At FormAssembly, our mission is not only to create an innovative, secure, and helpful web form solution, but it’s also to educate you on how to best implement the product in your everyday work. FormAssembly not only offers a quick form builder, but also an extensive library of resources, documents, and videos to give you quick answers and speedy tips for effective form-building. In this blog post, based on the Form Building in 8 Minutes video in our documentation, we give you a crash course to help you quickly create and customize your new web form.
The Form Builder
When you first log in to FormAssembly, you’ll see a Form List page that allows you to quickly jump in and choose from any of our pre-made templates. These templates allow you to fully utilize our quick form builder to set up forms for your various needs, and even import directly from Salesforce.
If starting from scratch, the Form Builder is your first step. On the form-building canvas, you’ll see where you can add content to your form and design it to your specifications.
The “Add Content” drop-down menu provides options for various questions and text that you can add to your form. Once you’ve added content, you’ll notice plenty of customization features to make your form appear how you want it. You can change field size, add a form title, group fields into sets, and mark certain fields required.
Validations
FormAssembly allows you to set validation rules for fields you may need to verify, such as respondent email addresses. Validations help ensure that the information from respondents submit is accurate and legitimate.
To add a validation, click on the field, choose options, and select “Validation Rules” on the menu at the left of the screen. By selecting “Expected Input Format,” the form knows to check to make sure that the information within the designated field is in the appropriate format.
If your form requires the respondent to select a date, the form builder provides helpful tools to ensure that information is in the right format. For a field that requires a date, select “Options” and then choose “Validation Rules” from the sidebar. Under “Expected Input Format,” choose “Date (with calendar).” Then, when the user clicks on the field, a calendar will appear that allows a user to easily select a date.
Adding a Theme
The “Themes” menu provides both custom and default themes you can implement to make your form stand out. Themes change the overall look and feel of the form, but they also allow you to customize and even brand your form’s appearance.
Conditionals
To begin with conditional formatting, you can add a new form field such as a radio button question. When a user selects a certain answer choice, conditional formatting will prompt the user for another response, based on their original answer.
For example, the form may ask “Were you employed?” Two corresponding “Yes” and “No” radio buttons appear below the question. If a user chooses “Yes,” conditional formatting leads to a pop-up text box that asks “When?”
Within the new text box, click on “Options” and select “Conditional Rules” on the sidebar, followed by “Start.” The form builder provides options for conditional formatting based on fields that already exist within the form. Branching graphics are used to easily illustrate which questions and responses are connected.
When working with conditionals, it may be beneficial to view the form in Outline View, which can be selected from the top toolbar. Outline view allows you, the form creator, to easily drag and rearrange new fields without having to scroll through content in the form-building canvas. The feature may become particularly useful with advanced conditionals and nested questions.
Repeated Fields
If your form contains a section that may require multiple responses in one category (such as colleges attended or previous places of employment), you have the option to add repeated fields. To do so, click on the group of questions and select options. Under “Repeatable Sections” mark the sections as repeatable and add any custom text you’d like to signify that a user can submit additional answers.
Finalizing a Form
Once a form is complete, you can return to the Form List screen to view new or existing forms. Each form allows you a dropdown menu to preview or to publish, where you can obtain the publicly available URL address for sharing your new web form. In preview mode, any added features are immediately available and ready for you to test.
Still have questions about form basics? Feel free to email help@formassemblycom, and we’d love to help!
Ready to put your form skills into practice? Pick your perfect plan and get started today!
