How to automate marketing communication using OFORMs

What are OFORMs

ONLYOFFICE forms, also called OFORMs, is the functionality of ONLYOFFICE Docs that allows creating fillable forms and templates, collaborating on them, and exporting them for filling.

Given a broad instrument selection including different field types, properties, and formats, it is possible to create any type of forms to automate production of all types of standardized documents. With OFORMs, you can build a library of custom formal documents ready to fill and sign — agreements, licenses, invoices, government forms, and much more.

Forms can be saved to OFORM format for filling in ONLYOFFICE and exported as fillable PDF to use in any software that supports PDF filling.

You can use form building not only to create formal documents, but also to automate marketing and sales processes. Let’s see how.

What brand communication elements you can automate

Many formats of brand communication can in fact be called standardized if they contain similar structure and data, include identity of the same brand, and are meant for addressing the same types of audience.

A library of communication items can be prepared for each new rebranding effort, season, or isolated campaign, and reused with minimal hassle. By relieving your design team from assembling new materials over and over again, you can entrust the full process in the hands of sales and marketing crews who just work with ready, fail-safe templates.

Here are just a few examples of communication you can automate:

• Social posts;
• Sales documentation: offers, price lists, catalogs, quotes;
• Publishing: white papers, brochures, data sheets;
• Invitations;
• Newsletters;
• Digests;
• Client briefs;
• Certificates;
• Business cards.

Now let’s see how OFORMs work and design a simple gift certificate.

How to design a template

Gift certificates can contain different values and information while having more or less the same composition and design, so this item can be standardized.

Let’s assume we have a small ice cream corner franchise and want to reach new customers by selling gift certificates to the visitors. We can automate certificate creation by offering ready templates where an owner just needs to add the values and the shop address.

Create a layout

You can start in the DOCX file and then convert it to DOCXF to add the fields, or start in the DOCXF format right away. We will choose the latter option.

Once the blank document is created, go to the Layout tab and change the page size and orientation. For example, we can use A5 format and landscape orientation.

We are going to use default margins and omit bleeds and print marks in this design to focus strictly on template creation.

Add and format texts

Once we have a blank canvas in needed size and orientation, we can add all necessary texts.

To make work with texts easier, in this case we recommend using text boxes. They are easier to resize, position, apply wrapping, etc. You can find Text Box feature in the Insert tab.

Let’s add the certificate title, information about its value and corner location, and a little disclaimer to explain how it works.

Add images and artworks

Now we can add all the necessary artworks. As a background, we can use any picture and position it how we desire. You can drag’n’drop images or use the Image tool in the Insert tab.

Tip: if you need to add some tweaks to the image, like changing colors or contrast, you can do it right in the editors with Photo Editor plugin.

We don’t have actual ice cream to take a picture of, so here let’s use a free stock image by Irene Kredenets on Unsplash for the background.

Let’s customize the text boxes. Use text box properties on the right sidebar to manage fill, adjust or disable lines, change opacity and apply other settings.

Now we need to format the texts using our brand fonts and size them appropriately.

Tip: In ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, you can use the local fonts installed on your computer, which gives you more creative freedom.

Let’s add a couple of autoshapes for accents.

Now that the design is ready, it’s time to add the form fields.

How to add and set up form fields

ONLYOFFICE Docs form editor has many options in store ti scrutinize your forms. You can add different field types and configure their individual properties:

• Text area;
• Combo box;
• Drop-down list;
• Check box;
• Radio button;
• Image;
• Email address;
• Phone number;
• Complex field.

Let’s use some of them and see how different fields and properties work.

Example: text field

Form creation tools are located in the Forms tab. To add a field, place the cursor in the desired place and choose the field type in the top toolbar.

Let’s start with the Value field and add a simple text field.

We can specify what type of text can be added in the field. To let the users only add numbers to this field, choose Digits in the Format section of the field settings (right sidebar).

Now let’s add a hint and specify what information to add here. You can change the default display text in the Placeholder section.

Automate filling of duplicates with the field key

In the offer description, we also have a certificate value. Let’s add the same field there.

Since we have two fields that should have the same value, we can connect them using the Key setting. When two fields have the same key and you fill out one of them, the rest of these fields will be filled automatically. You can rename keys to know which key is responsible for which type of fields.

Example: drop-down list

Now let’s add the address fields.

We can use a simple text field, or be more creative and add a drop-down list with existing addresses to make sure they are always filled correctly. To do this, we need to use the Dropdown field type.

To add the dropdown options, go to the Value Options in settings and add all options to the list. To add an option, type in the text, then click “+” icon. You can remove the options from the list using a Trash icon.

Add hints

Let’s also add a hint to let the users know what they should do in this field. Use the Hint option in settings and type it in.

We can also connect the address fields using the key. We don’t even have to create the same dropdown again, the choice will be added to the second field automatically.

Example: Phone Number field

Now let’s add a phone number in the corner using the Phone Number field type. This field type will have Format set to Arbitrary Mask by default. It specifies types of values acceptable for every position in the field.

The default mask is (999)999–9999, meaning that you can this will be an automatic number format. For example, when users type 1111111111, the result will be (111)111–1111.

Now that the form is finished, it’s time to save it.

How to export forms

To get your form ready for filling, you can either save it in OFORM format or export in PDF that the users can fill.

OFORM is ONLYOFFICE’s native file format used exclusively for filling forms. When opening files in this format in ONLYOFFICE Docs, users are only able to fill the fields in your forms, but cannot edit the rest of the content.

And this is how the filled and saved certificate will look:

Summary

Template creation can help automate creation of repetitive content, regardless of its purpose. One of the ways to use OFORMs is to ease the creation of marketing materials.

In this article, we tested the forms on a very simple task and showed how only three of all available field types work, but in fact, you can create much more complex designs and obtain instruments for a universe of creative processes.

OFORMs are available in ONLYOFFICE Docs which you can integrate and use in your own cloud environment, and ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, a free desktop app ready to install on any OS.

You can also find ready OFORM templates in our free Form Library and suggest your own.