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EventDocs: personalized PDF documents
In this article you'll learn what EventDocs is, what you can do with it, and how to create your personalized PDF step by step.
What is EventDocs?
EventDocs is a Sweap product that automatically generates personalized documents for your guests from a single prepared PDF template β e.g. attendance confirmations, certificates, individually designed tickets, seminar certificates, or awards.
Instead of manually creating a file for each guest, you add placeholders to your PDF form (e.g. first name, last name, event name, date) and EventDocs automatically fills them in per guest using the guest data from your Sweap event. The finished PDFs are stored in Sweap and accessible via a unique URL per guest β perfect for linking in Sweap emails or on event websites.
You can access EventDocs at eventdocs.sweap.io. You can log in with your Sweap credentials.
When is EventDocs worth it?
A typical example: an organizer wants to send attendees an attendance confirmation after an event.
π The old process looked like this:
- Export attendee list as Excel from Sweap
- Set up the confirmation in Word
- Use Word's mail merge to generate one file per guest
- Save and name each file individually as a PDF
- Send each one individually via Outlook
With 50 guests, this easily takes more than an hour and is quite error-prone.
π With EventDocs the process looks like this:
- Create and upload the template once
- Select the event, fill in fields with placeholders, click "Generate"
- Send via a Sweap email with a download button
Creation and delivery takes just a few minutes β whether you have 50 or 5,000 guests.
Prerequisites β What you need:
- A Sweap account with access to the activated EventDocs module
- An event with guest records entered in Sweap
- A PDF form (see next section)
How EventDocs works β Step by step
- Login
Open eventdocs.sweap.io. If you're already logged into Sweap, you'll be automatically signed into EventDocs as well. If not, click the login button and sign in with your Sweap username and password.
- Prepare your PDF form
EventDocs requires a PDF form β a PDF with fillable fields. You create this in two steps:
a) Design the layout:
Design the document in any program of your choice β e.g. Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Pages, or a design tool β then export it as a PDF.
b) Add form fields:
For EventDocs to know where to insert which content, you need fillable fields. You can add these with Adobe Acrobat (paid) or free tools like sejda.com. Give each field a meaningful name, e.g. firstName, lastName, eventName, attendanceDate. These names will appear again later in EventDocs.
- Upload the template to EventDocs
In EventDocs, go to the "Templates" section and click "Upload template". Select your PDF and give the template a clear, descriptive name β e.g. "Attendance Confirmation Seminar XY 2026". You can reuse the template as many times as you like, including for different events.
In the template editor, you can additionally configure the following per field:
- An alternative, readable display name if the technical field name is cryptic
- A default value that is inserted when no other value is provided during document creation
- Optionally one or more QR codes with freely selectable content (e.g. the guest's ticket ID), position, size, and color
- Create documents
Go to "Create documents". The wizard guides you through two stages:
- Selection stage:
Select the Sweap event for whose guests you want to create documents. Then select the PDF template to use as the basis.
- Edit stage:
On the left you see a preview of the PDF template with highlighted form fields, and on the right two tabs:
a) Tab "Map fields": For each form field, enter what should be inserted β either fixed text, a Liquid placeholder (see next section), or a combination of both.
b) Tab "Output settings": Here you configure how and for whom the documents are generated. The "Output settings" tab contains the following options:
-> Name: An internal name for the generation run so you can find it later in the overview.
-> Guest filter: For which guests should a document be created? Options are "All guests", "Guests who accepted the invitation", or "Guests who attended the event (checked in)".
-> Guest field for PDF link: Select a custom guest field in Sweap. EventDocs will store the URL of the generated PDF for each guest in this field. You can then use this URL in Sweap emails as a download link or button. If a value already exists in that field, you can choose whether to skip the guest or overwrite the value.
-> Deletion settings: Optionally, you can set a date on which the documents are automatically deleted, and have the deletion date written to a custom guest field of type "Date".
Click "Generate documents" to start the run. EventDocs will now create a separate PDF for each guest and save it. Depending on the number of guests, this takes a few seconds to a few minutes.
- Send documents via Sweap email
Once generation is complete, each guest has an individual URL stored in the configured custom guest field. Use this URL in your Sweap email:
- Open the email template in Sweap that you want to use to send the document
- Insert a button or link and label it (e.g. "Download attendance confirmation")
- Set the target to the placeholder for your custom field, e.g.
{{ guest.fields.certificateUrl }}
Each guest will then receive a link to their personal PDF when the email is sent.
Liquid placeholders: what you need to know
EventDocs uses the template language Liquid to insert values from Sweap into your PDF fields. A Liquid variable is always written in double curly braces, e.g. {{ guest.firstName }}. You can mix any amount of fixed text with placeholders, e.g. Dear {{ guest.firstName }} {{ guest.lastName }}.
The "Show variables" button in the edit step gives you an up-to-date list of all available variables for your selected event β including a preview of what will be inserted.
- Custom guest fields:
All custom fields created in Sweap are available under {{ guest.fields.<fieldName> }} β e.g. {{ guest.fields.company }} or {{ guest.fields.position }}. Date fields are automatically formatted as DD.MM.YYYY.
- Companions:
If your event allows companions, you can access the list of all companions for a guest via {{ guest.companions }} β each companion has the same fields as a regular guest (e.g. firstName, lastName, fullName, email, custom fields under fields). Using a loop you can list them like this:
{% for companion in guest.companions %}
{{ companion.fullName }}{% unless forloop.last %}, {% endunless %}
{% endfor %}Custom filters
In addition to standard Liquid filters, EventDocs provides the ifPresent filter β for more elegant handling of empty values. Examples:
{{ guest.fields.title | ifPresent: " " }}{{ guest.firstName }}
inserts a space after the title, but only if the title is set
{{ guest.fields.title | ifPresent: "(", ")" }}
wraps the title in parentheses, but only if it is set
{{ guest.fields.title | ifPresent: "(", ")", "no title" }}
same as above, with fallback "no title" if the title is empty
upcase, downcase, capitalize, default, or truncate also work. A full overview can be found in the Liquid documentation.Examples for typical content
Salutation with fallback:
Dear {{ guest.firstName | default: "Attendee" }} {{ guest.lastName }}
Attendance confirmation sentence:
We hereby confirm the attendance of {{ guest.fullName }} on {{ event.start.date }} at the event "{{ event.name }}".
Company in parentheses if present:
{{ guest.fullName }}{{ guest.fields.company | ifPresent: " (", ")" }}
Frequently asked questions
Can I reuse a template?
Yes. Templates are independent of a specific event. Upload once and use for as many events as you like.
What happens if I change fields in the template afterwards?
Upload the template as a new version and give it an appropriate name. This way it remains traceable which version was used for which run.
How do guests access the finished PDF?
Via the Sweap email β link the personal PDF download using the custom guest field that EventDocs wrote the URL to (e.g. {{ guest.fields.certificateUrl }}).
My upload fails β what could be the cause?
Most common cause: the PDF was opened with macOS Preview, which destroyed the form. Recreate the form in Sejda or Adobe Acrobat and re-upload it without opening it in macOS Preview first.
Can I use bold/italic or HTML in my forms?
EventDocs does not support bold/italic formatting or real bullet lists within text blocks. Instead, use a separate paragraph for each item and add a UTF-8 bullet character ("β’") in front of it.
How long are the PDFs stored?
By default, indefinitely. However, you can set an automatic deletion date in the output settings when creating documents.
Can I try EventDocs?
EventDocs is a paid add-on. However, you can try it out at any time (PDFs will be watermarked). Feel free to contact our support team for more information.
