TeamDesk Knowledge Base & Support

cooper collier  11/16/2025 11:15:51 AM

This would depend on how your attachments are organized.

If you have a record and the attachments are in a sub-table.

In your sub-table of attachments make a checkbox call it Downloadnow.
Make a rule for when the record changes and Downloadnow is true
1 action to save document
2 change downloadnow to false

In the main record table, make a recordset for all the attachments.
Then make a button with an action that sets downloadnow to true. Make sure it is set to execute triggers.

This at least would save them to one location.


I used to have to print a bunch of PDF documents at once. Microsoft removed the feature to multiselect and print.
It was faster to use a program that combined all the PDF into one large PDF, then send to printer.

Luison Lassala 11/17/2025 3:37:34 AM

Thanks for the suggestion Cooper. The files are with the main record as a File Attachment record. But I can easily generate records in a related detail table with a Create-Record Action.
However, what Action Type is "to save document" in your suggestions??
I can only see options for Create/Update/Delete Records, Generate Document, Call URL and Navigate.
Is it possible "save the file attachment" with any of those Actions??

Pierre 11/17/2025 3:39:43 AM

Hello Luison

A small remark not addressing your specific question:
replace
fid=62381328
with
ColumnId([Essay Uploaded])


And to combine pdfs, I use a lot convertapi.com, which works nicely - you probably already have something like this.

kind regards,

Pierre

Luison Lassala 11/17/2025 3:39:49 AM

Sorry, I meant "as a File Attachment FIELD." not "as a File Attachment record."

Luison Lassala 11/17/2025 3:44:10 AM

Thanks Pierre, I actually have the ColumnId([]) syntax in another version of the formula.

What do you use convertapi.com for: to print multiple PDF files at once?

Pierre 11/17/2025 3:49:38 AM

To store a document in a given field:
You get the URL address of the document to store
You create an update record action
in this update action, you assign the URL address to a file attachment field

convert api:
I do a lot a document processing.
Best tool I have found for OCR and document analysis is mistral.ai (much better and much cheaper than all the OCR services / and I have tested all the leading ones)
the I do a lot pdf handling (extracting, merging, resizing, placing logos, converting ...) with convertapi

I do not print the documents. But if you have several pdf docs, it is easy to merge them into one, and then to print it.

Luison Lassala 11/17/2025 5:21:06 AM

Sorry, Pierre and Cooper, (and thank you for staying with me on this one), but maybe I did not express my request properly.

What I need is to download (extract) a File attached to a record (in a File Attachment field), so that it can be printed - and to do it for over 500 records!
So, I need to print (or at least download to a local or cloud drive from which they can be printed/manipulated) over 500 files that are currently embedded as a File Attachment field in over 500 different records.

I can't see where in your instructions the file is extracted from the records and downloaded (or saved to a cloud drive). What am I missing?

Andrew Winters 11/17/2025 7:20:29 AM

Another possible workaround we have used is to leverage a bulk download browser extension.

If you can generate a Report or a View that displays all 500 records, and that view contains the URL link to the file attachment field (like the one you posted: URLRoot() & "/attachment.aspx?fid=..."), a specialized browser extension may be able to crawl that page and automatically detect and download all those unique file links.

You would still need to select the records and display them in a list/report first, but it saves the step of clicking and downloading each file individually. Once they are downloaded to a local folder, you can use a utility (like a PDF combiner/printer) as Cooper suggested.

Pierre 11/17/2025 7:35:49 AM

500 pages to print is a lot !

What I know how to do:
Using a many by many relationship, create a JSON list of the URLs of the pdf attachments
Using convert API or equivalent, merge them into one pdf, which you can download and print.

What I don't know how to do:
how to identify the items you would select in the subtable.
Maybe: when you select them, you tag them (I use timestamps which I update to Now() ) and then you can identify them in the table above

Pierre

cooper collier  11/17/2025 8:07:02 AM

I did misunderstand your initial request; I was thinking you were making PDF documents from the data. My Bad.

My only idea for attachments is possibly using the backup tool, combined with Pierre ideas.
the backup tool dumps all the files into a single folder. But they all have an ID appended to the start of the name.
Train an AI to accept a list of files ideas and then find a print each file for you.

Luison Lassala 11/17/2025 9:33:55 AM

@Andrew Winters
Your suggestion worked well: I used the Chrome Extension "Downloadyze" to crawl through the webpage displayed with the PRINT button of a List which only contains the URL and another column, and then download each linked File as a PDF to the "Downloads" local folder.
It's super fast and efficient!
Many thanks to you all for your advice.