Verifying the customer information can pose a problem for form owners. Many forms need valid email addresses and other contact information to successfully create the customer record. Email address verification serves as a fast and reliable method to verify the identity of the customer.

Some systems allow for real-time lookups to verify information, though Formsite has no built-in method for using these systems. The most effective method for verifying information is through email Notifications.

All Formsite accounts have the ability to collect uploaded files with the form submissions. Using the File Upload item, form owners can let form visitors add attachments when completing the form. Formsite accounts have limits on basic metrics like number of forms, number of results, and File Space limit.

The File Space limit represents the total file space allowed for all forms in the account. Every file uploaded to all forms contributes to the account’s File Space. When the File Space limit is reached, none of the forms can accept any new results with uploaded files.

The top questions regarding File Space include:

• Where to see the account’s limit and how much space is available
• How to see how much space each form uses
• Viewing and downloading attached files
• Ideas for managing forms with attachments

A large part of Formsite’s customers embed their forms into other web pages. The provided embed code allows the form to appear on any site where the form owner can access the HTML code. The embedded form appears as a seamless part of the embedding page and allows site builders to quickly add forms and surveys. A frequent question about embedding is how the embedded form security works.

Common Security Questions:

• Does my site need its own SSL to secure my form?
• Is my form secure if it’s embedded into a non-secure page?
• Can I use the Formsite SSL to secure my site?

Updated Nov 2019: Our Results Docs now support Microsoft Word templates in addition to PDF templates. See all about Results Docs on our support site!

The Results PDF feature gives Formsite customers the ability to receive results formatted as PDF files. The Results PDF process allows form builders to add form items that match the PDF template, then map the form items to the PDF fields. The form's Notifications and Results exports then use the newly-created Results PDF setting to provide the result in the PDF template.

These PDF files can use either the built-in Table format or use a PDF template file. The steps to build PDF templates requires another application like Adobe’s Acrobat Pro or LiveCycle Designer Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Forms.

To build PDF templates, the PDF needs to contain fillable form elements. Text boxes, radio buttons, checkboxes, etc. are added to the PDF form then connected (mapped) to the Formsite form.

Formsite has style settings to allow form owners and designers ways to customize virtually every part of the form. These settings share common colors, fonts, borders, and spacing with other form elements, such as the Save & Return login page and Success Pages.

Customizing the styles for the form and these connected pages occurs on the Style page, found from the link in the form editor. Clicking the Style link shows one of three pages:

• Themes: Pre-made styles and color combinations to quickly apply to forms
• Customize: Detailed style settings for customizing forms
• Advanced: Access to the HTML Head area and form CSS

 

Formsite forms come with many automated tasks that make building online forms easy. The submit button, for example, automatically appears when needed and shows ‘previous’ and ‘next’ labels for multi-page forms. Forms with Save & Return enabled also automatically display the ‘save progress’ button.

Other button features include:

• Ability to customize button text
• Style edits for colors, fonts, borders, etc.
• Hide buttons completely if necessary

The Calculations feature lets forms process basic equations and makes quiz forms easy. Mostly used with the Scoring feature, calculations let form owners set values for form answers then use those answers in equations. Form owners can show percentages using calculated values if needed.

The most common use for Scoring is with an online quiz. The form owner starts by setting values for each answer, then the form tracks the scoring total. At the end of the form, the result displays as the total score and the total possible.

The built-in Piping codes show the scoring totals on the form, but displaying as percentages requires an extra step.

Formsite order forms provide form owners with many powerful tools to help collect payments accurately and easily. These tools include integrated payments, recurring payments, calculations, and a large number of pricing options. Adding basic pricing items to order forms lets form owners add to the order total, and also enable owners to add tax and other required fees.

The basic order form items include:

• Pricing items: Radio Button Pricing, Dropdown Pricing, and Checkbox Pricing items list choices and prices. These are the most commonly-used order form items and allow visitors to add items to the orders.
• Quantity items: The Text Quantity item placed before a pricing item allows for ordering multiples of that item. The Quantity List item combines the quantity and price to display as a condensed list.
• Percent items: The Radio Button Percent item enables form owners to add or deduct a percentage of the entire order. Percent items are used to add tax and other required fees to orders.

UPDATE: This feature has been added to Formsite! See the newer article for instructions. A common question when embedding forms is how to pre-populate URL parameters. For example, in this URL:

https://www.example.com?first=red&second=blue

The URL parameters come after the question mark ‘?’ and multiple parameters are separated with ampersands ‘&’. This URL contains parameters ‘first’ and ‘second’ with the corresponding values ‘red’ and ‘blue’. Using the prePopulate value in the form’s embed code lets form owners pre-populate the embedded forms. A previous article shows how to accomplish that using the site’s back-end language (php, java, .NET, asp, etc.). For form owners without back-end knowledge or access, these are instructions for using basic HTML files and Javascript.

Using Formsite’s drag-and-drop form builder makes for fast and easy forms. Adding form items provides the item’s structure automatically, and some options are available for more customization. For example, the default position of the field labels places them above and aligned to the left side of the field. For most forms (in left-to-right reading languages), this default placement proves to be the best.

Placement of Field Labels

The possible label placements are:

• Top left, center, or right
• Left, right
• Infield (inside the field)