Turn a pile of documents into an Airtable table
Reads each document you link, pulls out the details you asked for, and adds one Airtable record per document.
Apps it connects
Authenticate each one once and the workflow is ready to run.
What it does
The integration steps this workflow runs, in the order it first runs them.
- 1AirtableList records
- 2AirtableCreate record
How it works
Everything the template sets up, and what to fill in before the first run.
Paste your documents into the 'documentLinks' step, one per line, say what you want out of them in the 'detailsToPullOut' step, and a stack of files becomes a table you can sort, filter and search. Each document is read, the details you named are pulled out of it, and one record is added to your Airtable table.
The workflow writes to five columns it names itself, so create them in your table before the first run: Document (single line text), Title (single line text), Document Type (single line text), Details (long text) and Added (date). Column names cannot be chosen while a workflow runs, which is why the details you ask for are written into the Details column as one 'Field: value' line each rather than into a column per field.
Documents are read as they are written, not summarised: a value that appears in the document is pulled out, and a field that is not in it comes back blank. Ask for things a document actually states - a supplier, a date, a reference number, an amount - rather than an opinion about it.
PDFs, PNGs, JPEGs and WebP images can be read. A link has to serve the file itself, so a share or preview page from a cloud drive will not work; upload the file on the step instead and use the doc_ reference it gives you.
Nothing is ever overwritten and nothing is deleted. Before adding a record the workflow looks the link up in the Document column, so a document already in the table is left exactly as it is and re-running after adding two more links files only those two. A document that cannot be read is reported and skipped rather than stopping the run, and 'maxDocuments' caps how many are taken in one go.
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