Batch Merge
How to Use Autocrat in Google Sheets (Step-by-Step Tutorial)
Autocrat is a free document-merge add-on for Google Sheets from New Visions Cloudlab, a nonprofit that builds tools for schools. It takes each row of your spreadsheet, fills the values into a Google Docs (or Slides) template using <<merge tags>>, and saves the result as a Google Doc or PDF — one per row. It's a long-time favorite with teachers for progress reports and certificates, and with 80 million-plus installs on the Workspace Marketplace it's one of the most-used add-ons ever made. This guide walks through the full job wizard, screen by screen, plus fixes for the problems people hit most often.
Before you start
Autocrat needs two things ready before you open the wizard:
- A template — a Google Doc (or Google Slides file) where every value you want filled in is written as a tag in double angle brackets, e.g. <<First Name>>. Formatting on the tag (bold, color, size) carries through to the merged value.
- A source sheet — a Google Sheet with one column per tag and one row per document. Column headers must match the tags exactly, including capitalization and spaces: a <<First Name>> tag will not match a first name column.
For example, a certificate template with <<First Name>>, <<Last Name>>, <<Course>>, and <<Completion Date>> pairs with a sheet like this:
| First Name | Last Name | Course | Completion Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria | Alvarez | Biology 101 | Jun 12, 2026 | maria@example.edu |
| James | Chen | Biology 101 | Jun 12, 2026 | james@example.edu |
Collecting data with Google Forms? That works especially well — the Form's response sheet becomes your source data, and Autocrat can merge automatically on every new submission (step 9 below).
The Autocrat job wizard, step by step
Install Autocrat from the Google Workspace Marketplace, then open your source sheet and go to Extensions → Autocrat → Launch. Every merge in Autocrat is a saved job that you build once in a multi-screen wizard and re-run whenever you like. Here's each screen:
New Job — name it. Click NEW JOB and give it a name you'll recognize later in the job list, like "Biology certificates — spring." The name is only for you; it doesn't affect the output.
Choose template. Click From drive, find your template Doc (or Slides file) with the <<tags>>, and select it. Autocrat scans the file for tags in the next step.
Map source data to template. Pick which tab of your spreadsheet holds the data (the "merge tab") and which row contains the headers. Autocrat lists every tag it found in the template and auto-matches each one to a column with the same name. Anything it couldn't match shows a dropdown — fix those here, because unmapped tags are the #1 cause of broken merges.
File settings. Set the output file name and type. You can (and should) put tags in the file name — e.g. <<First Name>> <<Last Name>> - Certificate — so every file is named after its row instead of 200 files all called "Certificate." Choose Google Doc or PDF as the type, and whether Autocrat makes multiple output files (one per row — the usual choice) or a single output file combining all rows.
Choose destination folder(s). Pick the Google Drive folder where merged files land. Create a dedicated folder first — a big merge drops a lot of files at once, and you don't want them loose in My Drive.
Specify a dynamic folder reference (optional). If a column in your sheet contains Drive folder references, Autocrat can file each row's document into a different folder — e.g. each student's own shared folder. Most jobs skip this screen.
Set merge condition (optional). Add if/then rules so Autocrat only merges rows that match — for example, only rows where Status equals Complete. Rows that don't match are skipped. Skip this screen to merge every row.
Share docs & send emails (optional). Autocrat can share each merged file with the email address in a column of that row, and/or send an email with the document linked or attached as a PDF. The subject and body accept the same <<tags>> for personalization. Leave sharing off if you just want files in Drive.
Add/remove job triggers. Two automation options: Run on form trigger merges a document the moment a linked Google Form gets a new submission; Run on time trigger re-runs the job on a schedule (the shortest interval is hourly). Leave both set to No for a manual job, then click Save.
Run it. Back on the job list, click the ▶ (play) button next to your job. Autocrat works down the sheet row by row and adds status columns to your sheet with links to each merged document, so you can spot-check the output right from the spreadsheet.
Test with two rows first. Before merging a full sheet, run the job against a copy of your data with just a couple of rows. It's much easier to fix a mis-mapped tag or a bad file name before there are 300 wrong PDFs in your Drive.
Common Autocrat problems (and fixes)
My <<tags>> aren't being replaced
Almost always a mapping problem. Tags are case-sensitive and must match the column header exactly, including spaces — <<First Name>> vs a First name column fails silently. Open the job (pencil icon), go back to the Map source data to template screen, and check that every tag shows a mapped column. If you edited the template after creating the job, re-open this screen so Autocrat re-scans the tags.
The merge is slow or stalls on a big sheet
Autocrat processes rows one at a time inside Google's script-runtime limits, and community guides warn it can struggle once you get past a few hundred rows (one school IT guide draws the line around 250). Fixes: merge in batches using a merge condition (e.g. a Batch column), let interrupted jobs re-run — Autocrat skips rows its status columns show as already merged — and avoid stacking several big jobs on the same trigger.
Every output file has the same name
If you left the file name static in File settings, every PDF gets an identical name and the destination folder becomes unsearchable. Edit the job and add row tags to the file name (e.g. <<Last Name>> - Report). Re-running the job regenerates the files with proper names.
My time trigger doesn't run when I expect
Time triggers run hourly at minimum — there's no sub-hour schedule — and Google allows only one trigger of each type per user per spreadsheet, so multiple jobs on one sheet share a single trigger via Autocrat's triggered-jobs list. Also note triggers run as the account that saved them: merged docs and emails come from that user, and if that account loses access the trigger dies quietly.
A job that used to work suddenly fails (or won't delete)
A recurring theme in recent Marketplace reviews: jobs that ran fine for years start erroring after an update, and occasionally a broken job resists deletion. The usual recovery path is to rebuild the job from scratch (the wizard remembers nothing, so note your settings first), and if that fails, remove and reinstall Autocrat, then re-authorize it. Because saved jobs live with the spreadsheet, a fresh copy of the sheet + a fresh job is the nuclear option that reliably works.
Autocrat vs simpler alternatives
Autocrat earns its popularity: it's completely free, and its form triggers, merge conditions, and dynamic folder filing handle standing workflows — like generating a report card into each student's folder on every form submission — that most paid tools don't match. If that's your job, use Autocrat and this page's wizard walkthrough will get you there.
The trade-off is that same wizard. Nine screens is a lot of clicking when all you want is "one PDF per row of this sheet, right now" — and every re-configuration means walking the screens again. That's the job Batch Merge was built for: everything lives in a single sidebar, templates use {{double braces}} instead of <<angle brackets>>, and every tag shows up as a live pill — green when it matches a column header, amber when it doesn't — so mapping mistakes are visible before you run, not after. Output is PDF, DOCX, or Google Doc, the free plan includes 25 merge runs a month, and Pro ($6.99/mo or $59/yr) adds per-row email delivery, scheduled merges, and Google Slides templates.
The honest summary: the right tool depends on the job. Form-triggered, conditional, folder-routed workflows → Autocrat. Fast one-off batches with visible tag matching → Batch Merge. For a feature-by-feature breakdown, see the full Batch Merge vs Autocrat comparison, and if you're starting from zero, grab a ready-made merge template from the template library.
FAQ
Is Autocrat free?
Yes — Autocrat is completely free. It's built and maintained by New Visions Cloudlab, the tech team of a New York education nonprofit, and there is no paid tier.
Does Autocrat work with Google Slides?
Yes. Autocrat accepts Google Slides files as templates — a popular way to make certificates — and merges <<tags>> placed in the slides the same way as in a Doc. Note that the official New Visions documentation centers on Docs templates, and some users in the Autocrat community forum report the Slides option occasionally not appearing in the template picker, so test your Slides template with a small run first.
Why are my merge tags not replaced in the output?
The tag doesn't exactly match a column header. Matching is case- and space-sensitive, so <<Email>> won't pick up an email column. Re-open the job's Map source data to template screen and map every listed tag to a column.
Can Autocrat run automatically?
Yes, two ways: a form trigger merges a document each time a linked Google Form receives a submission, and a time trigger re-runs the job on a recurring schedule (hourly at the fastest). Both are set on the wizard's final Add/remove job triggers screen.
Related reading
Want the one-sidebar version of this?
Batch Merge does sheet-to-PDF merges without the nine-screen wizard — free to install, 25 merge runs a month, no credit card.
Install Batch Merge Free