey, the print dialog offers Turn on, or you can turn on Unique page marking under Printing & Scanning in the survey's Settings. See unique survey identifiers.
- Create a new version after editing. If you change the survey after generating copies, create a new version in the Print tab before printing again.
Identifiers
Every copy receives an identifier that ties the physical sheet back to its spreadsheet row. Leave the setting alone and identifiers are generated automatically. If your rows already have stable unique IDs, choose that column as the identifier in Advanced Settings; every value must be unique. When printing more than one copy per row, identifiers are always auto-generated so each sheet stays distinct.
Step 4: Scan the returned forms
Nothing special. Upload the scanned stack as usual: the QR code on each page identifies the copy, recognition reads the handwritten answers, and the prefilled values are attached to the response automatically. In the Responses table, prefilled fields are marked so you can tell them apart from respondent answers, and every prefill column is available for filtering and in exports.
Back in the prefill list, the Responses column counts the responses from each row's forms and links. Select rows › Select awaiting response picks the rows with a form or link and no response yet, so following up is one click, not a spreadsheet reconciliation.
Web survey links
The same list generates web survey links, one per row, with the same wiring: questions named after a column are pre-filled, and Prefill Data values ride along invisibly. Placeholders are filled only in question text, and only when a question with that name saves the column. Select rows, open Collect responses, choose Get web survey links, and download the spreadsheet of links for your mail merge. Beside each link is a QR code of it, ready to show on a screen or print. Before the links are created, What each link saves in the dialog names the question each column is saved into and warns about a placeholder in question text that would show as raw text.
If your survey text contains the survey's plain web address, it is replaced with each row's own link automatically. Expiration dates and submission rules are covered in Generating Prefill Links in Bulk.
Email invitations and reminders
When each row is a person with an email address, PaperSurvey can send the links for you. Select the rows, open Collect responses and choose Send email invitations, or press Send by email instead in the Create links dialog. Pick the column that holds the email address, write the message with {{Survey Link}} where each person's own link goes and any column in braces, such as {{First Name}}, and press Continue. That saves the campaign as a draft and opens its page, where Check before sending shows who receives it before anything is sent. The survey's Email tab lists its campaigns.
The mail goes out through your own email provider, so it arrives from your address and your domain. Up to three reminders go only to the people who have not responded yet, whether they answer online or on a paper form printed from the same list, and everyone who already answered is skipped automatically. Email sending is available on Enterprise plans and above. Setting up your provider, formatting and reminders are covered in Emailing Survey Invitations and Reminders.
Advanced: several rows on one printed form
If your survey contains a Repeater block, one printed form can carry several consecutive rows, for example one class list per sheet. Inside the repeated block, add a number to the placeholder to address each row: {{Name1}} is the first row on the sheet, {{Name2}} the second, and so on.
Data retention
"Clear data" in survey settings deletes responses but keeps your prefill list untouched. You can re-upload previously printed pages or start a fresh collection cycle without rebuilding anything.