Button and Output Settings

This doc explains how to configure the PDF download button appearance, behavior, and output settings in PDFDraft. You'll learn how to customize button text, position, styling, and control PDF generation options including filenames and image handling.

Overview

PDFDraft provides flexible button and output configuration through two main areas:

Global settings in the PDFDraft Settings page

Per-post/page overrides in the Gutenberg sidebar

These settings control how the download button appears to visitors and how PDFs are generated when they click it.

Accessing Button Settings

Global Settings

Navigate to WordPress admin dashboard

Go to PDFDraft → Settings

Locate the Download Button section

Per-Post Settings

Open any post or page in the block editor

Open the document settings panel on the right

Look for the Posts to PDF Panel section

Button Display Settings

Button Text

The button text is the label visitors see on the download button.

To configure:

Go to PDFDraft → Settings

Find the Button Text field under Download Button

Enter your desired text

Click Save

Default value: Download as PDF

Button Position

Controls where the download button appears relative to your post or page content.

Available positions:

After Content — Button appears below the main content

Before Content — Button appears above the main content

To set position:

Go to PDFDraft → Settings

Locate the Position dropdown under Download Button

Select your preferred position

Click Save

Default value: After Content

Button Visibility

You can control whether the download button appears on individual posts and pages.

To override visibility for a specific post:

Open the post or page in the block editor

Open the document settings panel

Find the PDF button visibility setting

Choose from: Show, Hide, or Use Global Setting

This setting is stored in the post meta field _pdfdraft_pdf_button_visibility.

Filename Configuration

PDFDraft allows you to customize the filename pattern for generated PDFs using dynamic placeholders.

Setting Filename Pattern

Go to PDFDraft → Settings

Locate the filename pattern field in the Posts to PDF section

Enter your pattern using available placeholders

Click Save

Available Placeholders

You can use merge tags to create dynamic filenames. The knowledge base indicates support for post, user, and site data fields, which can be used in filename patterns.

Common examples:

{post_title}

{post_date}

{post_id}

{post_type}

The exact syntax for these placeholders follows the merge tag format used in WP Data Fields.

Image Handling Options

PDFDraft provides control over how images are processed when generating PDFs from posts and pages.

Include Images Setting

This setting determines whether images from your post content are included in the generated PDF.

To configure:

Go to PDFDraft → Settings

Find the Include Images toggle in the Posts to PDF section

Enable or disable the option

Click Save

When enabled, images from your post content are embedded in the PDF. When disabled, only text content is included.

Template Selection

You can specify which PDF template is used when generating PDFs from posts and pages.

Global Template

Go to PDFDraft → Settings

Under Posts or Pages section, locate the Project dropdown

Select your desired template

Click Save

Default value: Post/page to PDF

Per-Post Template Override

Open the post or page in the block editor

Open the document settings panel

Find the PDF template dropdown

Select a template or choose to use the global setting

This override is stored in the post meta field _pdfdraft_pdf_template_id. A value of 0 means use the global template.

Testing Your Configuration

After configuring button and output settings:

Visit a post or page where the feature is enabled

Verify the download button appears in the correct position

Click the button to generate a PDF

Check that the filename follows your pattern

Verify images are included or excluded as configured

The button displays a loading spinner during PDF generation. If generation fails, an error message is shown to the user.

Managing Settings After Setup

You can return to PDFDraft → Settings at any time to:

Update button text or position

Change filename patterns

Toggle image inclusion

Switch templates

Enable or disable the feature for posts or pages

Changes take effect immediately after saving. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+S (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+S (Mac) to save quickly.

A success notification appears in the top-right corner when settings are saved successfully.

Common Issues

Button not appearing:

Verify Posts to PDF is enabled in settings

Check that Enable for Posts or Enable for Pages is toggled on

Confirm the post-level visibility is not set to Hide

PDF generation fails:

Ensure a valid template is selected

Check that required post data is available

Verify image URLs are accessible if images are enabled