Leverage a wide variety of field types when you build your Templates.
Each field type offers unique properties to configure the field's appearance and functionality.
The differences between Field Properties and Display Properties
The Properties Panel splits fields into two types — Field Properties and Display Properties.
Field Properties help you configure a field's functionality and metadata. You'll manage these details at the field level, which applies the same property values to all instances of that field within your Template.
Display Properties define a field's appearance and layout. Manage these details for each instance of a field within your Template. Each field instance's Display Properties can have unique property values.
💡 As an example, if you have the same field in multiple places in your Form — the field may look different, but will act the same and contain the same information.
Suppose you have a 3-page form that has the same “Customer Name” field at the top of each page of the Form View, as well as once within the List View:
Each field instances will have the same Field Properties - like Form name and default value - so if you change these properties on one instance of the field, they'll automatically change across all instances.
But each of the four field instances will have different Display Properties - like the field's width and height, or the displayed font size and color.
In this particular example, you might expect your Form User to fill-in the customer name on the first page, and then it is automatically reproduced at the top of the second and third pages for reference.
So you may want to change the field instances on the second and third page to have a smaller font and different color than the one on the first page.
Formula-based properties
Certain properties allow you to enter a formula or calculation to determine their value. For instance, in the example below a formula is used to change the background color based on the value of the "Checkbox 30" field.
Such fields are indicated by a [. . .] icon next to them as our example above, or by a text box with a formula symbol. Once selected, the Calculation Builder displays. This is where you'll edit, test, and save your formula to this property.
Display properties
Manage display properties to improve your Form Users' experience, resulting in cleaner data collection.
List view offers two display properties: visible and border color display.
Visible determines whether your field is displayed or hidden from your Form Users.
Border color display provides visual cues to your Form Users like setting fields to a specific color for certain users. Or, change a field's color if the inputted value is outside of a certain range.
🗒️ Note: List view border color display is only compatible with mobile versions 4.0.744 and later.
Below you'll find information on the available Form view display properties.
Default display settings
Build default display settings into your Template to provide a uniform look for your Form Users.
With these settings you can match your field colors to your branding, draw relationships between related fields, and improve your Form Users’ experience. Available default display settings include:
Font
Text size
Alignment
Text color
Background color
Focus color
With a field selected in the Template Editor, in the left-hand panel you’ll open the Display Actions (. . .) menu and select Change Display Settings to manage your default display settings.
Your default display settings immediately change the default appearance of your Template fields.
Even with default display settings applied, you can still apply custom settings to fields - including required fields.
🗒️ Note: Custom coloring for required fields is only available for mobile versions 4 and later.
If you apply different colors to your required fields than your other fields, they become more readily trackable when managing Templates and filling out Forms.
Size and Position Properties
The size and position of your field in the Form View are determined by these four properties, which are available across all field types:
Left: The offset of the left edge of the field from the left edge of the form, in pixels.
Top: The offset of the top edge of the field from the top edge of the form, in pixels.
Width: The width of the field, in pixels.
Height: The height of the field, in pixels.
Size and position your field directly in the Template Builder using drag-and-drop, and then using these properties to modify the field's size and position as necessary.
🗒️ Note: Your size and position properties will change if you move or resize your field within the Field Editor.
Look-and-Feel Properties
Look-and-feel properties appear in the Form View only, as with size and position properties. These properties differ somewhat across different field types, but these properties are common amongst all data fields.
Configure how you want to align content within the field. Text can be aligned with the Left or Right side of the field, or Centered within the field. Other items (e.g. Images or Sketches) can be Centered or aligned with the Top Left corner.
The font of any text inside the field. Our standard set of web fonts include: Arial, Courier New, Georgia, Helvetica, Times, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana.
Size: The font size of any text inside the field.
The color of any text or symbols inside the field.
The background color is displayed behind the field while the form is being filled out. When the form is completed, all background colors disappear.
Background colors only appear while the Form is being filled out. Once the Form User completes the Form, your background colors will not display on the shared or printed Form PDF
Focus Color is the color of the background when the user selects this field. When the field is not selected, the background color is determined by the Background property. This property is available for Text Box, Number, Barcode and Table fields.
Other Display Properties
Tab Index is the index of your selected field when tab-navigating through the form.
Tab navigation is done using the Next button on a mobile device, or the [Tab] key on a keyboard. For instance, if your Form has 3 fields A, B, and C indexed 4, 2, and 7 respectively -- then the tabbing order will be B, A, C.
This is handy for Form Users who want to quickly fill out the Form without having to select each field individually. This property is available for Text Box, Number, Barcode, and Table fields.
Configure the Focus Color property whenever you set the Tab Index. This will make it easier to see which field is currently selected when you are tab-navigating through your Form.
Visible determines whether this field instance, template page, list view tab, or section will be visible. For example, sometimes, you may want to include fields in the form that are not visible to the user but are visible in reporting afterwards, like some calculated fields. Or you may want to make a field visible to some users and not others. You can do so with this field.
This is the only Display Property that appears in the List View and can be used on Pages, Tabs, Sections, and Fields.
Field Properties
The Field properties listed here are common to most GoFormz fields. Field Properties determine your field’s behavior and metadata.
Metadata Properties
These properties specify the Form's metadata — i.e. data about the form, rather than anything within the Form itself.
The type of field this is (e.g. Text, Image, Checkbox, etc.). For most field types, this property is not editable: if you drag a Checkbox into your template, you cannot change it to a different type.
However, for Text, Number, and Barcode fields, you can change the type to any of the other three. This is possible because these three field types share so many properties.
The name by which the field will be referenced in the Template Editor, within Reports, and elsewhere in the app. The name does not appear in the form itself when it is being filled out.
The description is a short text snippet with any explanatory text. The description does not appear when the Form is being filled out. It does appear as a tooltip when you hover on the field name in the Reports interface.
Each Template can have one identifier field. An identifier field pulls the information that your user enters into your selected identifier field, and displays it next to the created Form on the Forms tab as a means of locating specific Forms.
Choose Yes from this menu if you want a field to act as the Template's identifier field.
An identifier field should collect data that would be unique for each Form - like a purchase order or work order number.
Functionality Properties
These properties control how the field behaves — what will appear in the field by default, who will have access to it, etc.
Choose Yes if you want to make this field required for all users. A user will not be able to mark this form as Complete until this field is filled in.
Author Only makes your field editable only by the user who initiated the Form. This is useful for enforcing user permissions for particular fields in a workflow.
Your Form may have to go through several people before it is complete; this lets you specify that certain fields can only be filled out by the person who initiated the Form.
Default Value is the value that appears in this field by default when the Form is first opened.
For text-based fields, this value can be a formula that either repeats a value from another form field, gets a value from a database column, or performs a calculation based on one or more other fields.
For other field types, you may be presented with a dropdown of Default Value choices.
Allow Override is useful if a formula (calculation or DataSource reference) is used as the Default Value for this field.
Choose Yes to allow a user to enter their own value for the field, overriding the formula. Otherwise, the field will always default to the calculated value.
Formatting properties
The Formatting property determines the format in which the Form User's input should be displayed. The user isn’t forced to enter text in this format, but it will be converted to this format whenever possible.
Click the Formatting property to bring up the Format Editor dialog.
In the Format Editor, you can choose from our preset formats or use a formula to determine the format dynamically.
The available preset format types include:
Currency: e.g. $123,456.50
Percentage: e.g. 34%
Phone Number: e.g. (555) 555-1234
The formatting string syntax is very similar to Excel. For instance:
"hh:mm:ss" stands for time in hours, minutes and seconds -- "10:05:32"
"##,###.00" stands for a number with thousands separators and two significant digits after the decimal point -- "1,234,567.89"
Properties by field type
Some GoFormz fields are specific to just one or several types of fields. These are documented below, for each field type.
Auto Number
Seed is the number of the first form created from this template. This number will be incremented by 1 for each successive form that is created.
Custom Key allows Auto Number fields to be connected across multiple templates. The Custom Key can be any string of characters or numbers (ex: words, phrases, etc.) that you choose.
Auto Number fields with matching Custom Keys, will increment in the same sequence regardless of which template they are on.
Notes: Custom Keys do need to be an exact match to increment in the same sequence. If the Custom Key is changed or deleted from an Auto Number, the next number will start at the Seed Number.
Barcode
Keyboard: The keyboard that appears when a user taps this field on a mobile device. Choose "Alpha" for a keyboard with letters, or "Numeric" for a keyboard with numbers. This property has no effect on a desktop device.
Checkbox
Display: The symbol that is used to fill in the box. Available options are Checkmark, Xmark, Circle, and Oval. A circle or oval may be handy if you want to circle an element on your background Form image.
Checkbox Group
Checkbox group properties are a little bit different from most other field types.
The Field Properties are set for the Checkbox Group as a whole, while the Display Properties are specific to each individual checkbox within the group. Click a checkbox in the Builder to bring up its Display Properties in the Properties Panel.
Group Items Property
This property lets you set the names of the checkboxes in this group. Click the Customize button, then use the dialog box that pops up to add/remove and name the checkboxes in your group.
These checkboxes are added to the Template Fields panel of the Template Editor. After creating the checkbox group, you will need to add each individual checkbox from the group into your form by dragging it in from the Template Fields panel.
Other Checkbox Group Properties
Group Name: See "Name" under Common Field Properties.
Group Description: See "Description" under Common Field Properties.
Multi Select: Specifies whether or not you are allowed to select multiple checkboxes from the group in the same Form.
Group Item: This is a read-only field containing the name of this checkbox, as specified in the Group Items property.
Display: The symbol that is used to fill in the box. Available options are Checkmark, Xmark, Circle, and Oval. A circle or oval may be handy if you want to circle an element on your Form.
Database
The DataSource from which you want to source data for this field.
Display Column is the name of the database column that contains the list of options for this field. You can only select columns that have been set as indexes, or keys, in the DataSource.
A filter string that determines the subset of Display Column values that should be available as choices.
Suppose you have a large customer database, but for this field you only want users to be able to select customers from California. You might set Display Column to "Customer", and Filter to ="State"="CA".
Choose "Yes" for Allow Other to let the user write in an entry. Choose "No" to limit the set of allowed values to just the entries from the Display Column.
Date, Date Time, and Time
Configure the Date Format / Time Format to determine how these properties should display on the corresponding Form once a value is entered in this field.
By default, all Date and Time fields will use the account-level format until changed in the Template Editor.
Each field can have a different format set, but if your account formatting settings are reset, all field-level settings will be overridden and default to the account-level setting.Your display format options Default Value, Lock First Value, or Use Current.
Auto-populate the field with the date and/or time when the Form is created when you select Default Value.
Choose Lock First Value if you want the first value set in this field to become permanent.
This is typically used in conjunction with Default Value being set to "Current Date/Time" or Use Current being set to “Yes”. This ensures that the date/time when the Form was created is always displayed in this field and cannot be changed.
Lock First Value is bypassed if you're an admin. This means that Admins will always be able to edit a value even if Lock First Value is set to yes for that field.
Use Current auto-populates your selected field with the date and/or time when the field is first selected by the Form User. This is different from Default Value, which auto-populates the field when it is created.
Many Template Builders leverage this option as a time clock-like feature on timesheets. When a Form User selects the field, their current time is logged.
This is often used in conjunction with Lock First Value, which prevents the time logged with Use Current from being modified later.
Drop-down
Your drop-down menu requires an Items Source. Items Source determines which properties will display in your drop-down field. Either create a custom list of items, or define a collection that you can share across all of your account's Templates.
Custom drop-down items source
When you select Custom from the Items Source drop-down menu, the Customize button will appear.
Click Customize to access the drop-down options modal where you'll manage your available drop-down options. Here, you can also assign a default value.
Order determines an item's displayed position in the drop-down list.
Display name is what your Form User will see when they're making a selection using the corresponding drop-down.
The value is how the Form User's selection will appear in reports and be referenced in any formulas that reference the corresponding field.
Select a default option if you want a specific option to appear by default when a Form is created using the corresponding Template.
Add new items using the Add button at the top, and remove them with the X next to each item.
Use a Collection of Items as a drop-down source
If you'd like to use a collection of items that is shared across multiple Templates and drop-down fields, choose the Collection option under Items Source.
This will display two new settings for your drop-down field: collection, and manage collections.
Choose a pre-existing collection from your available saved collections.
Select Manage Collections to create and manage your available drop-down collections.
Other Drop Down Properties
Allow Other: Choose "Yes" to let the user write in an entry. Choose "No" to limit the set of allowed values to just the entries from the Select Items list.
Image
Image quality determines whether your submitted images will have a larger file size / higher quality, or smaller file size / lower quality.
Larger file size / higher quality is selected by default. But, if you're collecting a lot of images, or experience slow connections, consider selecting smaller file size / lower quality.
Assign a date stamp of when the image was taken in the lower right-hand corner of the image.
This date is obtained from the image’s EXIF metadata. This data will typically exist for digital photos, but may not exist for other image types. If an EXIF creation date does not exist, “No Date” will be displayed.
Location
Your location field's default value has two options: auto and none.
Auto displays the user's location by default, whenever the location is available.
None causes the field not to display anything by default.
Assign a date stamp of when the image was taken in the lower right-hand corner of the corresponding map snapshot when the display property is set to Map.
Make the initial value set in this field to become permanent when you choose to lock first value.
This is typically used in conjunction with the Default Value being set to "Auto". This ensures that the location where the form was created is always displayed in this field and cannot be changed.
You have two location display options: map, and text.
Map displays the determined location as a pin on a map.
Text displays latitude and longitude coordinates for the determined location.
Number
You have two options for when a user selects the keyboard field on a mobile device: alpha, and numeric.
Alpha displays a standard alphabetic keyboard.
Numeric displays a keyboard with numbers.
Your selection here does not impact a Form User's PC experience.
Sketch
Image quality determines whether your submitted images will have a larger file size / higher quality, or smaller file size / lower quality.
Larger file size / higher quality is selected by default. But, if you're collecting a lot of images, or experience slow connections, consider selecting smaller file size / lower quality.
Store an original capture image as an attachment with the Attach Original option.
This gives you the ability to download the image at its original resolution, and with all its metadata (e.g. EXIF or GPS data) intact. Retrieve this image as you would any other attachment.
Assign a date stamp of when the image was taken in the lower right-hand corner of the image.
This date is obtained from the image’s EXIF metadata. This data will typically exist for digital photos, but may not exist for other image types. If an EXIF creation date does not exist, “No Date” will be displayed.
Signature
Clear a signature if any Form fields are edited after a signature is provided when you select Yes for your Clear on Form Edit property.
This is useful for approval workflows — you may not want a supervisor approval signature to persist after the form has been edited. Choose No otherwise.
Text Box
If you want a field's text to wrap when it reaches the end of a line, select Yes for your multi-line property.
You have two options for when a user selects the keyboard field on a mobile device: alpha, and numeric.
Alpha displays a standard alphabetic keyboard.
Numeric displays a keyboard with numbers.
Your selection here does not impact a Form User's PC experience.
Line height determines the amount of vertical space - in pixels - reserved for each line.
For multi-line text boxes, the difference between Line Height and Size will give you the amount of space between lines — if line height is 20 and font size is 16, there will be 4 pixels between lines.
Table-specific properties
Tables are structures containing other fields, which makes setting up a table a little bit different from setting up other fields.
In this section, we go over the properties unique to tables, both at the top level and at the table-column level.
Top-level Table Properties
Max Rows indicates the total number of rows of this table. This can be used across multiple instances on a single Template.
Starting Rows is the starting row of this instance of the Table.
The number of rows (of the Max Rows) determines the quantity of rows to be displayed in the corresponding instance of the table.
Set the number of pixels you want left blank along the left and right edges of each table cell when you configure your table's padding.
Including some padding can make a table easier to read, because it makes sure the text inputs in different table cells don't run into each other. You can override this setting on a per-column basis.
In addition to the Field and Display properties, the Properties panel for tables has an embedded graphical interface for adding, removing and reordering columns under the Columns heading.
Once a column is added, you must set a Type for the column, along with its other properties. We go over column properties next.
Table Column Properties
A table column consists of a set of fields of the same type. For this reason, the properties of a table column are the same as the properties of the selected field type (i.e. if it’s a Checkbox column, it will have all Checkbox properties).
However, there are some properties that do require additional documentation: a few properties are specific to table columns, and a few properties have the same name as they do for other fields but slightly different behavior. We cover these properties here.
The type of field in this column. You can select any type here, with the exception of Auto Number, Checkbox Group and Table. When you select a field type, the properties in the panel will change to that field type’s properties.
The name by which this column will be referenced in reports, calculations and elsewhere. The full name of the field in reports will be “/”.
Assign a column as Locked if you want your Form Users to be able to view - but not edit - a table's column.
Set the number of pixels you want left blank along the left and right edges of each table cell when you configure your table's padding.
Including some padding can make a table easier to read, because it makes sure the text inputs in different table cells don't run into each other. You can override this setting on a per-column basis.
Create a hidden column to cause a column not to display within your table.
This is a lot like hiding a column in Excel — the column is hidden, but can still be referenced in a calculation.
A transparent column takes up space in the table, but does not display any data, and users cannot input data into it.
This can be useful if your table background image has a column with some pre-filled information, for example. As with Hidden columns, a Transparent column’s values can still be referenced in calculations.
Default Value for Table Rows
The Default Value of Table Rows can be set in one of two ways.
Use Same Value to set a single Default Value for all rows of your table (choose this option if the row default values are the same).
Use Individual Values to edit each individual row's Default Value (choose this option if the row default values are different)