Form Step | Formt

Step Guide: Form

Data & Files

Collect data through a form, inside a workflow or as a public shareable form

Overview

The Form step presents a form and turns the answers into data the rest of your workflow can use. Its main job is collecting information from people: intake details, requests, submissions, or a quick review and correction of data already in the run. A form can be private, viewable only inside Formt for your own team to fill in, or public: a form that people outside your team can open and submit without a Formt account. A public form at the start of a workflow gives you one shareable link and an embed snippet, and every submission starts a new run. A public form later in a workflow works the other way round: it gives you a link that is unique to each run, so you can send it to a specific person and their submission feeds back into the run it came from and continues it, rather than starting a new one.

When to Use

Collect information from people: an intake, request, sign-up, or feedback form
Publish a public form that starts a workflow on every submission, like the Formt contact form
Collect input from several people across one workflow, each filling their own form through a link you email them

How It Works

Where you place the step

The step's position decides what the form does.

A public form as the first step triggers a new run of the workflow on every submission, using the details the person entered, so everyone who fills it in is tracked as a separate run.
Later in a workflow, the step pauses the run and waits for someone to fill in or confirm details before it continues. While it waits, the form appears in the Task Manager for your team to complete.
A form later in a workflow can also be made public, so someone outside your team can fill it through a private link you send them for that run, instead of only your team completing it in the Task Manager.

Defining the fields

You choose which fields the form shows and how they connect to the rest of the workflow.

For each field you choose its type, add a description, set whether it is required, and add any validation, so people enter the right kind of answer.
Any field can start with a default already filled in, either a fixed value you set yourself or one carried in from an earlier step, so people can accept it or change it.
Add info and warning blocks to give people helpful context or flag something to watch out for, alongside the fields.
A single Form step can span several pages, each with its own fields, so you can break a longer form into pages people move through one at a time.

Making a form public

A form is private by default, viewable only inside Formt for your own team to fill in. Turn on the public option in the step's settings to open it to people outside your team. You can do this on any form step, and what you get back depends on where the step sits.

A form at the start of a workflow gives you a shareable link and an embed snippet. Anyone with the link can open and submit it without a Formt account, and every submission starts a new run.
A form later in a workflow gives you a link reference instead. Add it to another step, like a Send Email, and each run sends that person a link that is unique to that run, so their submission continues that same run rather than starting a new one.
Change the fields any time and the shared link and embedded form update straight away, with no developer needed. Each new submission uses the form as it stands then.
Customise the public form: a success message shown after someone submits, a redirect to send them to your own page instead, and your own logo for branding.
Turning the setting off disables it.

Routing a form to a specific person

A public form in the middle of a workflow is how you collect input from someone outside your team once a run is already going, for example a client approving a draft, a supplier confirming a detail, or a colleague in another department adding their part. Each public form step in a run gets its own private link, so when the person submits, their answers feed back into that same run and it carries on, rather than starting a new run the way a public first step does.

Turn on the public option for the form step and copy the link reference it shows you.
Add that reference to another step that reaches the person, most often a Send Email step, so every run sends them a link that is unique to that run. Make sure that step does not run after the form, or the link would only send once the form had already been filled in, too late to use.
Pre-fill the form by giving its fields defaults that reference upstream steps, so the person opens it with the details already gathered in the run filled in, reviews and confirms them, then adds their own answers.
The link works once. After they submit, the run carries on to the next step, and reopening the link shows that it has already been used.
Editing the form applies to future runs. A link already sent for a run in progress keeps the fields as they were when that run started, so changing the form never disrupts someone partway through filling it.
Use several public forms in one workflow to hand off between different people in turn, each adding their part before the next person is asked.

Tips

Put a public Form step first when you want an open intake form that starts a new run on every submission.
Pre-fill anything you already know so people confirm rather than retype; a shorter form gets finished more often.
To collect input from someone outside your team partway through a run, make a later Form step public and send them its link from a Send Email step, so each run reaches the right person automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a form public?: Turning on "Make this form public and embeddable" in the step's settings. That gives the form a shareable link and an embed snippet, and turning it off disables the link.
Do people need a Formt account to fill in a public form?: No. A public form is open to anyone with the link. They fill it in and submit without signing in or creating an account.
Can I put the form on my own website?: Yes. As well as sharing the form's link, you can embed the form in a page on your own site so visitors submit it without leaving. The Formt contact page is a public form embedded this way.
How do I send form submissions to my team or reply automatically?: Add steps after the Form step, such as a Send Email step to notify your team or send the person a confirmation, and map the form fields into them. This works just like anywhere else in a workflow: the submission is an output you connect downstream steps to and pull data from, exactly as you would with any other step.
What is the difference between a public form at the start of a workflow and one later on?: A public form at the start gives you one link that anyone can use, and every submission starts a new, separate run. A public form later in a workflow gives you a link that is unique to each run: you send it to someone during that run, and when they submit, their answers go back into that same run and it continues. So a first step gathers people into new runs, while a later step brings someone into a run that is already going.
Can I send a form to a specific person partway through a workflow?: Yes. Turn on the public option for a form step that is not the first step, copy the link reference it gives you, and add it to another step such as a Send Email. Each run then sends that person a private link that is unique to that run, and the workflow carries on once they submit. The link works once, so a forwarded or reopened link cannot submit twice.
Can more than one person fill in forms across a single workflow?: Yes. Make each form step public and send each person their own link. A workflow can hand off from one person to the next, so each fills their part before the next is asked. Someone opening a later form can review what earlier people already entered.
Can users upload files in a form?: Yes. Add file input fields to the form. Uploaded files become available to downstream steps like PDF Extract or Send Email attachments.

Related Steps

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