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2.2. Field Types

Short Answer Fields are intended for simple single-line responses like first name, company name, address, and so on.  Short Answer fields can also be used to do calculations.

Email Fields look and act the same as a text field, except users must enter a valid email address when filling out the form.  By adding an email address field to your form, you can also utilize the confirmation email functionality to automatically send messages back to the user who filled out the form.

Long Answer Fields are for multi-line responses and large amounts of text, such as comments or suggestions.

Select Lists are for a long list of items that you want a user to choose from.  You can either use a predefined list or your own list such as State, Age, Days of the Week, etc.  To let a users choose multiple items from a select list, set the field size to a number greater than 1. 

If you don't want to show one of the options on the select list as chosen by default, leave a space or blank line at the top of your option list.

Checkboxes are for several options where you want to give users the ability to select one or more options.

Radio Buttons are for several options where you want users to only select one of the available options.

Date/Time Fields are for date and/or time selection.  You cannot base calculations on date/time fields.

File Upload Fields are to provide users the ability to attach files to the form submission, such as photos, PDFs or other documents.  The maximum file size for uploads is 25 MB.

Name Fields are for collecting a person's entire name in one field, while still keeping the parts of the name (first, last, middle) separate in the database.

Credit Card Fields are used for collecting credit card numbers.  You must have a paid account with proper security features enabled to use this field.

Address Fields let you collect all the parts of an address (street, city, state, zip, etc.) in a single fields, while still keeping the data separate in the database.  They also validate that the user has used a correct address format.  You can choose the address format for your country.

Phone Number Fields are used to collect phone numbers and validate that the proper format has been used for the phone number.  You can choose the phone format for your country.

Matrix Fields allow you to set up a rating or Likert scale.  You cannot base calculations on matrix fields.

Number Fields validate that a number has been entered and do not allow other characters.

Description Area Fields allow you to insert rich text (photos, formatted text, etc.) and HTML into your form.

Unique Fields

There is a "Unique" checkbox setting for each form field. This allows you to restrict submissions of the same value in that field. For example, you can allow only one submission for a particular email address or physical address. This is great for contests, surveys, and other types of forms where you want to limit multiple submissions from the same person.  Be careful how you use this field, as you don't want to accidentally prevent people from submitting to your form by making a field unique where multiple people might need to give the same answer, such as a "yes/no" field.

Hidden Fields

If you make a field hidden, it will not show up on your form.  However, hidden fields can still be used behind the scenes in calculations and to pass on default values.

Read-Only Fields

Read-only fields will be displayed on the form, however the user will not be able to type anything into these fields.  They are useful for displaying default values or totals that you don't want the user to be able to edit but that you still want them to see.

Required Fields

If you make a field required, the user cannot submit your form without filling out that field.