Steps for testing the End User experience for a Longform document.
Before releasing a new Longform template to End Users, Template Composers should review the End User experience for a Longform template. The best way to complete this testing is to act as if you're filling out a real document and review each field and its content management. You can Pica9's in-depth content management checklist here. Below are additional content management considerations that are specific to Longform documents and the Longform interface.
Document Sections
Review the Document Section Pane to ensure that all intended document sections are showing and are in the correct order on the template. If sections need to be added or reordered, those changes can be made in the Campaign Item management area.
Groups and Their Content
Review the Editing Pane for the following:
- Is all editable content within a group or showing as a layer as intended?
- Are the groups named as intended?
- Are the groups in the correct order?
- Is the correct content within the correct group?
- Is the content in the group in the correct order?
- Are any groups that are common in different sections named consistently?
- Is the content in common groups consistent and in the same order?
If adjustments are required to either the groups themselves or the content within groups, those changes can be made within the individual section templates in the Campaign Item management area.
Uploaded Content
The Longform interface allows PDF document upload between any pages within a section. These PDF files will be added to the finished document upon document generation. It is important to test this experience by uploading a sample or test PDF document within a document section.
Previews
Review the Preview Pane and document generation for the following:
- Section Preview: Generate a section preview to check each section. Note that, if Expanding Pages" are used, the extra pages will NOT show up in a section preview.
- Is content Shown/Hidden properly?
- If the "Text Flows From" feature is used, is text flowing properly?
- Does the section take an excessively long time to generate (see last section)?
- Document Preview: First upload a test PDF document between pages within a section. Then, generate a document preview to check the following:
- Does the uploaded PDF test document appear correctly and in the correct place?
- Are expanded pages appearing correctly?
- Does the document take an excessively long time to generate (see last section)?
Final Document Generation and File Size
The last step in testing a Longform template is to generate a test document. Click Finish to generate a final output. Download the finished file and check the following:
- Does the PDF open and display as expected?
- What is the file size of the final PDF?
If file size is a consideration, download the final file at different reduction settings to see how this affects the file size.
Generation Considerations
It is important to check the generation times when testing Longform templates. Generation testing should be first done on the base template and then with a "typical" document, including image placement and uploaded content. Generation testing should be done at both the section and document level. If either the section or document is taking longer than expected to generate, consider the following:
- Large assets will make the overall file size larger. Consider optimizing any that are excessively large.
- Large uploaded PDF files or many uploaded PDF files can affect the generation time. Generally, fewer PDF files with more pages affect the load time less than a greater number of PDF files with fewer pages. If your users will have many PDF files to attach, you might want to consider recommending End Users combine PDF files before uploading.