Visualforce Developer Guide

Introducing Visualforce
Tools for Visualforce Development
Getting a Quick Start with Visualforce
Compiling Visualforce Successfully
Creating Your First Page
Displaying Field Values with Visualforce
Using the Visualforce Component Library
Overriding an Existing Page with a Visualforce Page
Redirecting to a Standard Object List Page
Using Input Components in a Page
Adding and Customizing Input Field Labels
Setting the Tab Order for Fields in a Form
Adding Dependent Fields to a Page
Creating Visualforce Dashboard Components
Displaying Related Lists for Custom Objects
Enabling Inline Editing
Converting a Page to a PDF File
Building a Table of Data in a Page
Editing a Table of Data in a Page
Using Query String Parameters in a Page
Using Ajax in a Page
Customizing the Appearance and Output of Visualforce Pages
Standard Controllers
Standard List Controllers
Custom Controllers and Controller Extensions
Advanced Examples
Overriding Buttons, Links, and Tabs with Visualforce
Using Static Resources
Creating and Using Custom Components
Dynamic Visualforce Bindings
Dynamic Visualforce Components
Integrating Email with Visualforce
Visualforce Charting
Creating Maps with Visualforce
Render Flows with Visualforce
Templating with Visualforce
Developing Salesforce Apps with Visualforce
Adding Visualforce to a Salesforce AppExchange App
Using JavaScript in Visualforce Pages
Best Practices
Standard Component Reference
Appendices
Glossary
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Converting a Page to a PDF File

You can render any page as a PDF by adding the renderAs attribute to the <apex:page> component, and specifying “pdf” as the rendering service. For example:
Visualforce pages rendered as PDFs will either display in the browser or download as a PDF file, depending on your browser settings.

In the previous tutorial, you used a Visualforce page to change the name of a company. Suppose you wanted to generate an announcement of the new name as a PDF. The following example produces such a page, along with the current date and time.

Things to note about the page:
  • <style> is CSS markup, not Visualforce markup. It defines the font family used for the entire page, as well as a particular style for the company name.
  • Some of the output text is contained in an <apex:panelGrid> component. A panel grid renders as an HTML table. Each component found in the body of the <apex:panelGrid> component is placed into a corresponding cell in the first row until the number of columns is reached. As there is only a single cell, each output text is displayed in a separate row.
A Visualforce Page Rendered as PDF A Visualforce page rendered as a PDF

Always verify the format of your rendered page before deploying it.