Summary
Improve the end-to-end experience for customers working with PDF-based questionnaires by addressing limitations in both PDF import and PDF export.
Many customers receive RFPs and questionnaires exclusively in PDF format. While Responsive supports PDF workflows, current limitations require manual intervention during import and can result in unusable exported documents.
Customer
Altron Digital Business
Approximately 90% of the RFPs they receive are in PDF format, making reliable PDF support critical to their response process.
Issue 1: PDF Checkbox Detection During Import
Current Behavior
When importing PDF questionnaires:
- Checkbox questions are not detected.
- Yes/No and similar checkbox responses require manual intervention.
- Responsive currently supports checkbox recognition only for supported editable document formats, making PDF-based checkbox questions a known limitation.
Expected Behavior
PDF questionnaires containing checkbox-based questions should import in a way that preserves those response types, minimizing manual effort and allowing customers to complete questionnaires efficiently.
Issue 2: PDF Export Formatting
Current Behavior
After completing an imported PDF questionnaire and exporting it:
- Table formatting becomes distorted.
- Content alignment is affected.
- The exported document may not be suitable for submission without manual reformatting.
Support was able to reproduce this behavior and confirmed it is not specific to the customer's document.
Support Ticket: TKT-219985
Expected Behavior
Completed PDF questionnaires should export while preserving the formatting and layout of the original document so they are ready for customer submission.
Business Impact
- Customers receiving primarily PDF-based RFPs experience additional manual work during both import and export.
- Reduced confidence in PDF questionnaire workflows.
- Increased reliance on Support and workarounds.
- Slower response turnaround for proposal teams.
Customer Impact
For Altron Digital Business, where approximately 90% of incoming RFPs are PDFs, these limitations significantly impact day-to-day operations and reduce the efficiency gains expected from automating questionnaire responses.
Success Criteria
- PDF questionnaires import with minimal manual remediation.
- Checkbox-based questions in PDFs are handled appropriately during import.
- Exported PDF questionnaires maintain the original document formatting and are ready for submission.
- Reduced customer-reported issues related to PDF import and export workflows.
