The page designer block is part of Airtable Blocks, a Pro plan feature. Blocks let you extend the functionality of your bases: you can use blocks to bring new information into Airtable, visualize and summarize your records in colorful ways, and even directly integrate your Airtable bases with your favorite apps.
With the page designer block, you can create your own custom invoices, business cards, catalogs, real estate feature sheets, casting sheets, and more—all using the data directly from your records. When you're done making everything look beautiful, you can print out your records or turn them into PDFs.
Watch this video to learn more about how to set up and use a page designer block, or read on for further information.
When you first add a page designer block to a dashboard, it'll automatically open the new page designer block's settings. You can select:
- Table: the table containing the records you want to turn into pages.
- Record size: the size of the page you want to design. By default, it's set to Letter (8.5 x 11 in), but you can set it to another preset (like A4 or Business card) or set your own custom dimensions.
- Record orientation: either Portrait or Landscape.
Once you're done with the page designer settings, you'll see your page. Depending on what's in your table, your page may be prepopulated with a couple of elements, to give you an idea of what the page designer block can do. To start editing your page, click the Edit layout button (the one with the little pencil).
This will take you into a fullscreen editor experience, in which you can make your own custom page for your table data.
Adding and deleting elements
In the blue sidebar, you'll see a list of all of the fields in your table, plus a few other types of static elements that you can add to your page (text and image). To add a new layout element to your page, click on any of these options.
When an element is selected, it appears with a green outline, and the sidebar changes from blue to green. To delete an element from your page, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the sidebar while the element you want to delete is selected, then click the Delete element option. Alternatively, you can press the Delete key while an element is selected.
You can also add a new element to your page by duplicating an existing element. To duplicate an existing element, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the sidebar while the element you want to delete is selected, then click the Duplicate element option.
Moving elements
When an element has been selected, you can change its position on the page using a couple of different methods.
- Click and drag the element to the desired location on the page.
- Use the arrow keys on your keyboard while the element is selected.
- Specify the desired X/Y coordinates in the element customization sidebar.
Customizing elements
There are a number of different ways that you can customize the elements on your page.
Element size
You can adjust the size of an element in one of two ways:
- Click and drag the element to its desired size using the drag handle in the bottom right corner.
- Specify an absolute width and height in the element customization sidebar.
Element rotation
You can adjust the rotation of an element in one of two ways:
- Click and drag the element to its desired rotation using the rotation handle that appears when an element is selected
- Specify the rotation angle for the element (in degrees) in the element customization sidebar.
Element order
You can change the order in which the elements are layered using the buttons under the Order header. The buttons on the left allow you to send a selected element backward or bring it forward; the buttons on the right allow you to send the selected element all the way to the back or bring it all the way to the front.
Element background and padding
You can specify if you would like the background of your element to be transparent (the default setting) or if you would like the background to be filled with a specific color. If you choose the Filled option, you can specify a hex code or click the color swatch to bring up a color picker. You can also adjust the padding.
Element borders
You can customize the borders of your elements using the options in the element customization menu. You can adjust:
- Whether your element will have borders on its left, right, top, and/or bottom
- Border color (specify a hex code or click the color swatch to bring up a color picker)
- Border width
- Border radius (which rounds the corners of your element)
Text elements
In addition to all of the customization options described above, text-type elements have a couple of additional options.
To intersperse content from your records within static text, type {Field name} into the text area of a static text element.
You can also adjust the following font options for your text elements:
- Font
- Font size
- Weight
- Line height
- Horizontal alignment (Left, Center, or Right)
- Vertical alignment (Top, Center, or Bottom)
- Text color (specify a hex code or click the color swatch to bring up a color picker)
Attachment field elements
If you have added an attachment field as an element to your page, you have a couple of additional customization options. In the Display section of the element customization menu, you have two choices.
First image
First image displays just the first image in the attachment field. If you pick First image, you can pick one of three sizing options that will determine how the image is displayed: Fit, Fill and Stretch.
All images
All images displays all of the images in the attachment field as equally sized thumbnails. If you choose this option, you can adjust the image size and padding.
Linked record field elements
When you add a linked record element to your page, you can select one of three modes in which to display information from your linked records.
Inline
Inline mode displays the values from the linked record field as a text string. If there are multiple linked records, the links are separated by commas.
List
List mode displays the values from the linked record field as a list. You can choose whether to display the values as a bulleted list, as a numbered list, or neither.
Table
Table mode takes information from other tables using the link created by the linked record field, and turns it into a grid table on your page. Under the Table Columns header, you can use the Add column... dropdown menu to pick fields from the table linked to by your linked record field and turn them into columns on your page.
You can reorder the columns in the Table Columns section by using the drag handles and dragging and dropping the columns into whatever order you want; you can also remove a column by clicking the X button.
Additionally, you can customize the table borders using the dropdown menu under the Borders heading, or remove the headings from the table by clicking the Show headings toggle.
Undoing and redoing changes
You can undo any changes made through the block by clicking the undo icon next to the block's settings button or by using the Z keyboard shortcut.
Similarly, you can redo any changes by clicking the redo button, by using the Y keyboard shortcut, or by using the ShiftZ keyboard shortcut.
If you're using the keyboard shortcuts, make sure that the page designer block is focused (i.e., that it's been clicked into and is selected to receive keyboard inputs)—otherwise, the keyboard shortcuts will apply to the changes last made outside the block, in the currently visible table. You can focus the block by clicking anywhere in its frame.
Viewing your pages
As you're designing your page, the content will be pulled from the actual records in your table. You can easily toggle between which records you are previewing by clicking on the Previous record and Next record buttons in the top bar.
To jump straight to a specific record, click Go to record. This will bring up a search dialog which you can use to navigate to the record you wish to see.
Print settings
Once you've finished designing your page, just click the "Print" button to print either a single record or all of the records in a view.
Presentation mode
You can also view all of your records as pages in presentation mode by clicking the Present button.
