PDF Exports

There are multiple options for getting the PDF version of forms from the subject casebooks.

Casebook of all PDFs for a Single Subject

Prerequisite

  • User has Access to background export jobs, and does not have the permission "Deny PDF exports".

  • Access to the Study Events Report is needed to get audit history included on the PDF

Web Browser

From the Subject Manager, PDF export options are available for each subject from the 'More' button:

"Export Casebook PDF" will create a single PDF file of all forms for the subject.

"Zip PDFs" will create a zipped file containing individual files for each form.

Once processing in completed, you can find your PDF/Zip file(s) under Reports/Background Export Jobs.

Mobile App

Tap the PDF icon on the same subject table as shown below.

iOS will export the PDF to the device's iCloud folder.

Android will go to the downloads folder

Tip

If the resulting file shows the form going off the PDF page, it's because the form has not been optimized for paper sizing by the Study Builder. This can be adjusted via the form’s Dots per Inch form property.

PDF for a Single Form

Prerequisite

  • Does not have the permission "Deny PDF exports"

  • Access to the Study Events Report is needed to get audit history included on the PDF

Individual CRFs can be downloaded from 3 places on the web, and one place on mobile:

Web browser

1) From an open form:

2) The Scheduled visits Dropdown view (for scheduled forms).

3) The Longitudinal List (any form)

Mobile App

Open any form and tap the PDF icon at the top of the form.

Mobile App

Open any form and tap the PDF icon at the top of the form.

Blinding Consideration

At this time the mobile app will print all content designed on the form - including conditionally hidden fields and blinded fields. If Studies have blinded fields, it is recommended that access to printing PDFs is denied to any users that should not see blinded data.

Multiple Subjects' Casebooks - Batch PDF Exports

The batch PDF export tool allows for exporting bookmarked casebooks for multiple subjects at once, complete with navigational linking along with audit trail and query information. The file downloads as a zip folder containing one file per subject.

This is useful for submissions or having the paper version of a casebook for a master file.

Site membership is enforced, so the user accessing it can only export PDFs for their own site(s). 

Prerequisite permissions

  • User has Access to background export jobs

  • Data Extraction > Access Batch PDF Exports

  • Study events report

Field blinding is enforced - so be sure to consider which role is doing the exporting because some data may not be shown if fields are blinded to that role.

On a related note, form view permissions are NOT enforced from the batch PDF export tool. It should be expected that anyone with access to this tool is able to view all forms being collected at the subject level.

This function is only available on the web.

Batch PDF exports is available under the data extracts menu on the web as shown below.

Proceed through the questions presented to select which subjects and content is needed, including the list of desired subjects.

Only one site can be exported at a time. This is due to data volume limitations. Selecting the site checkbox at the top will include all subjects automatically.

File Format and Content Files are downloaded as Zipped folders where each subject is a separate file of all its corresponding records.

PDF Layout Options

eCRF view

PDFs are printed similar to how they appear on the screen within TrialKit. This can be helpful for some purposes, but is subject to layout discrepancies or scaling problems. Please review this format for completeness, as every form can be designed uniquely.

Any data blinded to the exporting user will be blinded by displaying "*****". This does not include medical codes, so please be aware of that for licensing purposes.

Data view

PDFs are printed with the data in a listing format. This is the recommended format to use for data archiving or submission purposes. This is because it includes field names/labels and export date stamp. It's also much faster when exporting higher volumes of subjects or records.

In this view, medical codes (if applicable to the study) are blinded by default to all users to make it easier to share the file externally with unlicensed parties.

It's helpful to keep a blank casebook of the PDFs along with the data view PDFs so users can reference how the form appeared to a user during data entry.

Similar to the PDF exports from the subject manager, each file will have an index for easy navigation and headers to display the details of each page.

Links to the audit and query details can be found at the top of each form. Use the links to quickly jump to those sections, and then the index on the left to return back to any form.

List of differences between the two formats

eCRF View

Data View

Displays scaled content on legal letter size PDF to match the screen view within TrialKit

Displays tabular data in an organized format for easier readability: Field label, field name, field type, and field Data

Dynamically hides fields and label content based on user-defined criteria

Displays all content (fields) that exist on the forms

Potential for blank pages due to scaling screen forms to paper

Reduction of scaling issues

Slow to process due to business logic and content placement

Fast to build in volume scenarios. No requirement for logic (except for field blinding)

Ordered by Visit, with unscheduled visits coming first

Ordered by: Scheduled visits (visit order, followed by form sequence), unscheduled forms (form sequence)

Bookmark order: Unscheduled visits (form sequence), followed by scheduled visit order (form sequence within each visit)

Bookmark order: Scheduled visits (visit order, followed by form sequence within each visit), unscheduled forms (form sequence)

Potential for content overlap

Machine readable, no overlap

Queries display one query per row

Queries display one row per query message to let the reader know how many messages exist on the next page, and query dialog bookmark is split apart from the queries table

Event diary is summarized

Event diary renamed Transaction diary to reflect nomenclature inside TrialKit, and contains indicator of e-signaure on applicable events

Page footers only contain page number/total

Page footers include study name, page#/total, and date/time stamp of the exported PDF

 

PDF File Content

Each Form within a file will contain a header to indicate key information, including:

  • Site

  • Subject ID

  • Form name

  • Visit Name (if applicable)

  • Record ID - as seen in the data exports and on screen when a form is opened. This is unique for each record within a given study

  • Date - visit date from the form

  • Current status

If the header does not repeat on all pages of a given form, the footer area will contain the form name and page name/number for quick reference without the need to scroll back the first page to reference the header.

Navigation is made simple by the PDF index, which is usually found on the left of native browser viewers. The index provides the ability to jump to specific visits and forms. 

Blank pages or tables

Casebooks exported to PDF, for submission-readiness purposes, need to include metadata and information related to the history of data entry on that form. Even if there is no history of data changes or queries, those sections are still included in the PDFs because blank tables can still serve as confirmation to an Auditor that the section is applicable but no data was necessary.  As workarounds to those blank tables, users can easily navigate around blank pages by using the embedded bookmarks in the PDF, or those sections can be excluded from the file entirely within the export configuration.

On the same topic, when exporting the CRF view of the forms, blank pages are possible due to calculation variance that can exist between a form on screen versus a form on paper. The workaround to that, and recommended approach is to export the data view (described above) instead of the CRF view.


Export archived data to PDF

Most of the time, the PDF of the most recent data is all that's needed. However, you can also export the historical data of a given form to PDF. It's like a snapshot in time of how the form looked. This would be similar to exporting the archived data from the data extracts screen, except this method gets it on PDF.

Common use case for this is for something like eConsent where the Participant fills out consent once, and then re-consents later. The first instance might need to be exported to PDF because only the current/most recent version is available in the Participant's casebook.

To do this, open the desired form (next-gen forms only) and scroll to the bottom where the transaction history is displayed. Tap the PDF icon next to the point in time that you need to the data for.