Formsite online form builder is fast and easy form building software for collecting information online. Some customers have asked for a way to save or print their forms for future reference or as a backup. As a result, forms now have a Preview Link on their Share pages that make printing and saving easy.

The Preview Link opens the form with all items and pages visible, which allows the viewer to see every item without having to complete the form. For Pro 2 and higher service levels, the Preview PDF creates a PDF version of the same thing.

Formsite’s powerful Workflow functions let form owners pass data from one form to another through an emailed link. This feature is essential for many processes like approvals and any other arrangement that requires input from more than one person. A common behavior is to collect all Workflow data from each step into the final result as a record or receipt.

For example, a typical approval process looks like this:

1. The employee completes the form and submits their time-off request.
2. An email goes to the Supervisor that contains the request details. Included in the email is the Workflow link that passes the request data into the 2nd form.
3. When the Supervisor reviews and approves the request, another email goes to HR with another Workflow link.
4. Once the HR department approves the request, the system creates the final document containing the complete data.

Formsite account owners at all paying service levels are now able to use two-factor authentication (2FA). Two-factor authentication lets account owners set up a second requirement for allowing access to an account. The first method requires a correct username and password combination, and the second requires a correct code.

The code gets provided by an application on a mobile device or computer and resets after a short time to guarantee that the device is present. The account owner sets up the application with Formsite to provide the unique code as the second factor for authentication.

Notification emails send after submitting forms and can use conditional logic to know which ones to send. For example, a form owner can set up several identical emails that send to different account owners based on an answer chosen in the form. Many form owners choose to make a copy of the email and set logic to tell when to send each one, but there’s a better way. See how routing Notification emails with Email Routing items works.

Notifications are emails sent by Formsite after every new form result gets successfully created. Form owners send emails for many reasons and the Notification formats vary depending on the desired outcome. Example Notifications include:

• Auto-reply to the form visitor with next steps or confirmation of receipt
• Email the result data to the form owner or responsible department
• Results backup for insurance against accidental deletion
• Workflow links to pass data between forms
• Acknowledgement of successful payment

Many forms have the need for collecting multiple entries from a single source. For example, registration forms with one or more registrants need the ability to repeat fields for each one. Formsite provides a few ways to set up forms for repeating fields and pages for entering multiples.

Examples of forms needing repeat fields include:

• Registering multiple people
• Order forms for selecting more than one product
• Signing up for two or more events

We covered this topic a few years ago and it deserves an update due to changes in both systems. For form owners who want to send reminder emails to form visitors or an email list, this shows one way to do that. This technique requires a Formsite account at the Pro 1 or higher service level and a Mailchimp account.

The Description Text item lets form owners add formatting content to their forms. This content is text content, images, and sometimes custom code. As with the Custom Code item, the Description Text content does not collect answers so they appear as formatting items, not input items. Considering that they are not input items, they do not appear in the results but only on the form itself.

Examples of content added with the Description Text item:

• Logos, products, or other branding elements
• Heading or introductory text at the top of the form or each page
• Terms and conditions for registration forms
• Answers entered into previous questions using Piping

Form owners sometimes request help to limit their visitors to one result per person. Formsite has a few ways to prevent duplicate results to keep their Results Tables tidy. These built-in functions help to prevent cheating, block spammers, and other useful tasks, too.

Some places to prevent duplicate entries include:

• Tests or quizzes to prevent repeating
• Surveys to avoid skewing results
• Auctions to prevent artificially inflating the bids
• Orders to prevent accidental or intentional duplicates
• Registrations to prevent double-booking

Prevent Duplicate Results

The most effective way to prevent duplicates is to choose a required item and set its Unique setting. The Unique setting looks through every result in the Results Table for the same value, then returns an error message if it’s already there.

Using the Unique setting with the Email Address item works the best, though other items work as well. Applying the setting on the visitor’s ‘last name’ item would prevent more than one result for the entire family, for example.

Take care, however, in case there are more than one family with the same last name. Other items that can be unique would include neighborhoods, picking teams, auction amounts, etc.

The Prevent Multiple Submissions Setting

The Form Settings -> General -> Security page contains a setting to Prevent Multiple Submissions Per User. This setting works differently than the Unique setting in that it helps to prevent accidental duplicate submissions.

Enabling this setting sets a cookie on the visitor’s browser and prevents the same form from submitting from that specific browser. Using a different browser or clearing the browser’s cookies allows the visitor to easily work around that setting. Since the Unique setting works entirely in the background, we recommend using that instead.

Save & Return

Another way to prevent duplicates is to use the Save & Return feature. That lets form visitors create accounts on the form to complete the form over multiple visits. If the visitor doesn’t remember if they’ve submitted the form, logging in will show any previous results.

Formsite form owners can add tracking to their forms from any service they prefer. Many choose Google Analytics for its speed, reliability, and integration with Google Ads. For forms already set up with Google Analytics and for new implementations, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the newest way to go.

For forms already using Google Analytics, you still need to change to GA4. This is a service change by Google and the old Analytics has a scheduled date to stop working:

On July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will no longer process data. You'll be able to see your Universal Analytics reports for a period of time after July 1, 2023. However, new data will only flow into Google Analytics 4 properties.

source: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10089681