Automate PDF Generation from Emails with Pabbly Connect

Learn how to automate PDF generation from emails using Pabbly Connect, Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive in this detailed tutorial. Discover hidden automation capabilities within your existing tools. This guide shows you how to connect your essential applications and permanently eliminate redundant manual processes.

Watch Step By Step Video Tutorial Below

1. Accessing Pabbly Connect for Automation

To start automating PDF generation, access Pabbly Connect by visiting Pabbly.com/connect in your browser. Here, you can either sign in if you’re an existing user or sign up for a free account to explore the platform.

Once logged in, you will have access to various automation tools. For this tutorial, we will focus on creating a workflow that integrates Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive using Pabbly Connect. This workflow will automatically generate a PDF document from incoming emails.

2. Creating a New Workflow in Pabbly Connect

In Pabbly Connect, creating a new workflow is essential for setting up automation. Click on the ‘Create Workflow’ button on your dashboard. You will be prompted to name your workflow; enter a name like ‘Generate PDF from Email Automatically’ and select a folder to save it.

Once the workflow is created, you will see two sections: Trigger and Action. The Trigger will capture the email responses, while the Action will define what happens next. For this process, we will use the Email Parser as the trigger and Google Docs as the action.

• Click on ‘Create Workflow’ and name it.
• Select the folder to save the workflow.
• Set the Trigger as Email Parser and Action as Google Docs.

This setup will allow you to capture incoming emails and process them into documents automatically.

3. Setting Up Email Parser as Trigger

To capture email responses, you need to set up the Email Parser in Pabbly Connect. Copy the email hook provided by the Email Parser and go to your Gmail settings. Navigate to the ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ section and add the copied email hook as a forwarding address.

After confirming the forwarding address, return to Pabbly Connect and click on ‘Recapture Email Parser Response’. Send a test email to your Gmail account to verify that the email is captured successfully by the Email Parser.

• Go to Gmail settings and add the Email Parser hook.
• Confirm the forwarding address to allow email capture.
• Send a test email to ensure the setup works.

This step is crucial for ensuring that your workflow responds to new emails effectively.

4. Filtering Emails for Specific Orders

To ensure that your workflow only processes relevant emails, you need to add a filter condition in Pabbly Connect. This filter will check if the subject of the incoming email contains specific keywords, such as ‘New Order’. This way, only emails that meet your criteria will trigger the next steps.

In the Action section, select ‘Filter’ and configure the filter conditions based on the email subject. Set it to continue the workflow only if the subject contains the phrase ‘New Order’. This ensures that your automation only processes relevant orders and ignores other emails.

Select ‘Filter’ as the Action application. Set the condition to check for the subject line. Ensure the filter allows only relevant emails to continue.

This filtering step is vital for maintaining the relevance of the documents generated through your automation.

5. Generating Documents and Uploading to Google Drive

With the filter in place, you can now set up the action to create documents in Google Docs using Pabbly Connect. Choose Google Docs as the action application and select ‘Create Document from Template’ as the action event. Connect your Google account and select the invoice template you want to use.

Map the necessary fields from the email response to the document template. After creating the document, you will need to upload it to Google Drive as a PDF. Select Google Drive as the next action, and choose the option to upload the file. Map the document ID and specify the folder where you want to save the PDF.

Select Google Docs and set the action to create a document. Map the email details to the document fields. Upload the generated document to Google Drive as a PDF.

This final step completes your automation, allowing you to generate and store PDFs automatically whenever a relevant email is received.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored how to automate PDF generation from emails using Pabbly Connect, Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive. By setting up triggers and actions, you can streamline your workflow and save time on repetitive tasks.

With Pabbly Connect, integrating various applications becomes simple and efficient, enabling you to focus on your core business activities while automation handles the rest.