Sheetgo can automatically generate documents such as Google Docs and PDFs from a Google Sheet. Afterwards, it can even distribute them over Gmail.

To generate documents and emails with Sheetgo, you need to first prepare two files:

In this tutorial, we will generate letters for candidates who have passed the first stage of a hiring process and need to be interviewed. Their content should be mostly identical. However, there are segments of these messages that should be customized for each recipient.

Here’s how to prepare your Google Sheets file to generate documents.

Your Google Sheets template should have all the dynamic data you want to include in your documents. It’s extremely important that each column has a header, as this will become a smart tag.

A smart tag is a placeholder added to your document template that represents your dynamic data. When you generate new documents, the smart tag will be replaced with corresponding data in your spreadsheet.

In this example, there is a Google Sheets file named “Generate Contact” with configured columns, as seen in the image below. This includes all the data needed to create the contact letters.

​​​​Each column has a header that becomes a smart tag you will use in your document template. This allows Sheetgo to transfer dynamic data from your spreadsheet directly to your template.

Now that the Google Sheets template is ready, let’s see what you need to prepare your Google Docs template.

The Google Docs template will be the foundation of your newly generated documents. It should include the following:

In this example, here is a Google Doc named “Generate contact”. Configure the paragraphs and layout of the document. This will assure consistency in all the documents that Sheetgo will generate and send.

Add all of the content you wish to apply to all of your generated documents. Then, use the smart tags you created in your Google Sheets file and add these to the places you wish to replace with your dynamic data. To add smart tags, wrap the header title with double curly brackets, e.g. {{Name}}.

As you can see in the image below, the smart tags from the “Generate contact” Google Sheets are added to the document template.

This will include: Name, Location of the Interview, Start Date, and Name of the Project. The smart tags will allow Sheetgo to adjust the name and start date making them unique to each letter. The picture below shows how these items would be displayed (text formatting and paragraph alignment) on each generated letter.

Now that your Google Sheets template and Google Docs template are ready, let’s use Sheetgo to generate documents and send emails.

Let's open Sheetgo to create a new Blank workflow. Then, select the option Create an automation so you can start building.
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On the source step select the spread that you have prepared with the data that will be used to populate your Google Doc template. Select the Google Sheets option and follow the steps to add the spreadsheet as your source.

After the source step is done click Next step. You will be taken to the Data processor step, we won't need to transform the data for this automation so we'll Skip for now.

Under Generate, select Documents.

Now you need to select the Google Docs template that you've already prepared with the text and the smart tags.

After adding the template, it’s time to choose how the generated document should be named. To customize the name of the document, open the drop-down menu to reveal the smart tags that you can use to create unique names for each newly generated document.

In the image below, you can see how we have used the ##{{Name}} tag to identify which employee the contact letter should be sent to.

Select the destination folder where you’d like your newly generated documents to be located.

Before clicking Next step, there are some additional features you can add to your workflow.

When turning on this option, Sheetgo will add additional columns with timestamps and URLs of the generated documents. When this toggle is activated, Sheetgo will only generate new documents for rows where these values are empty.

Sheetgo will stop document generation when there is an undefined variable.

Select the settings as desired and then click Next step.

The next steps will show how to generate PDFs and share documents using Gmail integration. Converting your newly generated documents to PDF is a share-friendly way to send your documents to others.

Under Generate, click PDF. Select the destination folder (new or existing folder), and set the folder name. Your generated documents will now also be converted to PDF and stored in this folder.

If you generate multiple PDFs and want to send them as a single, multi-page file you need to click on Advanced Settings, then select the toggle and enable it. Now if your workflow generates multiple PDFs, you can send them as a single, multi-page file
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Click Add new step to send your PDFs via Gmail.

The next steps are to automate email distribution using Gmail integration with Sheetgo. First, choose how you want to send your document or PDF. You have the following options:

Now add the email addresses of your recipients. You can add them manually by selecting the Use custom recipients option.

Alternatively, transfer the email addresses located in your spreadsheet by selecting the Get dynamically from column option. In the dropdown menu, select the column where the email addresses are located.

You can also send the email to multiple addresses per line by adding multiple emails separated by a comma on each cell.
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​In this example, Sheetgo will get the addresses from column B in the “Generate Contact” Google Sheets file.

Finally, Sheetgo will use a standard subject line and email body. But you can also use smart tags to customize these fields for each recipient.

Click Finish and save to complete your workflow and start automating your document generation.
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Your email should now look like this: