Building a form

You build forms in a full-screen editor. It works like Google Forms: the form's own header card in the middle with a card for each question below it, and a small toolbar beside them for adding the next card. Along the top are three tabs: Details, Theme and Settings.

Pick a starting point

When you press Create form on the Forms page, the editor first asks for a starting point. If your community has other forms, a Copy an existing form list comes first; pick one and press Use, and its questions, texts and theme carry over to the new form. Below it, under Or start from a template, are the templates and Blank. If you have many forms, a search box appears above the list.

When you pick a template, its name is written into the form's title; until you change the title, switching to another template changes it too. If you change your mind, Back to templates takes you back.

If you start from an event's Event form page, the same choices are listed right on the page and the editor opens with the one you pick. See What forms are for.

To change an existing form, choose Edit form from its menu in the Forms list, or press the Edit form button on the form's responses page.

The header card

The first card is the form itself: a title (required), a description, and optional legal text. These are the first things a person filling in the form reads. The description and legal text boxes grow as you write.

Adding questions

The toolbar beside the cards has three buttons:

• Add question: adds a new question card.
• Add title and description: adds a section heading that groups the questions below it. You can also write an optional description under the title; on the form people fill in, it shows under the title.
• Add page: splits the form onto a next page (see below).

A new card lands right below the one you're working on. With no card selected, it goes at the end of the page.

On a question card you type the question and choose its type from the menu on the right. The types are:

• Short text and Long text: free typing, for a name or a longer answer. What you type in the box shows on the form as a faint hint.
• Email, Phone, Number, and URL: typed answers that are checked as people fill them in.
• Dropdown, Single choice, and Multiple choice: pick from a list you define. Single choice allows one answer, multiple choice allows several. On a dropdown with eight or more options, the person filling in the form can search the options.
• Date: a date picker.
• Consent: a checkbox with its own legal text above it, for approvals like terms or a privacy notice.
• Section header: not a question at all, but a heading you drop in to group the questions below it.

You can change a question's type later too.

A question card's controls

Along the bottom of each card are these controls:

• Move up and Move down: shift the question by one place. You can also drag the card by the handle at its top.
• Duplicate field: adds a copy of the card right below it.
• Remove field: deletes the question.
• Required: makes an answer mandatory. Email and consent questions start as required; you can change any of them.

On dropdown, single-choice and multiple-choice questions you write the options inside the card. Add option opens a new line; Paste a list opens a box where you write one option per line and adds them all at once. The arrows beside each option change its order, and the cross removes it. Answers are stored as a value saved for each option; that value is made from the label automatically and shows under Advanced, where you can change it by hand if you need to.

If a question in the form has no label, or a choice question has no options, a warning below the cards names the page and field, and the form can't be saved until it's fixed.

Pages

To split a long form into pages, press Add page in the toolbar. The new page opens empty, with you on it. From the second page on, tabs like Page 1 and Page 2 appear above the cards, each showing how many fields that page holds. Remove page only removes the page break: that page's questions aren't deleted, they join the page before it.

Each page-break card has a Don't allow the next page until required questions are answered switch, which starts on. While it's on, the person filling in the form can't press Next until that page's required questions are answered. To turn them all on or off at once, use the Finish a page before moving on switch in the Settings tab.

Forms linked to an event are filled on a single page in the registration flow, so Add page is disabled on them.

Theme

In the Theme tab you set how the form looks:

• Banner: a 4:1 image shown above the title on the public form page (1200×300px works well).
• Icon: identifies the form in your list and on its public page.
• Field layout: how the questions are drawn: Minimal, Cards or Boxed.
• Frameless (screen-native): drops the form's outer frame so the questions merge with the page.
• Ready-made themes sit in three groups. Light: Default, Lavender, Ocean, Sunset, Forest, Rose, Sand, Mono and Paper. Dark: Midnight, Carbon, Neon and Ink. Automatic: Automatic, Ocean auto and Mono auto; these follow each visitor's own light or dark device setting.

Advanced theme opens more: Appearance (light, dark or automatic), Corners, Border thickness, and Colours you pick separately for the light and the dark look. Reset to default clears it all.

The theme only applies on the form's own shared page. A form inside an event's registration flow doesn't use it.

Settings

The Settings tab decides what the form is linked to and how it takes answers:

• Linked event: pick an event and the form becomes a required step when registering for it. This choice can only be made while the form is being created; after that it can't be changed or added. A draft can't be linked to an event. If you're creating the form from an event's Event form page, this field doesn't show, because the event is already set. If the event sells tickets, a note says the form is filled once per attendee while getting a ticket.
• Status: with the switch on the form is Active and takes answers; off, it's Passive and its public link takes no new answers. If you set a form to passive while its linked event is still upcoming, a warning says the event's registrations will keep using the form. A draft shows a Draft label and a Publish button instead of the switch.
• Closes: give a date and time and the form closes itself then. Leave it empty to keep it open indefinitely.
• One submission per person: when on, a person can send the form only once.
• Finish a page before moving on: only shows on forms with more than one page (see above).
• Delete form: only shows while editing an existing form. Submissions stay in your records, but the form is removed from the event it's linked to.

Preview

Preview, beside the close button, opens a second column showing how the form will look to people. It uses the theme you chose and scrolls by itself to the question you're working on. You can try answering, but nothing is sent.

Saving and publishing

A new form has three buttons along the bottom:

• Cancel: closes the editor.
• Save as draft: saves the form to your community without publishing it; it waits in the Drafts tab of the Forms page. A draft takes no answers, its link doesn't open, and it can't be linked to an event. When it's ready, choose Publish from its menu in the list or in the Settings tab.
• Create and publish: first opens a Ready to publish? summary: the number of fields, the linked event, the closing date, whether one submission per person is on, and who can answer. Press Publish and the form goes live.

An event's Event form page has no drafts. Creating a form there offers only Create and publish, and publishing links the form to that event. If you edit a form that is still a draft from that page, the button at the bottom is Publish instead of Save. Keep on this device & close is still there. Standalone forms on the Forms page can still be saved as drafts as usual.

When you edit an existing form, the button at the bottom is Save, and your changes go live right away.

The editor keeps your work on that device as you type. If you try to close it with changes made, it asks Keep your changes?: Continue stays in the editor, Discard throws the changes away, and Save keeps them on this device and closes. On an existing form, the Keep on this device & close button does the same: it keeps your changes in this browser only and closes the editor.

Changes kept on this device don't go live. If you leave a form's edits unfinished, the list shows an Unsaved changes label beside it, and the form's on/off switch stays locked until they're published or discarded. When you open the form again, the editor brings your changes back; if you don't want them, press Discard them. A new form that was never saved sits in the Drafts tab with the note "Kept on this device — not published yet."; Continue picks up where you left off, and Delete throws it away.