Creating a Custom PDF Certificate for Certification Cloud

Creating a custom PDF Certificate for Certification Cloud

When a user earns a Certification, you may want the file associated with that record to be one that is customized to your organization. This article will show you how to create and configure a PDF to be issued with the correct information for each user. 

Requirements: 

• Microsoft Word (or equivalent program that allows you to design a certificate)

• Adobe Acrobat Pro (or equivalent program that allows you to configure a PDF with fillable fields)

Part 1: Designing your Certificate:

1. Create your certificate in Microsoft Word (or equivalent program).

   1. Include designated areas for the information you’d like included on your certificate, like name, date, certification name, etc.
   2. If you need a starting place, check out the Templates in Microsoft Word. There are several options for Certificates, and from there you can simply change the colors, add your logo, and tweak the formatting if needed.

2. Select File > Save to save your certificate as a DOC or DOCX file.

3. Now, Select File > Save As to save your certificate as a PDF file.

Part 2: Configuring your PDF to include fillable fields:

1. In Adobe Acrobat, click on the Tools tab and select Prepare Form. 

2. Select the PDF version of the file you saved above. Adobe may analyze your form and automatically create some fields for you. 

3. Select the “Add a Text Field” icon from the top toolbar.

   1. Note: you can hover your mouse over each icon in the toolbar to see the name of each option.

4. Move your mouse to the area you would like to be a fillable field (for example, the lines or area you designated for Employee Name) and click to place it there.

5. Name the field using the chart below with the exact Adobe Field Name we’ve provided. We’ve bolded the most common data elements to help you determine what to include. This is the most important step to ensure that VAIRKKO can populate the information on each certificate correctly. 

 6. To adjust the field name, or edit any of its properties (font, size, alignment), double click on the field and select Properties. This can typically be done from the Appearance menu. 

7. After these steps have been completed click on the Close button in the top toolbar, and save your certificate with a new name, perhaps by adding “configured” to the beginning of it to indicate that the form fields have been added and coded properly.

         A. The PDF you have just created with form fields will look the same as the previous PDF you created from Microsoft Word, but make sure you use this version when uploading into VAIRKKO.

Part 3: Upload your certification into VAIRKKO Certification Cloud:

1. Login to the VAIRKKO Platform and navigate to the Admin area.

2. From the left menu, click on Education > Certification Cloud.

3. From the top menu, select More Tools > System Certificate and upload the new, configured PDF file. 

4. Click Submit.

   1. Note: You can have more than one custom certificate within VAIRKKO’s Certification Cloud.

5. Now, head over to the Certification Templates area, and select your newly created Custom Certificate from the Certificate Source dropdown menu within all applicable Certification Templates. 

Moving forward, the system will issue your newly created certificate to users who earn certifications if that certification template is set to issue your custom certificate (this will not retroactively update any existing certificates).