Custom form report builder instructions

Overview

Custom Word reports allow you to fully control the layout, structure, and branding of your generated reports by using your own Microsoft Word (.docx) templates.

With Word report builder, you can:

• Design reports that match your company's branding and formatting standards
• Control where titles, metadata, answers, images, and tables appear
• Use placeholders (variables) that are automatically replaced with form data
• Generate reports in a consistent format across your organization

Once uploaded, the template is used to generate reports for submitted forms in both PDF and Word formats.

How custom Word reports work

The custom Word report feature works by combining your uploaded Word template with the data from a completed form.

This is achieved by using placeholders that are automatically replaced with their corresponding values when the report is generated.

Here is a step-by-step summary of the process of building your custom Word report:

1. Create a new Word document and design the layout of your report
2. Insert placeholders where form data should appear in the report
3. Save the file as ".docx" format
4. Upload the file in the Word report builder for your form template
5. Download the submitted form reports for that form to verify the output

Using placeholders

Placeholders are special markers in your Word template that tell Lumiform where to insert data from a completed form. When a report is generated, each placeholder is automatically replaced with its corresponding value.

Different placeholder types are used depending on whether you want to insert a single value or multiple values (such as lists, answers, or photos). Placeholders must be written exactly as specified.

If a placeholder is misspelled or used incorrectly, the report may fail to generate, or the data will not be inserted.

Placeholders can be inserted anywhere in your Word document and retain the same styling as in the uploaded Word document.

Form metadata and form items have IDs that uniquely identify the field. These IDs should be used in placeholders to be replaced with submitted form data.

Inserting single values with placeholders

If a user "John Smith" submits the form at "2026-01-26 10:12:45", these values can be inserted into the custom Word report with the following syntax:

When the report is generated the data will be inserted into the Word document.

Submitted by: John Smith

Submitted at: 2026-01-26 10:12:45

Inserting photos with placeholders

A photo response type allows users to attach one or more photos to a form item. All attached photos can be inserted into the custom Word report using a photo loop.

If the placeholders in the Word report template look like this:

Photos:

When the report is generated, all photos attached to the form item will be inserted into the Word document.

Form items placeholders

Each form item will have an ID that should be used in their placeholder. You can view the form item Element IDs by clicking on the three dots menu for each form item. Element ID values for form items can be customized.

Placeholders can contain attributes that define which part of the form data should be inserted into the Word report. An attribute is the part that comes after the dot (.) in a placeholder:

In this example, question1 identifies the form item, while query and response are attributes that return different values for that item.

Additionally attributes ".textComment" and ".photoComment" can be used to get the text and photo comments from the form item.

In the table below you can find all the details for every type of response within the form items:

Type of response	Details
Multiple choice	has response and query available if multiple answers selected they are returned as comma-separated values within the response
Text	has response and query attributes available
Number	has response and query attributes available
Checkbox	has response and query attributes available response returns the image of the checkbox, checked or unchecked, depending on the answer given in the form for checkbox, use the {%question1.response} placeholder since it will insert an image
Date & time	has response and query attributes available
Photo	photo response is a loop that can return the image or the image description use {%image} and/or {description} within the image loop
File	the response of a file form item is the link to the file in addition to the link it should have a property ".filename" that returns the name of the file that was uploaded should be inserted as a loop: {#question1.files} File: {filename} Link: {fileUrl} {/question1.files}
Annotation	has response and query attributes available returns a single image of the drawing and original image merged should be inserted with % sign in the placeholder since it will place an image {%question1.response}
Signature	has response and query attributes available should be inserted with % sign in the placeholder since it will place an image {%question1.response}
Entity	has response and query attributes available if multiple answers selected they are returned as comma separated within the single response
Dropdown	has response and query attributes available if multiple answers selected they are returned as comma separated within the single response
No response required	has only query available
QR-code or Barcode	has response and query available

Negative answers loop

The negative answers loop allows you to automatically list all form items with negative answers in your Word report.

Negative answers are configured in the form template and are supported only for multiple-choice questions.

Page and Section elements

In addition to form items, you can also use placeholders for pages and sections in your Word report templates.

Pages and sections behave the same way:

• Both have a unique ID (for example page1 or section2)
• Both support the same set of attributes
• Both can be used to display structure and scoring information in reports

This allows you to show page-level or section-level results, such as titles and scores.

Available attributes for pages and sections are:

• .title - Returns the name of the page or section as defined in the form template.
• .score - Returns the achieved score for the page or section.
• .maxScore - Returns the maximum possible score for the page or section.
• .scorePercentage - Returns the achieved score as a percentage of the maximum score for the page or section.

Repeatable sections are loops that repeat for every time the user repeated the section while filling out the form. To insert repeatable sections in your reports use the following syntax:

This placeholder would insert question1 and question2 from the repeatable section as many times as the user repeated the section.

Form metadata

Form metadata placeholders allow you to insert general information about a form submission into your custom Word report. These values are not tied to a specific question, page, or section, but describe the submission as a whole.

Metadata placeholders are especially useful in report headers, summaries, and cover pages.

Full list of form metadata placeholders can be found in the table below:

Placeholder	Description
{formTitle}	Returns the title of the submitted form.
{submitter}	Returns the name of the user who submitted the form.
{submissionTime}	Returns the date and time when the form was submitted.
{scorePercentage}	Achieved form score expressed as a percentage.
{totalResult}	Returns "Fail" or "Passed" based on the score criteria.
{totalActions}	Total number of actions created in this form.
{totalNegativeAnswers}	Total number of negative answers in this form.

Actions

Actions are always returned through a loop with the keyword "actions". Actions have the following properties:

Property	Details
.title	Title of the action.
.deadline	The deadline of the action.
.assignee	Name of the user assigned to the action.
.status	The status of the action.
.priority	The priority of the action.

Example:

This loop would go through all of the actions created within the form and list their properties.

Attachments

In addition to question-specific attachments, you can insert all photos or files attached anywhere in a submitted form by using dedicated attachment loops. Photos and files are handled separately and must be accessed using different loops.

{attachedPhotos}

The attachedPhotos loop returns all photos attached to the submitted form, regardless of which question they were added to.

This includes:

• Photos attached to any photo response type
• Photos added across all pages and sections of the form

Each photo in the loop exposes the same properties as photo response types, allowing you to control how images are displayed in the report.

{attachedFiles}

The attachedFiles loop returns all files attached to the submitted form, regardless of where they were uploaded.

This includes:

• Files attached to file response types
• Files added across all pages and sections of the form

Each file in the loop exposes the same properties as file response types, allowing you to display file names, links, or other related information in the report.

Repeating table rows with loops

Loops can be used inside Word tables to automatically repeat a table row for each element in a dataset, such as questions within a section.

{#section1} {question1.query}

{question1.response} {/section1}

Conditional blocks

Conditional blocks let you include or exclude parts of your Word report depending on the submitted form data. This is useful for things like:

• Showing a section only if there are negative answers
• Showing an "Attachments" section only if photos/files exist
• Showing different text depending on counts

A conditional block has three parts:

1. Opening condition: {#section1.length > 1}
2. Content to show if true (any text, placeholders, tables, etc.)
3. Closing tag: {/}

The following statement {#section1.length > 1} will only be true if there are more than 1 occurrence of the repeatable "section1".

Comparison can be done with the following operators: >, <, >=, <=, ==, !=

Example:

There are no answers for this section.

In this example the sentence "There are no answers for this section." would be shown if the repeatable section "section1" was not filled out.