PDF Submissions: Is there a way to make the export of pdf files last name first?

I export a whole bunch (~50) of generated pdf files at one time which nicely gets emailed to me. However, the file names are created with a firstname-lastname-firstentry format. This makes it difficult to sort them alphabetically by last name. I have to individually edit each pdf file name to delete the first name. Is there a way this can be changed so the file name is in a lastname-firstname type format?

Hi there,

Unfortunately, it's not possible to change the name layout in the submission entries. The only way is to edit those manually now.

To avoid this issue in the future, I would recommend changing the sub-labels in your form so the users enter their last names first.

Or you can use short text fields to get First Name and Last Name in separate fields and then arrange them accordingly later.

PS. Please hide the existing name field and add a new one for making these changes because deleting the existing fields will delete all submissions associated with it.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if you need further assistance.

Thank you. I like the second suggestion. I'm afraid people will mess up and enter the names incorrectly with your first suggestion.

When you say to "arrange them accordingly later" what do you mean? Where do I do this and what am I specifically trying to do? Does the pdf file name algorithm automatically look for first name and then last name, so I am trying to trick it? Or is it just looking for a certain column in the table?

Thank you for your help

I think what my colleague means is to position them next to each other since short text fields are displayed on a new line.

Using the Shrink function should help you position them next to each other, here's a guide: https://www.jotform.com/help/328-how-to-position-fields-in-jotform.

Does the pdf file name algorithm automatically look for first name and then last name, so I am trying to trick it?

Not really, if you have a name field element as the PDFs file name, the first name will always come first when the file name is generated, and replacing it with a Short text field will help you have better control of the PDF file name if you want to use the first and last name as the PDF filename.

See the image below.

https://www.jotform.com/help/553-how-to-assign-a-custom-name-to-a-pdf-document-with-pdf-editor

I hope this helps. Let us know if you need any further assistance.