Table of Contents
1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Why online forms?
2
How online forms unlock your creative potential
3
Online forms: A move toward sustainability
4
The most popular uses for online forms
5
How different industries benefit from online forms
6
Creating your first form
11
Diving into online forms
12
Creating a form from scratch
14
The Form Builder
25
Beautify and customize your form
30
Online forms for all
40
Emails
41
Autoresponders
42
Notifications
46
Reminders
49
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Distributing your forms
Share a link and more with Quick Share
54
Embed a form on your website
61
Platforms
68
Watch the data roll in
69
Viewing submissions
70
Accessing and collaborating on submission data in Truform Inbox
71
Organizing and managing your data in Truform Tables
82
Going further with your forms
92
Productivity meets efficiency
93
Widgets
93
Connect your form with other apps
96
Advanced functionality
Chapter 7
53
How to secure your forms
104
127
What kind of data needs to be secured?
128
Ways Truform helps you secure your forms
128
Data and privacy regulations and what they mean
132
Securing form distribution
134
Foreword
I didn’t start my career knowing I wanted to run a form software company.
In fact, my relationship with forms got off to an inauspicious start. When I worked as a developer in
New York in the 2000s, I absolutely dreaded them. Forms were tedious to make, even for the most
talented developers. But even then, they were necessary for businesses to run efficiently.
So I looked for a shortcut. I figured there must be a service out there that could fast-track the process
of creating and publishing forms, something designed for developers like myself who were stuck in
the same rut.
There wasn’t. And so began my quest to create what eventually became the world’s first drag-anddrop form builder.
When I founded Truform in 2006, I couldn’t have predicted what the company would be today. I didn’t
realize it would become not just a resource for developers but non-technical people working in nearly
every industry around the globe. I couldn’t have predicted we’d have tens of millions of users or that
Truform would offer a suite of products that extended well beyond the modest form.
To say I’m humbled by our growth would be an understatement. This company, and serving all the
organizations that depend on it, are my life’s work.
This book is designed to give you a deep dive into Truform, whether you’re new to our products or
you’ve been with us all along. It’ll go through the basics of creating forms, cover primary use cases,
and explore some of Truform’s more advanced features. You’ll even meet some fellow users along the
way.
We hope you find it useful, and thanks for using Truform.
—Rakesh Viz, Founder and CEO of Truform
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Chapter 1
Why online forms?
Just over 30 miles off the coast of mainland Tanzania sits Pemba, a picturesque island with balmy
year-round temperatures of 85 degrees, untouched coral, and an abundance of white sand beaches.
That might sound like paradise, but it’s not. Pemba’s population of 400,000 is largely impoverished.
While the island produces 70 percent of the world’s cloves and maintains a strong fishing industry,
more than half of its people don’t earn enough money to cover even their most basic needs.
From a public health perspective, this presents a massive problem.
The three district hospitals of Pemba already face a number of challenges that are uncommon in
developed countries. Chief among them is the prevalence of bloodstream infections, like typhoid
fever, in the island’s population.
Pemba’s hospitals also used to have an all-too-common problem, no matter the location: inefficiency.
And it started with their forms.
The network of hospitals struggled under the weight of a legacy data-collection system. Though they
relied on electronic data, this data was collected using paper forms.
One example was when hospital staff collected information from patients who were experiencing
fevers. The average time it took to manually digitize the data from paper case report forms was
between five and seven days, while 7 percent of the data inputted on the forms was inaccurate (i.e.,
typographical errors, decimal point faults, and illogical values).
Then there was the cost. Using paper forms required the hospitals to employ data entry staff and
keep additional computers for entering it. Plus they needed high-quality printers, lots of cabinet
space, and endless reams of paper (the forms themselves were a full 14 pages each).
In fact, the only positive thing about using paper forms was the staff’s familiarity with them. Efficient
or not, it’s what they knew.
That immediately changed in 2008, when they tried using personal digital assistants (PDAs) with
mobile forms, instead of paper forms, to collect the information.
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Chapter 1: Why online forms
Replacing paper forms reduced costs by 24.6 percent, even accounting for the purchase of the PDAs.
It also significantly improved the accuracy of the information they received and reduced the time it
took to get patient information into the electronic system from about a week all the way down to a few
minutes (Threimer et al. 2012).
For the hospitals, this meant more time, energy, and financial resources were suddenly available to
help treat patients. Upgrading the system could literally save lives.
This was back in 2008, when neither online forms nor mobile devices were as common or
sophisticated as they are today.
So why online forms? Because your organization is too important to run inefficiently.
Getting the right information, in an efficient manner, guides everything, from product/service
feedback, to development and growth, to customer service and satisfaction. That’s why effective
information gathering is so important.
How online forms unlock your creative potential
Not only can online forms save you valuable time, but they can also unlock your creativity. Let’s
explore how you can think differently about getting things done and make a positive impact on your
business or service in the process.
Online forms can collect solicited or unsolicited information to meet your organization’s needs and
further its growth. Groups you may want to gather information from include
·
·
·
·
·
Customers
Students
Donors
Citizens
Patients
·
·
·
·
Peers
Employees
Contractors
And more
In practical terms, organizations need a smart and flexible way to keep a record of the orders,
feedback, and data that come their way. The best way to do that is through a templated form that
works on any device and streamlines your workflow (which often requires some back and forth) in an
organized way.
You may be wondering what we mean by streamlining a workflow in an organized way. Well, data is
only as good as how you put it into practice. Whether you’re gathering customer orders, scientific
research, or anything in between, you need to determine the larger trends the data is telling you so
you can act on it.
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Chapter 1: Why online forms?
A robust platform allows your entire organization to organize, analyze, engage with, and easily report
on the data you gather via online forms. This holistic approach to using forms allows you to take
advantage of your data in creative ways. Here are just a few suggestions:
· You can use summarized data to improve internal product development, workflows, sales
processes, or customer service.
· You can share data with your customers in engaging ways that simultaneously build trust and
create organizational transparency.
· You can analyze your data to better understand who your users are and adjust your approach
to welcome and meet the needs of unanticipated groups and demographics.
For example, Truform users achieve the insights mentioned above by automating their data through
organically connected solutions.
Truform users get more done with the information they gather because on a monthly basis*
30,000 users convert PDFs to online forms
More than 200,000 users manage data in their Tables workspace
225,000 users create mobile apps to collect data
More than 16,000 users create internal approvals based on their forms
Over 20,000 users automate their e-signature workflows
Over 96,000 users connect their data to third-party solutions for
streamlined workflows
*User counts are monthly averages.
Online forms: A move toward sustainability
Well into the 21st century, you’d be surprised how many businesses, organizations, government
entities, and institutions still use paper forms. But using paper forms is unsustainable.
In addition to deforestation and the effects of climate change, using paper today means your
organization’s data is unsafe (i.e., papers that contain sensitive health, banking, etc., information lying
about where anyone can see them) and expensive (paper, printers, ink, and machine maintenance).
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Chapter 1: Why online forms?
Paper also makes your workflow more time-consuming (producing, filing, and finding physical
documents) and inefficient (papers might not be available when needed and could be inaccessible if
they are stored offsite).
The good news is that technology has leveled the playing field. Thanks to widely available no-code
solutions, everyone can use secure and environmentally friendly online forms to collect data. Plus,
you can convert your organization’s paper forms into online forms (including PDFs), making data
management and sharing much easier.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, online forms allow you and your team to collaborate on your data
in a streamlined way, thereby increasing productivity while eliminating the need for physical paper.
The most popular uses for online forms
What are online forms best used for? The list is endless! There are probably as many forms and
surveys as there are stars in the sky — and more are needed every day.
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Chapter 1: Why online forms?
How different industries benefit from online forms
Want to understand how to best use online forms? Start by examining individual use cases. Let’s take
a closer look at how various industries approach the collection and management of data through
forms.
These use cases also demonstrate how form types, features, and usage vary based on an
organization’s particular needs and goals.
Education
Hogeschool van Amsterdam (Amsterdam University of
Applied Sciences) provides technical training, educational
programs, and access to many research opportunities. The
institution needed a form solution that could scale across the
university’s digital channels to help staff accomplish critical
tasks associated with the classes they offer and teach.
Before using Truform, program manager and team lead Denicio Hilman and his team used a form tool
embedded within the university’s content management system (CMS). But it was cumbersome and
had limited features and user experience issues that caused internal and external frustration.
With Truform, university staff discovered a form builder that was easy to use, feature-rich, and flexible
enough to accommodate the university’s programs. Truform also complied with the EU’s privacy
standards like the General Data Protection Regulation.
Truform has enabled greater adoption as more and more staff members come onboard. One group of
colleagues designs templates and prepares forms while another uses those templates and forms to
invite students, colleagues, and coworkers to events as well as manage form submission data.
“We see a trend of staff adopting Truform. More and more staff are using the templates
and forms for their classes and events, and we’re looking forward to using Truform more
extensively.”
—Denicio Hilman, Hogeschool van Amsterdam
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Chapter 1: Why online forms?
Healthcare
Patients of Dr. Michael Salzhauer (aka Dr. Miami, the one
with over 1 million followers on Instagram and Snapchat)
aren’t just in for a procedure when they walk into his office;
they’re in for an experience. WE tv even turned his day-today practice into a reality show.
But behind the celebrity is a plastic surgeon with a great reputation who helps real patients with real
problems.
And Truform plays a big part in getting new patients into Dr. Miami’s door. His team creates forms for
post-op photo submissions from patients and for new-patient special offers. His practice uses dozens
of forms, all of which are HIPAA compliant, in accordance with his software needs.
Truform has helped him save thousands of dollars that otherwise would have gone toward outside IT
help, and he can deploy forms much faster than he did before.
“Previously, to make one little change in a form would take days, weeks, or months. With
Truform it takes literally five minutes and boom, I have a HIPAA-compliant registration form
that patients can return to me, and the process moves forward so much quicker. Being able to
implement an idea in minutes is super important for entrepreneurs and creatives…and that’s
why Truform is so critical for us.”
—Michael Salzhauer, Dr. Miami
Human resources
Navigating remote hiring in the middle of a global
pandemic is no easy feat, but brothers Adam and
Jordan Mendler of The Veloz Group were able to do
it with a little help from online forms.
Adam and Jordan founded The Veloz Group in 2012
with the goal of “building and operating technologydriven companies.” Over the years they successfully
built a handful of companies and currently focus on
three: Beverly Hills Chairs, Custom Tobacco, and
Veloz Solutions.
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Chapter 1: Why online forms?
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the customer base of Beverly Hills Chairs switched, almost
overnight, from businesses to consumers, meaning the company needed to expand its customer
support team to handle higher demand.
Adam and Jordan’s challenge was to hire new customer service representatives quickly. As longtime
Truform users, they naturally turned to Truform for help.
“Hiring the right people is integral to any organization building and maintaining a great
company culture. In our early days, Truform was essential to allowing us to manage our hiring
process.”
—Adam Mendler, The Veloz Group
Retail
Mike’s Bikes, a bicycle company with a dozen
stores scattered throughout the San Francisco Bay
Area, employs more than 250 bike enthusiasts to
help customers ride out of stores on a new set of
wheels.
Demo events are a great way for Mike’s Bikes to get
new customers on bikes. For instance, Mike’s Bikes
staff will load up their branded van with mountain
bikes and set up shop at trailheads, where riders
actually use those types of bikes.
Getting customers to sign waivers for test rides used to be a headache. But with Truform, staffers are
able to get signatures from riders using a phone or tablet. And with the offline capability of Truform’s
mobile app, it even works when they’re at a remote trailhead with no data connection.
“We’re meeting our customers where they are to do bike demos. The offline capability of the
Truform app allows us to have our digital test ride form out on the trail. Since we rolled out
Truform we’ve seen an increase in sales by gathering that customer info through the form,
putting it into our CRM, and allowing staff to have accurate follow-ups with their customers.”
—Tom Casson, Mike’s Bikes
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Chapter 1: Why online forms?
Marketing
The Pitch offers an essential program to startups and new
entrepreneurs: an all-in-one program that assists startups with
“creating a kick-ass pitch and giving them a platform to use it.”
This is by no means a small operation. To manage it, The Pitch relies on Truform as its sole datacollection, management, and analysis tool to ensure all of its information is organized and readily
accessible.
The Pitch works with companies that have been around for three years or less — most want to make a
positive impact in the world, whether on climate change, mental health, or something else.
Before Truform, The Pitch had a tedious workflow for collecting, managing, and analyzing data. But
with Truform, the multistep process is now fluid and straightforward.
The Pitch primarily uses Truform to handle approximately 500 applications per year. Each application
includes approximately 25 data points, which help The Pitch decide who should get shortlisted for the
program.
Apart from liking Truform’s design elements, Inkwell’s CEO, Chris Goodfellow, appreciates the security
features and compliance Truform maintains:
“Truform is very robust — it’s an all-in-one ecosystem, which makes it reliable and easy for my
team to use.”
Nonprofit
The International Documentary Association (IDA) is a nonprofit
with a mission to build and serve the needs of a thriving
documentary film culture.
One of the primary responsibilities of the filmmaker services
manager at the IDA is collecting and processing applications for
documentary filmmakers who are asking for fiscal sponsorship.
The fiscal sponsorship program allows the filmmaker to get the financial support needed to complete
a project by making them eligible for funding from certain government grants and big-name
foundations.
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Chapter 1: Why online forms?
The application form the IDA uses is thorough, requesting comprehensive details from the applicant
such as total project budget, previous funding amounts, and more. The IDA’s Truform-powered
application allows the applicant to send uploaded files and sign off on statements of agreement,
providing the feature flexibility the IDA needs.
“Truform has certainly increased productivity. Everything is electronic, we don’t have to deal
with paper, faxes, or even PDFs sent via email. It helped us grow the business because there’s
only so much you can grow as a fiscal sponsor if you’re dealing with a paper dump. Truform
provided this one uniform place for all of that.”
...
No matter the type of business or organization, online forms and solutions increase productivity and
save time.
But that’s just the beginning.
In the following chapters we’ll explore the many creative ways you can tailor your suite of data
gathering solutions to fit your specific needs and grow your business. A world of opportunity awaits.
Let’s go!
Work Cited
Thriemer, K., Ley, B., Ame, S.M. et al. Replacing paper data collection forms with electronic data entry in the field:
findings from a study of community-acquired bloodstream infections in Pemba, Zanzibar. BMC Res Notes 5, 113 (2012).
https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-5-113
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Chapter 2
Creating your first form
“When I found Truform for the first time, it was like a dream come true,” says Patricia Maguet, owner of
a couples therapy center in Spain. “Truform is a really easy way to create good looking forms, ready to
be embedded [in a website] or shared immediately.” Thanks to Truform, Maguet’s remote clients from
around the world can easily submit required forms.
David Schusteric used Truform to go paperless while he was a practice manager at a U.S. medical
center. “For years, my department has been stuck on having patients fill out patient enrollment and
consent forms via paper,” he says. “On average, it would take our patients more than 30 minutes to
complete these forms.
“Since transitioning our patient enrollment and consent forms to Truform, our patients spend about 11
minutes completing their forms. By transitioning to Truform, we’ve also reduced patient errors by 99
percent! This also allows me to allocate my staff to other areas that are in need.”
The features that Maguet, Schusteric, and millions of other Truform users take advantage of are as
easy to use as they are powerful. That will become clear shortly after you create your first form with
Truform, a process that can be accomplished in mere minutes and can pay dividends for years to
come.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Diving into online forms
The best way to become familiar with Truform is to dive right in. Building a form is quick and easy,
thanks to the no-code Form Builder. It’s an intuitive process that can be fun, too, especially as you try
advanced automation and design options.
If you’re a new user, head to Truform.com and sign up with Google, Facebook, or your email address.
If you already have a username and password, log in using the Login link at the top of the page.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Your Truform home base is the My Forms dashboard, which lists your forms and provides various
options for editing and managing them.
Did you know?
On average, nearly 28,000 forms are created with Truform every day!
Let’s create your first form. Click the Create Form button near the upper left portion of the page. This
will give you a few different paths to take when creating your form.
Choose your own adventure with Truform
Creating a form with Truform takes mere seconds, and you can distribute it
almost as quickly. But there’s an array of customization options every step
of the way — when creating your forms, sharing them, and using the data
collected through your forms. You can make your form unique, link it to thirdparty apps, create your own no-code mobile app, turn form responses into
PDF files, and more.
Truform users often create a brand-new path too. Our team monitors userrequested features and often implements them into Truform’s functionality.
Having an open line of communication with our users is a vital part of
Truform’s culture of refinement and innovation, and it always will be.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Creating a form from scratch
Truform has thousands of form templates you can use, but you’re the only one who knows exactly
what you need. That’s why we include an option to create a form from scratch. Truform’s Form Builder
makes it easy to drag and drop different elements into a form that perfectly matches your needs.
Before you let your creativity flow on a blank canvas, however, you have a choice to make between a
traditional form with Truform Classic, or a form that shows the respondent just one question at a time,
Truform Cards.
Truform Classic
Truform Classic forms are light years ahead of paper forms but have a familiar look and feel. Every one
of our forms is meant for the technology-rich world of today and for what lies ahead as life becomes
increasingly digital.
Drag and drop selected elements onto your form in the Form Builder, and your creation will be
ready to collect submissions in minutes.
In traditional fashion, all the elements will be visible on the form at one time.
1. Click the Create Form button on your My Forms page and then select Start from Scratch.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
2. Select Classic Form.
3. Click Add Form Element.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
4. Choose your elements one at a time by clicking on them or dragging them onto your form.
Classic creativity
We’ve created a form in mere moments. Now you can spruce up your form with Truform’s abundant
customization tools.
Forms that require more than a handful of basic elements — like job application forms or volunteer
application forms — perform better as Classic forms in most cases.
Classic forms are ideal for use with Truform’s 250-plus widgets too. Widgets are add-ons that extend
the capabilities of your forms. Found within the Form Elements menu, widgets enable video recording,
social media connectivity, and much more.
You can always preview your form the way your respondents will see it by clicking on the Preview
Form slider button at the top right of your screen.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Truform Cards
Card forms add pizzazz to ordinary forms. They display questions one at a time. This can be more
engaging for many users. It can also prevent users from becoming overwhelmed like they might be if
they see a lot of questions at once, which sometimes causes them to abandon the form altogether.
Truform Cards are fantastic for shorter forms that will be filled out quickly or forms that will likely
be filled out on mobile devices. Some popular use cases for Card forms include subscription and
registration forms, comment or feedback forms, and survey forms.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you build your first Card form.
1. Select Card Form.
2. Click Add Form Element.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
3. Click or drag and drop to add form elements. Since Card forms work great with just a few
form elements, let’s select two of them: Full Name and Email.
Here’s what your form will look like in the Form Builder after you’ve added the form elements.
Just like that, you’ve created your first form, and it’s ready to share and receive submissions. It’s
a good idea to preview your form to see what it will look like for those filling it out. Though the
screenshot above captures your form as it appears in the Form Builder, with all of the elements on one
page, when you share it, each element will appear by itself.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Click the Preview Form slider button on the top right of your screen to see the form as your
respondents will see it. When viewing your form as a form filler would, you can also view your Thank
You page, which appears after the form has been completed. (The Thank You page can be very
valuable. We’ll go over its capabilities later in this chapter.)
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Playing with Cards
There are some unique, fun form elements that make card forms stand out even more, like the Emoji
Slider ratings scale (shown below).
These elements can lend a whimsical feel to the form-filling experience that’s a world away from using
a pen to fill out a paper form.
Import forms to the Form Builder
While you can create a brand-new form with Truform in no time, you may already have an online or
PDF form you’d like to use. In this case, you can import that form into Truform. To get started, select
the Import Form option in the Create a Form menu.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
There are three options to choose from when importing a form: You can import a form from a web
page, clone an existing form in your Truform library, or import a PDF form and convert it into an online
form.
If you import a form from a web page, you’ll be prompted to enter that form’s URL directly on the
Import Form page. Enter the URL, click the Create Form button, and you’ll be redirected to the Form
Builder, with your form imported and ready to edit.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
If you’d like to clone an existing form, click the Clone your existing form option. A dropdown menu
containing the forms from your My Forms library will appear. Select the form you want to clone and
click the Create Form button to complete the import process.
To import a PDF form and transform it into a versatile online form, click the Import PDF form option.
Unlike the previous two scenarios, you’ll be redirected to a different screen.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Click the Upload PDF Form button to upload the PDF form from your computer, or drag and drop the
file into the Form Builder. When finished, your static PDF form will appear in the Truform Smart PDF
Forms builder, ready to be enhanced with Truform’s customization options.
Form templates
With more than 10,000 ready-made form templates, Truform makes it easy to build a form with the
click of a button. While that’s a lot of templates, we don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. Templates
are divided into three main categories: Types, Industries, and Professions. Use the search bar to find
the ideal template for your form.
Some popular template Types are order forms, registration forms, and payment forms. As for
Industries, business, education, and human resource forms are very sought-after. Forms listed under
Professions include forms for teachers, photographers, recruiters, merchants, and many more.
You can edit a form template in the Truform Form Builder, just as if you started building the form from
scratch. So if you see a template that fits your needs but isn’t perfect, you can customize it by adding,
deleting, or altering form elements or personalizing the form’s style. You can also toggle between
Classic templates and Card templates when searching for a template.
With each option, you can preview the template before you make your selection.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Did you know?
A portion of Truform’s 10,000-plus form templates were created by our users.
If you’ve made a form with Truform’s drag-and-drop Form Builder and you’d
like to share it with the Truform community, simply head to your My Forms
page, click on the More menu for the appropriate form, and select Share as
Template. Or you can access the Quick Share menu under the Publish tab of
the Form Builder. Click the View more link under Share Form and then click
Share Form as a Template. On average, Truform users create more than 200
templates each week!
The Form Builder
The Form Builder is where you make your forms come to life. Though the possibilities for creation are
seemingly endless, the Form Builder is also exceptionally simple. As you’ll recall, we used it when we
created a Card form and a Classic form in seconds.
In that case, we used two of the most basic form elements to create a form — Full Name and Email.
Those two elements — while popular for obvious reasons — are just the beginning when it comes to
building your form.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Form elements
While building your form, click the Add Form Element button on the left side of the Form Builder. The
Form Elements menu will appear on the page.
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The elements are divided into three columns: Basic, Payments, and Widgets. Let’s take a closer look at
these categories.
The 10 most popular form elements
1. Submit Button
6. Long Text
2. Heading
7. Date Picker
3. Full Name
8. Phone
4. Short Text
9. Address
5. Email
10. Single Choice
Basic
Basic elements include the basics, such as Full Name, Email, and Address. These elements are further
divided into more Basic elements, Survey elements, and Page elements (for Classic forms).
Basic elements include
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
Date Picker
Fill in the Blank
Appointment
Image
Multiple Choice
Product List
Captcha
Input Table, Star Rating, and Scale Rating elements are listed in the Survey elements section. Page
elements help refine your form’s appearance, with Divider, Section Collapse, and Page Break elements.
Among the most popular and practical form elements are File Upload and Signature.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Signature
It’s no surprise that the Signature element is heavily used. We’re dealing with forms, after all. Most
electronic signatures are just as valid as an agreement signed by hand in the United States and
Europe, though laws in some other countries vary (and you should always double-check).
The Signature element is located in the list of Basic elements. Alternatively, you can take advantage
of the third-party e-signature widgets. (We’ll discuss widgets in general in just a moment.) After a few
swift mouse clicks, your forms can capture signatures from form fillers.
Did you know?
On average, nearly 5 million forms with the Signature widget are submitted
by users each month. The popularity of signature forms led Truform to create
Truform Sign, which combines a robust, standalone e-signature platform with
Truform’s suite of automation tools.
File Upload
Like e-signatures, file uploads are extremely useful in online forms. The File Upload element allows
users to upload nearly 20 different types of files directly to your form, including
·
·
·
·
·
PDF
DOC
DOCX
XLS
XLSX
·
·
·
·
·
CSV
TXT
RTF
HTML
ZIP
·
·
·
·
·
MP3
WMA
MPG
FLV
AVI
·
·
·
·
JPG
JPEG
PNG
GIF
In the Element Settings, you can indicate which types of files you’ll accept. To accept all file types,
enter an asterisk (*).
If you wish, you can set a limit for how many files your form will accept. Another option allows you to
limit the file size that respondents can upload. Additionally, Truform can automatically import your
uploaded files to Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box for secure storage.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Payments
Truform’s payment elements showcase the power of our forms. You can choose from more than
30 payment gateways, including PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Square, and Stripe. ACH payment
processing is available as well.
Embed payment forms into your website, or create a mobile store with Truform Store Builder. (We’ll
discuss payments in detail in Chapter 6.)
Widgets
The third column of form elements contains Truform’s widgets, which add functionality — like video,
social media, or maps — to your form. There are hundreds of widgets to choose from. These features
not only add to your form’s capabilities, they also make your form stand out from the crowd.
Some often-used widgets include the Take Photo widget, which allows form fillers to take photos
directly from your form, the Spreadsheet to Form widget, and the Image Gallery widget. Widgets for
popular social media networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, provide instant
familiarity and remind form fillers that this is no ordinary form.
Nifty form settings
Once your form looks good, it’s time to explore Truform’s Form Settings. Click on the Settings tab at
the top of the page. This is where you can toggle between building your form, refining your settings,
and selecting various publishing options, which we’ll get to later.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Two basic settings will appear: your form’s Title and Form Status. Change the text in the Title box
to create a custom name for your form. Click the dropdown Form Status menu to enable or disable
your form. You can disable your form on a particular date, at a particular submission count, or use a
combination of both thresholds.
Below those form settings, there’s a button labeled Show More Options.
Click on this button to open a menu containing 19 additional form settings. Some notable options
include changing the language of your form, adding translation capability, allowing form fillers to edit
their submissions or continue a form later, and setting your submissions to delete automatically.
Here, you can enable password protection to limit access to your form. You can also limit access to
your form by enabling the single sign-on login setting built exclusively for Truform Enterprise users.
Furthermore, all users can ensure unique submissions by checking cookies and/or IP addresses, or
encrypt form data for extra security.
Beautify and customize your form
With Truform, you have the power to make your forms look however you want them to. Go to the
Form Designer by clicking on the blue paint roller icon on the right side of the Form Builder. Once in
the Form Designer, you can choose from a variety of preset color schemes, styles, and themes. If you
have a specific vision for how you want your form to look, you can personalize it with your own hex
color codes and custom spacing.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Did you know?
Thanks to the myriad hex color codes available, the Form Designer provides
nearly 17 million different color combinations for your form!
Let’s take a closer look at the tabs within the Form Designer.
Colors
In the Colors tab, you can make customizations that are as simple or intricate as you like. Running the
gamut from “princess pink” to “earthy green,” Truform’s preset color schemes will fit in nicely with any
organization’s brand. If preset color schemes aren’t your jam, all you have to do is copy and paste a
hex color code into the color fields.
Form backgrounds aren’t limited to color schemes. If you’d like to use an image as your form’s
background, you can do so by uploading files to the Page Image and Form Image fields.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Styles
In the Styles tab, you can resize your form. You can also customize the font and font size, and change
the style of your Submit button. Adjusting the style of the form to your liking is simple. All you have to
do is use the dropdown menus and arrow keys to manipulate the styles to your exact specifications.
You can also inject custom CSS into your form using the Inject Custom CSS field at the bottom of the
Styles menu. (Please note that you can inject custom CSS only on Classic forms; the functionality isn’t
available for Card forms.)
Themes
At Truform, we understand that you don’t always have the time to personalize your form, but you still
want it to look professional. That’s why we have a library of preset themes for you to choose from.
All you have to do to instantly personalize your form is click on the theme you want to use, and it will
show up in the Form Builder.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Featured themes are preloaded into the Form Designer. If you don’t see a theme that fits your game
plan, there are more to choose from in the Form Themes Store at Truform.com/theme-store/.
Find the perfect theme by searching or browsing by category. Most themes are free, though some do
have a small fee. You can quickly access paid themes by selecting the Popular section of the Theme
Store. Additionally, choose My Themes to create your own theme and add it to the themes
marketplace.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
You can preview themes before selecting one and then choose which form to apply it to. After a new
theme is added to your form, it will appear in the Form Builder, which sorts themes by Featured, Free,
Used, Purchased, and themes you’ve liked in the Theme Store.
Layout
The Layout tab allows you to change the layout of your form. This is incredibly helpful when you’re
unsure which form layout is best. Feel free to switch between the Classic and Card layouts to see
which one works for you.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Advanced Designer
In both the Colors and Styles tab is the Advanced Designer button. This tool allows you to customize
your form down to the tiniest detail, including the way the lines look.
In the Color Scheme menu, you can customize your form’s colors with a unique background, a frame,
and text. In the Form Layout menu, you can customize the layout down to the corners. But please note
that the Advanced Designer will only work with the Classic form layout, not the Card layout.
The Advanced Designer also allows you to add a cover page, change the label styles, and change the
line layout.
After you make changes to your design, click the floppy disk icon on the top left side of the page to
save your progress. When your changes are saved, the button will change to an eye icon and act as a
preview button. This makes it easy to see when your changes are saved.
Click the icon below the save/preview button to edit another one of your forms in the Advanced
Designer. To return to the Form Builder, click the Truform logo above these icons.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Your first Thank You page
Now that you’ve figured out the basics of your first form, you’re about ready to start sending it out. But
there’s one more piece — the cherry on top — you’ll want to include to ensure a positive impression of
your brand and help you strategically engage with your customers, patrons, or respondents.
Your form’s Thank You page is important for two big reasons:
1. It takes time to complete forms, so make sure your recipients know that you appreciate the time
they’ve taken out of their day to give you the information you’re asking for (especially if you want
them to do it again in the future).
2. Including follow-up information in your Thank You page gives you another opportunity to build
trust, get more information, and further engage your users.
Getting started
Ready to create a cool Thank You page that will have a great effect on your respondents? Of course
you are!
To add a Thank You page to your form, access the Settings tab in the top menu and then click on the
Thank You Page tab in the left menu.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
The first thing you’ll need to decide is how to design your page. You can choose from 24 different
layouts to find a design that matches your organization’s aesthetic. You can also show any fields that
appear in the form on the Thank You page, which might be helpful for the respondent’s reference or in
conjunction with an action you’d like them to take.
Cool features for your first form
The Thank You Page tab offers some cool toolbar features that allow you to further customize your
Thank You page. (Please note that most of these features are available only for Classic forms.) For
example, you can adjust the font, font size, and color of any text that appears on the page to get your
creative juices flowing and/or maintain consistency with your overall brand.
You can also add images to your page, whether it’s your brand logo, pictures for relevant events, or
just fun company photos. Along with the images, you can add links for any websites you’d like your
respondents to visit once they’ve completed your form.
There’s also a Table element you can add, and if you or someone on your team is handy with coding,
you can insert your own HTML.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
You can design your Thank You page to resonate with your customers.
Thank You page action buttons
Action buttons give you convenient options that can really amp up your productivity. By adding an
action button to your Thank You page, you’ll make it easy for your respondents to follow up after their
form submission.
Simply put, action buttons make it easy to engage with your customers, all within your form. For
example, you can use the convenient Fill Again button in scenarios where a group of people need to
fill out the same form multiple times.
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Alternatively, if a respondent needs to fill out the form multiple times, you can even set up prefill to
save your respondents time and effort. Simply choose which form fields you’d like to pre-populate
when your respondent fills out your form again, and you’re good to go.
Did you know?
On average, about 400 Thank You pages with action buttons are created
each day.
Another helpful button is Fill Another Form, which makes it easy for your respondents to send you a
“chain” of related information, with one form submitted after the other. This is helpful when bringing
on new hires or collecting health information for a procedure — basically, anytime you require a good
deal of information but don’t want to bog someone down with all of that in one form. As an FYI, the Fill
Another Form button can also be prefilled, provided the same fields exist in your subsequent forms.
Those are just two examples, and the additional action buttons (Edit Submission, Download PDF)
provide valuable benefits as well.
The Thank You page is the icing on top of the great form you’ve so thoughtfully put together, so
it’s important to give it thought as well. Your Thank You page can actually be your secret customer
engagement weapon. It will provide your users with easy response options that allow you to capture
more of the information you’re looking for.
Best of all? It doesn’t take much time to set up a visually engaging page your users will love. Now get
out there and say thank you!
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Chapter 2: Creating your first form
Online forms for all
It may seem like Truform offers a ton of options for building your online form. And honestly, that’s
because it’s true. But perfecting your form is easy to do, even when using advanced features. That’s
important, because the top benefit of online forms is saving time.
Soon, you may find yourself creating online forms for everything — or nearly everything. That’s
especially the case if you own a small business or manage people and/or projects. Lynda Abel,
website marketing manager at Cannon School, uses Truform to perform an array of tasks, providing
her and her staff more time to devote to students.
“We use Truform across many departments for surveys, registrations, and to gather information
from current and prospective families,” she says. “We’ve been able to automate a workflow that was
previously cumbersome, saving time and improving our ability to serve our families.”
While receiving valuable data with online forms is easy to do, don’t forget about the most important
people in the process: those who fill out your forms. Truform provides an automated way to keep
the lines of communication open after forms are completed. In addition to the Thank You page, form
responders receive autoresponder emails. These emails act as a receipt that confirms their data has
been securely collected, which can promote trust and transparency between you and your form fillers.
Providing this confirmation is a built-in feature with Truform. But there are ways to personalize these
emails so they suit your needs. In the following chapter, we’ll take a comprehensive look at how to do
this.
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Chapter 3
Emails
One of the best things you can do after someone submits your form is notify everyone involved. That
includes you, your form respondent, and any teammates or collaborators you work with.
But why is a notification so important? After all, isn’t the key thing that someone submits the form in
the first place?
It’s important for the same reason you get a receipt when you go to the ATM or a letter in the mail
after opening an account — humans crave confirmation for any kind of transaction. And submitting a
form involves one of the most sensitive transactions of all: sharing our data.
On a more functional level, keeping everyone in the know about your form’s status ensures that those
who need to take action can do so and that relevant parties who need to be alerted will be.
There are three kinds of automated emails you can set up to notify stakeholders about your form
status: autoresponders, notifications, and reminders. In this chapter, we’ll discuss these emails and
how you can use them to your advantage to make your workflow as smooth as possible.
Did you know?
On average, 1.5 million notification emails and 84,000 autoresponder emails
are sent through Truform on a daily basis?!
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Chapter 3: Emails
Autoresponders
Autoresponders are pretty much required for form submissions, but they’re also a sneaky good way to
boost your productivity.
Whether you’re OK with an instant prewritten acknowledgement and reply, you want respondents
to get a copy of the data they submitted through your form, or you want them to get additional
information related to the topic, autoresponders are great at keeping your respondents engaged
through their inbox.
Let’s get started by viewing the email template and adding recipients to your autoresponder. To
access the autoresponder, click Settings at the top of the Form Builder. Next, click Emails in the left
panel followed by the Add an email button. You’ll see an Autoresponder Email option.
Upon clicking the Autoresponder Email option, you’ll see the email template, the first of three available
tabs. Here, you can customize the name, subject line, and content of your response. In the example
below, I changed the title of my email to “Thank you for your time” by clicking on the pencil icon next
to the name.
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Chapter 3: Emails
You can change your subject line to give your respondents a relevant greeting. Just edit it directly.
Another option you have is to add the respondent’s input for a specific form field (Full Name, for
instance) to your subject line. Click on the Form Fields link to open a dropdown list of options.
Much like the Thank You page we reviewed last chapter, you can adjust the body of your email for
content, style, format, branding, and form field inclusion. If you’re just starting out, don’t worry; the
default layout for your autoresponder will include all the fields you have in your form.
Adding recipients
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Chapter 3: Emails
The Recipients tab lets you control the Sender Name (i.e., your brand name or your personal name
or nickname), the all important Reply-to Email address, and the email address of the intended
recipient(s) of your auto response.
For the Reply-to Email, you may want to include your address or that of any relevant stakeholders, just
in case the form submitter replies to the autoresponder email.
Advanced tab
In the Advanced tab, you can really have fun customizing your autoresponder to fit your brand.
Within this dashboard, you can choose cool options like attaching a file to your autoresponder email
(as in cases where you may want to give recipients company information). Other options include
opting for users to get a new email whenever the form submission is edited, scheduling a date and
time to send your email, hiding empty fields, and more.
Finally, if you’d like to see how your autoresponder looks, you can test your form autoresponder email
by clicking the Test Email button.
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Chapter 3: Emails
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Autoresponder email example
Word to the wise
Healthcare-related organizations must ensure their communications are HIPAA
compliant. Truform allows you to do just that.
If you have an account that includes HIPAA compliance features, you can use
autoresponder emails, but you can’t include sensitive healthcare data in them.
Instead, you’ll need to mark your form fields as “Protected” as described in our user
guide, “How to Set PHI Fields on Your Forms.”
When you get a new submission that needs to be delivered via email, “Protected”
fields will be removed from the email and the email will include only “Not Protected”
fields.
“When evaluating various solutions for an order entry form for our digital ad operations, we
found Truform to be the best. I like the ability to customize the email and the PDF attachment
that’s sent to all applicable parties. Not to mention the fact that I can automate the emails to
go to different people based on the criteria in the form.”
—Anne Harper, Ad Operations Manager, Scripps
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Chapter 3: Emails
Notifications
While autoresponders go to your form submitters, notifications are for you, your team, and any other
stakeholders you’d like to be alerted when a form is submitted. You can format notifications so that
any information that will help streamline (and speed) your workflow will be delivered directly to your
inbox.
The Notification Email option appears on the same page as the Autoresponder option in the Emails
section of the Settings area. Upon clicking the Notification Email option, you’ll see the same three
tabs to set up your notification emails.
Similar to the autoresponder, you can tailor the content included in the subject line and body of the
email to fit your and your collaborators’ needs. For example, if it helps to see more or less information
associated with certain fields, such as a submission ID or the respondent’s IP address, you can add or
remove the necessary fields.
The Recipients tab allows you to designate the email addresses that should receive notifications
when a new form submission comes in.
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Chapter 3: Emails
Though the Truform Starter plan limits you to one recipient only for notifications, multiple recipients
are available for paid users.
You can also change the Sender Name for practical or creative reasons, as well as the Reply-to Email
just in case whoever is getting the notifications wants to reply to it.
As with the autoresponder, the ever present Test Email button is located on the bottom left.
A word about sending test emails for notifications (which applies to autoresponders as well): If you’re
trying to test a new email recipient address using the Test Email button, be aware that the address the
email goes to will default to the email address that’s registered with your Truform account. To test the
newly added recipient email address, you’ll need to create an actual submission on your live form.
Among other options, the Advanced tab allows you to use your email address as the Sender Email;
thus, sending it through your specified server as opposed to Truform’s. You can also send submission
uploads as an attachment, which will appear in your notification email. Need to hide an empty field so
it doesn’t appear in your submission email? No problem.
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Chapter 3: Emails
Whatever flexibility you need, Truform’s emails can handle it.
tion email example
“Truform is an amazingly convenient tool for web design teams. We use it for both our clients’
sites and our own. We are even able to customize email notifications with our own HTML!”
—Andrew Jones, Web Designer
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Chapter 3: Emails
Reminders
Ever send a form to someone and, for whatever reason, they don’t get a chance to complete it?
Yep, we’ve been there too.
Never fear, our reminder emails are here for just such an occasion. Schedule an automatic reminder or
nudge your recipient along with a one-off email reminder to get the responses you need. You can do
this from the Publish tab of the Form Builder.
Select the Email option in the left panel, and you’ll see the reminder methods.
The first option, Share on Email is fairly straightforward. It quickly and easily allows you to send a
simple reminder email that includes the link to the form.
For flexibility, you can use the toolbar to customize the email and ensure it fits your brand and
meets your needs.
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Chapter 3: Emails
The second option, Schedule a Reminder Email, offers some nifty tools to easily automate your datacollection workflow.
First are some additional customization tools to make the View Form button and overall design of the
email more appealing to the recipient.
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Chapter 3: Emails
You also have the freedom to tailor the content of the message as well as the subject line. For
example, you could align your subject line with the schedule for your reminder emails, as seen below.
Next to the Recipients tab is the Schedule tab. This is where the magic happens. Here, you can
automate the reminder email cadence, the send time, the time zone, and the start and end dates (if
your form is seasonal or time sensitive).
Depending on the urgency of your form requests, you can send your reminders daily, weekly, or
monthly. This gives you the ultimate flexibility to stay on top of your form responses in a way that
saves time and lessens manual work. However, note that even after your recipient submits the form,
the scheduled reminder will continue to be sent until you or the form owner stops it.
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Chapter 3: Emails
Reminder email example
...
A strong email game that keeps everyone up to speed on your form’s status can have a big impact
on your form campaign’s success. Plus, it plays a critical part in your larger marketing strategy of
customer engagement, internal workflows, and brand experience.
Timely and helpful emails about your forms keep your customers, stakeholders, and even yourself on
top of things so nothing gets lost in the shuffle.
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Chapter 4
Distributing your forms
Every form has a unique purpose. Some are meant for one-time use, while others are filled out
regularly — every day, week, or month. There are forms built for online-only businesses, brick-andmortar stores, interoffice use, events of all sizes, and nearly anything else you can think of.
Essentially, there are some forms you’d like everyone in the world to fill out, while others may simply
tell you what your team wants to eat for lunch on Friday. When it comes to sharing forms, Truform
provides options that are just as diverse. Whether you’d like to share your form with one person or
millions of people, we’ve got you covered, whatever the need.
Take the case of Mobile Theatre, a medical billing and administration company for surgeons and
anaesthesiologists. Mobile Theatre’s clients use Truform to distribute forms to patients before their
visit, saving paper and time, not to mention energy, which is a valuable commodity for those preparing
to visit their doctor: “Our patients find it convenient and less stressful to use a digital form they can fill
out at home before surgery.”
Let’s take a closer look at the many ways you can distribute your own forms and start collecting the
data you need, whatever it may be.
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Chapter 4: Distributing your forms
Share a link and more with Quick Share
To access multiple sharing options for your forms, go to the Publish section of the Form Builder,
located in the top center menu, along with Build and Settings.
There are tabs for multiple publishing options on the left side of the page. First up is the Quick Share
menu, which automatically opens when you click on Publish. This is where you can share a link to your
form.
Click the green Copy Link button to copy your form’s link so you can paste it in an email, a messaging
app such as Slack, and more. The blue Open in New Tab button will open your form in a different tab.
There are also options to share your form via email, social media, and QR code.
Quick Share Settings
Before we go too much further, let’s take a glance at the settings available on the Quick Share page.
Access the Settings menu either by clicking the blue gear icon or the form’s access settings icon,
which is to the left of the Settings icon. This is where you can indicate who can access your form.
Below, you can see the access settings icon, which is labeled Public Form in this example. This is the
default setting and means that anyone with a link can view and fill out your form.
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Chapter 4: Distributing your forms
Pro tip
The following settings are also available from the My Forms page. Select the
form you want from your My Forms list, click the More dropdown menu, and
then choose Publish to open the access settings.
Distribution of access settings
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Chapter 4: Distributing your forms
Here’s what the Settings menu looks like when opened. It includes Access Settings, Permissions, and
a further set of Options.
Access Settings expand or restrict who can view and complete your form. (Note that these settings
are applicable only when the form is assigned, not when it’s accessed via the default link.)
The default public setting can be changed to private with the Private Form option. Additionally, there’s
the Company Access option, which enables access only for those who are part of your company.
The default Permissions setting, Submit &
View Later, allows your invitees to not only
submit answers to your form but also view their
submissions. Other permission settings include
Submit Only, which is fairly self-explanatory, and
Submit & Edit Later, which allows form users to
submit answers to a form as well as view and edit
their submissions.
Scroll down a little further to see the last list of
options in this popup menu. Here, you can add
a “view submission” link to the Thank You Page
and/or your form’s Autoresponder Email. The final
option enables form fillers to contact you through
your Truform Inbox.
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Chapter 4: Distributing your forms
Invite by Email
Below the Link to Share options and the Settings is the Invite by Email section. In the text box, you
can include an invitation message to go along with your email.
To share your link via email to a list of contacts, click the upload icon to add email addresses via a
CSV file.
Please note that form recipients will need a Truform account to access forms shared by email. (They
can sign up for an account when they receive the email.)
Share to social media
Social media is for sharing, so we’ve made it easy to post your forms on Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn. Select any of the social media logos and use the popup menu to post your form for your
friends, followers, or connections.
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Chapter 4: Distributing your forms
QR code
The social media section is also the place to download a custom QR code for your form. QR codes,
short for quick response codes, are perfect for today’s fast-paced, mobile world. Smartphones and
other mobile devices can scan these unique codes, providing instant access to your forms.
Unlike sharing a link to your form, if you post a QR code, potential customers and clients can use it
without having any previous interaction with you or your business. It’s a great way to gain new leads.
QR codes are also helpful in preventing the spread of communicable diseases. They provide a way for
employees, visitors, clients, and more to access forms without having to touch the same pen.
Part of the appeal of QR codes is how easy they are to create. Click the QR code icon in the Form
Builder, and you’ll find everything you need to get started. Download the QR code to print it out, or
copy the embed code and place the QR code on your website. Either way, customers and clients will
be able to scan the code with their mobile devices and access your form with ease.
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Overall, QR codes are rising in popularity and usage. According to the market and consumer data
company Statista, more than 75 million people in the U.S. scanned a QR code with their mobile device
in 2021. By 2025, the number of users is expected to reach 99.5 million people.
Did you know?
Truform is a QR code generating machine. Our users create well over 1,000
QR codes with Truform every day and more than 40,000 each month.
How will you use QR codes with Truform? Ultimately, that’s up to you. But here are a few ideas:
· Restaurant menus
· Customer feedback
· School surveys
· Reservations
· Social media links
· Appointments
· Task management
· Applications
· Event registration
· Inspections
You can also use QR codes at brick-and-mortar businesses like
· Retail shops
· Bakeries
· Gyms
· Wineries/breweries
· Cafes
· Farmers market stands
· Restaurants
· Industry functions/seminars
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Create a Truform app
At Truform, we always provide a path to do more with your forms, as evidenced by
the many sharing options we’ve already discussed.
But what if you’d like to share multiple forms? You can do so by creating an app
that’s accessible via mobile and desktop. Your forms can be the foundation of a fully
functioning mobile app for your organization, complete with multiple pages that
contain images, links, videos, and more, including a Product List, which accepts
digital forms of payment.
A Truform app is a comprehensive way to share your forms in a tidy, custom-branded
package. The Quick Share page includes an option to create an app from your form.
You can share your app in much the same way you share a single form: via web link,
email, or QR code. When you share your app, it will automatically function on iOS and
Android devices and on desktop for ultimate versatility.
Truform Apps also has an embed option, just as our forms do.
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Embed a form on your website
Truform is a no-code form builder that makes it easier than ever to compile important data in digital
format. But that doesn’t mean there’s no code involved. Of course, our in-house developers handle
most of it so you barely have to lift a finger.
Truform provides multiple ways to embed your forms, most of which require little in the way of
coding. Below the Quick Share tab is the Embed tab, which contains multiple embed options for
your form, leading off with a simple JavaScript code designed to work on any web page.
This embed code automatically generates the height and width of your form. Conveniently, the
code remains the same when you alter your form, so there’s no need to reenter the code every time
you make changes.
Source Code
Embedding your form with the Source Code method allows you to add additional text or HTML code
(from outside the Form Builder) to your form. You can find your form’s source code in the Embed tab,
directly underneath the basic JavaScript code.
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In addition to copying the source code, you can download it. The download contains a compressed
and refined version of the form with separate CSS and JavaScript files, allowing you to host the form
files on your own server.
When using the source code option, note that every time you make changes to your form in the Form
Builder, you must update the source code on your site. Also, the source code embed method isn’t
available with Card forms.
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More embed options
So far, we’ve covered a variety of ways to share your forms with Truform, but there are more, including
ready-made embed codes designed for specific publishing platforms. As for the Embed menu, here’s a
rundown of the remaining features found there.
iFrame
If the JavaScript code or the source code isn’t performing as you’d like, try the iFrame option. iFrame
is short for inline frame, which is an HTML element that has yet another HTML document stored inside
the code. This way, the iFrame code won’t conflict with any other code on your page.
WordPress plug-in code
WordPress powers an incredible 43 percent of all websites on the internet, so we placed an embed
code optimized for WordPress prominently in the Embed section. Copy and paste the provided code
to your WordPress shortcode or custom HTML block, and you’ll be all set.
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Feedback Button
The Feedback Button embed code places a floating feedback button on your website. To display the
button on all of your web pages, simply embed the code into your site’s header file. You can also use
the Preview and Customize buttons to perfect the look of your feedback button.
Customization tools let you adjust the color, alignment, and style of your feedback button. Save the
changes when you’re finished. Just go back to the previous page to access the embed code. You’ll
find a Preview button on this page as well for added convenience.
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Lightbox
A lightbox is a static window that pops up when visitors click on a link. It’s an elegant and easy way to
share your forms with visitors. When the lightbox opens, it will overlay the page containing the link, as
seen below.
To create a lightbox for your form, copy the code and paste it into the body of your website. Click the
Customize button to perfect the look of your lightbox.
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In the customize area, you can alter your Lightbox’s title, dimensions, style, background color, and
more. Make sure to save your changes as you customize. Click the Preview button to see how your
Lightbox will appear to form fillers. The preview will open in a new tab.
To exit the Customize Lightbox page, click the Go Back button. When your Lightbox looks exactly as
you’d like it to, save your changes.
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Pop-up
A popup window is similar to a lightbox. But unlike a lightbox, a popup window isn’t static and can be
moved on the computer screen. The popup window can also be maximized or minimized. You can see
the difference in the example below.
To embed with a popup, select Pop-up from the list of embed options. You’ll find it right next to
the lightbox link. Copy the code and paste it on your website’s source code. The link to your popup
window will be your form’s title. If you’re unsure whether you’d like to embed a popup window, use the
Preview button to see what your finished product will look like.
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Platforms
WordPress isn’t the only popular third-party publishing option, so Truform created embed codes
designed to work with your preferred publishing method. The Platforms menu is where you can find
embed codes built specifically for third-party tools such as Wix, Facebook, Tumblr, and more.
Click on the Platforms tab and select your publisher of choice. Next, follow the brief instructions to
publish your form. For an example, we’ll take a look at how to embed your form or app into a website
created with Squarespace.
Click on the Squarespace tile to see the embed code and instructions.
To embed your form into the Squarespace platform, follow these steps:
1. In the Squarespace dashboard, click on
your Page Name and click the
Save button.
3. Click Add Block and then choose Code.
4. Paste the modified codes in the window.
Be sure to choose the HTML option and
uncheck Display Source.
5. Click the Save & Publish button.
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There are more than 40 platforms to choose from in this section, including Weebly, GoDaddy, and
Shopify. Each one has steps as simple and straightforward as those above.
Watch the data roll in
After you share your form, sit back and watch the data pour into your Truform Inbox. From there, take
advantage of multiple data-management features. Truform Tables automatically saves data submitted
through each form or app you create, so you can organize your newly sourced digital information
without leaving Truform.
In addition, the Truform Report Builder can instantly create a visually appealing report with your
form’s data. Just think of the possibilities for gaining an intimate understanding of your customers’ and
clients’ needs, opinions, and more.
Or, after sharing lunch with your team each Friday, you can look back at your data and say, with the
utmost accuracy, what their favored cuisine was over the past few weeks, months, or years.
Clearly, how you use Truform is up to you. With a comprehensive array of distribution options, you’ll
find the method that’s right for your form, no matter what path you choose to take.
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Viewing submissions
Now that you’ve watched the data roll in, what’s the best way to view it? Truform offers a myriad of
ways to view your data. Most users have been able to find a method that fits their existing workflows.
A web designer at a major university uses Truform’s automated email notifications so that his
submissions come to him:
“I have set it up to where I get an automated email. I go in and check the inbox. Sometimes
I don’t even need to go into Truform to get the information I need. It shows up right in the
email.”
If this method of viewing data doesn’t work for you, that’s OK. We’re going to explore the many
different ways to view your data so you can find the one that works best for you.
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Accessing and collaborating on submission data in Truform Inbox
There’s no need to extrapolate the data you collect and compile it into a spreadsheet in a different
program (though if you would prefer to do just that, you certainly can). All you have to do to view
submissions is open Truform Inbox.
To open Inbox, go to the My Forms page and click Inbox to the right of the form name.
Truform Inbox looks and acts like a traditional email inbox. The only difference is that the form
responses take the place of emails. This allows you to easily respond to users, take action based on
their responses, and edit your user’s form submissions, if needed.
Replying to users
Perhaps the most convenient thing about Inbox is that you can respond directly to form fillers when
they ask questions or leave comments. To reply to a user, go to their entry and then click on the Reply
button at the top right of the page. You can use form fields to populate the reply with their contact
information. But make sure you have an email field in your form; otherwise you won’t be able to reply
to them.
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Forwarding submissions
In addition to enabling you to respond to inquiries on forms, Truform Inbox makes it easy to forward
form submissions. For example, if one of your users asks a question in a customer service survey,
and you’d like to pass that question along to a customer support representative, you can forward a
submission directly to the customer support team.
To forward a submission, open the three-dot menu on the right side of the screen, and click Forward.
A prefilled email will come up, so all you have to do is enter an email address and click Send.
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Sharing your Inbox
Truform Inbox also includes a convenient share feature. You can share your Inbox with others by
clicking the Share button on the top right of the screen.
You have the option to set access permissions so that your Inbox can be accessed by anyone, only
selected people, or only those in your organization. You can also set permissions that give your
collaborators read-only access or access to edit and comment.
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Adding comments and tags
Truform Inbox has tagging and color coding capabilities, which make it easy to assign and track tasks
within a project. Adding a tag to a submission is like giving it a label to better help you keep track
of things. For example, if your customer service team needs to follow up with a customer, you can
forward a submission to them, and then add a tag to the submission to let everyone else involved
know that customer support is following up with the customer.
When you comment on a submission in Inbox, you can use the mention feature to call something to a
person’s attention. Just enter @ and their name/email address just as you would in Google Docs.
Keep in mind that anyone with the appropriate permissions can see your comments. However, you can
delete comments and edit them, just in case. All you have to do to edit or delete a comment is click
the three-dot icon next to the comment box and click Edit or Delete.
Comments can help make sure everyone stays on the same page. When you leave a comment,
you have two options: The first is to make an inline comment, and the second is to leave a general
comment.
An inline comment applies to one answer in a submission. Inline comments can be helpful when you’re
making notes about a submission or when you need to bring something specific to someone else’s
attention. You can add an inline comment by clicking on the comment box to the right of an answer in
a submission (shown below).
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A general comment is most helpful when you need to make a comment on the entire submission. To
leave a general comment, click the Comment button on the top right side of the Inbox.
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Editing submissions
When you want to edit a submission, open the submission and then click the three-dot menu on the
right side of the screen. In the menu, click the Edit option. You’ll go to an editable version of your
user’s submission that you can change as you see fit.
Note that you can edit only your users’ submissions, not the questions in the form. If you’d like to
change the form itself, go back to the Form Builder and make any edits you’d like.
Starring, searching, and filtering submissions
Starring submissions is another way to make your collaborators aware of important information. There
are two ways to star submissions: The first is to click the star on the right side of the submission in
your Inbox. The second is to open the three-dot menu on the right side of your Inbox and click the
star button.
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You can filter specifically for starred submissions. Click on the Filter button, then click the first
dropdown menu under Search in and select Favorite. Click the Apply Filter button, and you’ll see a list
of all your starred submissions.
If you want to search all of your submissions for something specific, that’s easy too. Go to the search
bar on the left side of your Inbox and enter a specific keyword. The Inbox will return all entries with
that keyword.
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Creating tabs
You can create tabs to further organize form submissions. Creating tabs is especially helpful for
filtering responses. If you want to create a new tab for one specific submission, all you need to do is
create a filter and then click the Create New Tab button.
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Downloading submissions and attachments
If you want to download a single submission from Inbox, open the submission, click the checkbox to
the left of your submitter’s name, then click Download button, which appears at the top of your list of
messages.
To download multiple entries at once, click the checkboxes on the left side of the Inbox to select the
entries you want to download, and then click the Download button. You have the option to download
as a CSV file, an Excel file, or a PDF. You can also download your entire Inbox. Click on the three-dot
icon on the Inbox tab, and then select how you’d like to download the submission.
In addition, you can download any attachments your users uploaded to their forms. Just click
Download Attachments in the Download dropdown menu. This can be helpful if you need to collect a
large amount of documents or pictures from your users.
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Note that PDFs and attachments in bulk will be sent as a ZIP file to your email address instead of
downloaded directly.
Archiving, restoring, deleting, and purging submissions
When you’re done with a submission, you may want to delete it. To delete a submission, open the
three-dot menu on the right side of the submission, and click Move to Trash at the bottom of the
menu. The submission will then be moved to the Trash tab.
If you need to access a submission you’ve moved to the trash, just go to the Trash tab, right-click the
entry, and click Restore. You also have the option to purge the submission by clicking Delete Forever.
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Archiving is a great option when you’ve finished dealing with a submission but need to keep the
information for compliance or other record-keeping purposes. To archive a submission, click on the
three-dot icon on the upper right side of the screen and click the Archive option.
Your submission will be moved to a separate tab you can access at any time. In the Archive tab, you
can easily search and filter submissions, just as you can in any other tab.
If you want to archive a bunch of submissions at once, click the checkboxes to the left side of the
entries, then click the three-dot icon above the list of submissions and select Archive from the
dropdown menu. You can also right-click and then click Archive, or you can click the archive button,
which looks like a file box.
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To delete or restore archived submissions, click the checkboxes to the left of the entries, right-click,
and select the appropriate option from the dropdown menu.
Organizing and managing your data in Truform Tables
You’ve now got a lot of raw information from your form, but what do you do with it? While compiling
your information into a spreadsheet can be helpful, spreadsheets are geared toward numbers and
numerical data. They aren’t meant to keep track of everything.
During user interviews, the Truform team discovered that customers integrated our forms with
spreadsheet apps and other tools that weren’t tailored for managing appointments and workflows.
Another pain point for users was not being able to easily generate reports from their data. As a result,
we created Truform Tables, a customizable tool that allows users to collect data and then leverage
that data to create and track workflows within the same workspace.
Truform also allows you to easily pull data from a form into a third-party tool via an integration,
eliminating the need to migrate data from one program to another. This saves you time and money,
and gives you the flexibility to use the tools that work best for your organization.
Let’s explore Truform Tables a little more so you can see how robust and customizable it is.
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The table
Truform Tables in its simplest iteration lays out all of your form data in table format. To access Truform
Tables, go to My Forms and check the box next to the form you’d like to view a table for. Next, click
Submissions at the top of the page to open Truform Tables, where you’ll be able to see all your
submissions at once.
Each column heading in a table represents a form field, and the columns below it show your users’
answers to that question. The rows in tables represent an individual submission; when you open the
three-dot menu on the left side of each, you can view, edit, star, mark as read, or insert new rows.
In Tables, you can also add as many rows or columns as you like without altering the data from your
form.
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Truform Tables is especially helpful for tracking work among different departments and giving users
insights into their workflows. Because of the visibility it provides, it helps prevent bottlenecks.
You can edit the questions in your form directly from Truform Tables. Likewise, because you track
your data with the same tool you use to collect it, you can change a field in your form, and it will
automatically be changed in the table. You don’t have to worry about integrating with a separate tool
and re-integrating to accommodate changes.
Use the search feature at the top of the page to look up specific submissions. You can filter your
searches by submission date, update date, submission ID, submission IP field, and any other fields
that appear in your form.
You can also download your data as a spreadsheet, PDF, or CSV file.
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Building a table
Now that we understand what Truform Tables is in its simplest form, let’s talk about other ways Tables
can accommodate your workflows. From My Tables, click the green Create Table button on the left
side of the screen. You’ll have the option to create a table from scratch, from a template, or to import
a file and create a table from it.
From scratch
Creating a table from scratch basically gives you a blank canvas to work with. You can either add
customized sections that work for you or add columns or fields from any of your forms. Click the Add
button on the right side of the builder to add columns, formulas, or buttons, and connect to another
form or table.
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From a template
Truform has over 300 table templates for you to work with. They come in a variety of views, so there’s
probably already a template that will meet your needs, no matter what view you want to use or which
industry you work in. When you select Use Template, you’ll see a whole slew of templates to choose
from. There’s a search bar at the top so you can search specifically for your industry or purpose. Hover
over the template and click Preview to view it.
From imported data
You can also import data from other files, including CSV, XLSX, and XLS.
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If you upload data from another source, you’ll have to manually name your columns. But the imported
columns and column types will be displayed side by side, so it’s very easy to label them however you
like.
Views
Now let’s talk about all the different ways you can look at your data. It’s very easy to change your
view. Let’s say you originally chose Table view but realize that you need to see all of the files your
users uploaded to your form. All you have to do to change the view is click the three-dot menu icon in
the first tab (on the left side of the screen), hover over Change Type, and then choose Uploads from
the dropdown menu.
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Calendar view
Calendar view is great because you can pull data directly from your table or form and use it to
schedule appointments with your clients, customers, or other users.
This feature is especially helpful for handling things like RSVPs and bookings. You can look at your
calendar in daily, weekly, and monthly views to get a good idea of what your overall schedule looks
like. The Events tab on the left side of the screen allows you to easily see what you have going on any
given day.
Besides making a calendar entry from a form, you can also manually create an entry by doubleclicking the date. The Entry Settings give you the option to show or hide entry headers, entry update
dates, and visible fields, as well as to select a field to use as the entry title.
Some of our most popular calendar templates include
·
·
·
·
·
Vaccination appointment schedule
Salon appointment schedule
Social media planning calendar
Yearly lesson plan
Fundraising calendar
know?
Over 15 percent of Truform users in the education industry use Calendar view
in their work.
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Uploads view
Uploads view shows the files that users uploaded to a form. It’s helpful when you have a lot of uploads
to sort through, such as when your users upload things like resumes, signed consent forms, and
transcripts. Uploads view is flexible because you can either connect to a form or upload your own
files.
Cards view
Similar to Uploads view, Cards view is useful when you want to see a quick snapshot of all your form
submissions. This can be very helpful for people who process data visually.
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To open Cards view, just add a tab, click Cards, and connect to your form. A screen will open and
give you the option to select the fields you want to see in your cards. Answers are color coded so it’s
easy to find patterns in your data. From Cards view, like other views in Truform Tables, you have the
flexibility to edit, forward, and delete entries.
Formulas
When we were building Truform Tables, we realized formula functionality would be incredibly helpful to
our users because it would allow them to group their submissions into categories. For example, a user
who is a counselor at a camp that helps prepare girls to be future entrepreneurs and business women
expressed interest in using formulas to group campers based on their answers to several questions.
Formulas in Tables allow you to assess many different types of data. To add a formula to your table,
add a new column by clicking on +Add to the right of your last column. Then go to the Formula tab.
From there, you’ll be able to choose from Advanced, Rollup, Lookup, and Counter formulas. The
functions are already loaded into Truform Tables, so you don’t have to waste time Googling traditional
spreadsheet formulas.
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The lookup function is extremely helpful in extracting data from your table. For example, if you want to
quickly look up who purchased a certain car, but you only know the salesperson who sold the car, you
could set up a lookup column. All you have to do is type the name of the salesperson, and the name of
the person who bought the car should pop up.
It’s easy to find quantities from your data with the counter function. When you set up the counter
function, all you have to do is click on the column you want to get counts for, and it will show up in
its own column. The rollup function does something similar, but it allows you to connect data from
another form to a table and perform calculations.
Using Truform to not only collect, but also manage and view your data, prevents data loss and will
make your job easier. You’ll also be able to use tools that can be tailored to any form of data, not just
numerical. Viewing your data and manipulating it into different formats and versions is really only
scratching the surface, though. In the next chapter, we’ll take a look at how to go further with your
forms and use them for just about anything, so you can streamline your workflows and increase your
productivity.
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Going further with your forms
Arguably, the most popular buzzword in software technology is productivity. After all, that’s the
treasure everyone is hunting for in their software solutions, right?
But what is productivity?
In a business context, productivity refers to the rate of output per unit of input. Essentially, if your
software enables you to do more this week than you were able to do last week, it’s helping you be
more productive.
Productivity alone isn’t enough, though. For example, if you’re signing up people for a workshop,
but the workshop you’re marketing has incomplete information, signing up even more people to that
workshop won’t help you much.
The ability to combine productivity with efficiency, or achieving a higher output in less time with the
same or higher level of quality — now that’s what we all really want. And that’s the idea that underlies
going further with your forms.
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Productivity meets efficiency
By incorporating your feedback over the years, we’ve been able to build a more responsive product.
The result is a productivity solution that helps you manage, communicate, and collaborate on
information as easily as you gather it.
As you just learned with Truform Inbox and Truform Tables, when your data is actionable in a multitude
of ways, you’re both productive and efficient. In this chapter, we continue that theme to show you
· How to add useful form widgets that make it easy for respondents to give you accurate
information when you need it
· How to sync your forms and form data with third-party apps — from payment processors to
CRMs and workspaces — for a seamless workflow
· How to use conditional logic for smarter data outcomes and more responsive forms
· How prefilled forms can save your respondents time while increasing your submission rate
The business possibilities are endless, so let’s dive in to learn new ways Truform can help you be
productive and efficient in getting your work done.
Widgets
You may be wondering what exactly a widget is. Widgets are form add-ons that enable a wide range
of functionality (inserting a map, uploading a file, or even converting metric measurements). Simply
put, widgets make information gathering, communication, and engagement easier. Truform has
hundreds of widgets to choose from, giving you the option to create a really cool customized form for
your business or organization.
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Sample of widgets
The answer to “Which widgets should I use?” really depends on the function of your form. But for a
“Cliffs Notes” version of our most popular widgets, check this out.
A
d
ding widgets to your form
To add a widget to your form, open the Form Builder and go to the Widgets tab within the Form
Elements panel on the left. From there you can add any widget to your form.
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Let’s say you’re building a form to collect workshop registrations. Because you’re going to charge for
this workshop, and there are rules for participation, refunds, etc., you need to include terms and
conditions that the respondent must accept.
Add the Terms & Conditions widget to the form by clicking on the widget, dragging and dropping the
widget into the form, or clicking the “info” button (the i within the circle) on the widget itself.
The info button will provide more information about the widget and how you can use it. When you’re
ready to add it to your form, click the Add to Form button in the lower right corner.
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Once the widget is added, you can manage the settings in the right panel by clicking the Widget
Settings icon. For instance, you’ll need to specify the destination of the web page where someone will
be directed when they click the Terms & Conditions link.
This is just one example. There are many widgets you can use for a multitude of purposes, from
collecting e-signatures, embedding PDFs, and generating QR codes to adding Twitter profiles,
Messenger buttons, and much more.
Whatever your needs, chances are there’s a widget to help you accomplish your goal.
Connect your form with other apps
Forms make it easy for everyone — from influencers and solopreneurs to HR managers and enterprise
organizations — to do business online. And a big component (and convenience) of doing business
online is being able to collect payment for products and/or services.
There are many benefits of collecting payments through your forms:
·
·
·
·
·
workflow needs
Makes for a faster checkout process
Allows you to
integrate
Lets you offer the right payment gateways for customers around the globe
payments with Gives you the flexibility to offer credit card, mobile wallet, peer-to-peer, or ACH payment options
all of your online Helps you migrate your paper invoicing process online
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To get a sense of the kind of payment activity happening within Truform, here’s a breakdown of
currency and payment types in the platform.
Truform payments by currency
Truform payments by type
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Be it for a product, subscription, or donation, and whether it’s British pounds or U.S. dollars, the
leading payment gateways used in Truform over the last 12 months are Stripe, Square, and PayPal.
Brand reputation and market size — paired with the fact that these gateways enable the use of credit
cards and/or alternative payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and CashApp — are big
reasons why they’re popular with form owners.
Of the countries Truform tracks, the U.S. dominates form-based payments by approximately a 10 to 1
margin. However, one country to keep in mind is Australia, whose form-based payments have grown
almost 300 percent in the last year. A heads-up for those doing business down under!
Accept payments through your form
To illustrate how to accept payments through your form, let’s use the previous example for workshop
registrations. (Note that you can’t have more than one payment integration in a form at one time.)
Click on the Payments tab in the left panel of the Form Elements menu (between Basic and Widgets).
Here you’ll have the option to add payment processors, payment gateways, mobile wallet payments,
and more.
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To add the Square payment gateway to the registration form, click on the Square link in the Payments
tab. Or you can click on the Add Payment Integration button next to the Product List element in the
form.
If you do the latter, you’ll see a popup screen where you can select a payment gateway.
Once you’ve chosen your payment processor, you’ll need to authorize your account by clicking the
Connect button and entering your credentials for that service (this applies to any payment method
you use).
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Why is Square such an elegant payment method? It allows you to enable credit card, mobile wallet,
and peer-to-peer payment options all in one gateway.
Once connected to the Square payment gateway, you can enable a few different payment types on
your form. By sliding the preview form toggle, you can check out how the different payment options
and methods will look to your form respondents.
And don’t worry, if you need to change your payment gateway, simply disconnect your current
integration and click the red Remove button on your payment integration, then select another
gateway.
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Did you know?
Truform never charges additional fees for accepting payments through our
forms. The only fees you’ll pay are the standard processing fees associated
with the integration you choose.
Send form response data to the tools you use every day
Statista reported that in 2021, organizations worldwide used an average of 110 software as a service
(SaaS) applications in their workflows. That’s a lot of tools just to get stuff done.
Some workflows may require fewer solutions and some even more, but the good news is that your
Truform data syncs easily to other tools, making things more efficient and less confusing. With this
connectivity, you may even realize you no longer need some of those tools.
Truform’s 150+ integrations (not even counting the payment ones) cover almost every tool in your
toolbox. This means you can use your forms any way you want, and your data will be available to your
teams in the ways you need.
Once you’ve built your form, access the integrations by going to the Settings screen at the top of the
Form Builder. Then select Integrations in the left panel.
There are a couple of convenient options for finding the particular third-party solution you’d like to
use. You can either use the search bar to enter the name of your integration directly or scroll through
the dropdown list.
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Since we integrated Square as our payment solution in the example earlier, Square is grayed out with
a green check mark indicating that it’s an active integration. Additionally, since we’ve already selected
a payment integration, the other payment integrations are grayed out and can’t be selected.
Now let’s add Google Drive as an integration so we can send form submissions to Drive. First,
authenticate your account.
After clicking Authenticate, review and/or customize the folder destination. Select the form fields
to include in the folder, in this case, name, email address, and how the registrant heard about the
workshop.
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Click Complete Integration and you’re done.
Don’t worry. If you need to remove or update your integration later, you can do so just by clicking on it
in the Integrations screen.
As a result of the integration, after a form is submitted, a new form folder will appear in Google Drive.
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Integrations are a great way to automatically send data to your other tools. You’ll accomplish your
regular duties more easily and create processes that facilitate new business opportunities you hadn’t
even thought of yet.
Advanced functionality
In the spirit of marrying productivity with efficiency, you may want to use advanced functionality for
some of your forms. This can save you time and increase the quality of your submissions. For example,
advanced functionality can take the form of conditional logic, which dynamically presents alternate
questions or outcomes based on how preceding questions are answered.
Create smarter forms using conditional logic
Conditional logic can be used in a variety of ways and is valuable when constructing complex forms.
The basis for this logic is if-then conditions. For example, if a customer answers “yes” to learning more
about your product, then they will be offered a PDF download in your form (which wouldn’t be visible
had they answered “no”).
Conditional logic comes in handy in scenarios including but not limited to
· Presenting specific questions or options in your form for those who respond to a particular
question in a certain way
· Performing complex calculations or scoring a quiz or test
· Enabling a respondent to skip ahead in your form based on their answers so they’re able to
save time and you don’t have to sort through unnecessary or redundant answers
Is conditional logic something you should use?
Almost every kind of industry uses some form of conditional logic, even if only for a question or two.
Here’s a look at which industries use condition logic in forms the most.
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Industry share of conditional logic in forms
Now, let’s take a hands-on look at how conditional logic works. For the workshop registration form,
we’ll add a question that we’d like to appear based on a condition: “Would you like to set up online
lesson planning at a discounted rate?”
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To set up the conditional logic, move from the Build tab of the Form Builder to the Settings tab and
select the Conditions option in the left panel.
The first condition I’ll set up is the Show/Hide Field, which shows or hides a field when the specified
condition is met.
So if someone selects the answer, “Experience to teach my own class,” to my question, “What do you
hope to get out of this course?” the condition I set up will then show a new question asking if they’d
like to sign up for online lesson planning at a discounted rate.
Click Save and you’re done. The question will appear in the form only when that answer is given in
response to the question.
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In this example, your form is more efficient because it smartly handles certain responses with specific
rules. And your business is more productive because you can swiftly follow up on additional business
leads.
From there, the Conditions page will display the particular conditions you’ve set up for your form.
Need to edit your condition or get rid of it later on? Simply hover above it with your cursor and click on
the pencil icon to adjust it. Or click on the gear icon to delete the condition, disable it, or clone it to set
up a similar condition for another question.
By clicking Add a new condition, you can go a step further. Say you want to notify your social media
manager of new registrations only for those who heard about the workshop through LinkedIn.
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Once LinkedIn is selected, the email notification will be triggered, creating even more efficiency for
the team.
After saving the condition, you’ll be able to access the conditions you’ve set back in the Build tab of
the Form Builder.
When you click on the Conditions button for a form element, you’ll go directly to the Conditions tab in
the Settings screen.
Here are a few other conditions you can use in your forms.
Update/Calculate Field
Let’s say you have a quiz, test, or statistical study and need to add values from different form fields.
You want the solution to appear in a text box labeled “Total.” You can use this function to specify
which fields should be added and when.
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Enable/Require Field
You can also enable or disable form fields based on responses. This option can be used to
conditionally set or change a field’s Content Mask, which limits responses to a particular format.
An example is an international phone number format for organizations handling global or overseas
business. This is especially handy when you need to pipe your form data into third-party tools where
standardized data is a must-have.
Skip To/Hide a Page
This condition is pretty straightforward. It allows you to skip or hide pages of your form based on
a user’s answers. You can ask additional questions on a new page or simply end the form. A good
example of this would be a healthcare registration or medical history form.
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Change “Thank You” Page
Changing your Thank You page is a great way to customize the form experience based on your
respondents’ answers. For example, if your form is a quiz and your student’s responses are incorrect, it
might be useful to provide the answers or additional resources on the Thank You page.
Or if your site visitors sign up to download one of several marketing reports, you can provide the
selected PDF on the Thank You page based on which report they chose from your form dropdown
selections.
…
At the end of the day, there’s no limit to the conditions you can set for your forms. But remember to
test your conditions prior to adding more (or distributing your form); otherwise your form may create
more confusion than value.
Assigning forms
Assigning forms improves your productivity by skipping the back-and-forth of email communication
and getting your forms directly into your respondents’ hands. Plus, because you can access assigned
forms on any device, downtime, email issues, and lack of connectivity are no longer problems.
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When you’re ready to assign your form, head to the Publish tab of the Form Builder and click on
Assign Form in the left panel.
You can easily copy the form link to send the form to your respondents directly or assign it via email.
(Note that form assignees will need to log in to access their assigned forms.)
The Assign Form Settings help you control your assignments, including whether your form is Private
(for the assignee only), Public (available to anyone), or set to Company Access (available only to those
in your organization). You can also allow the respondent to submit only, submit and view later, or
submit and edit later.
Additionally, you can specify follow-up options, like where your respondents can view the submission
link. For time-sensitive situations, you can set an expiration date for the link. You can also track
assignee activity with individual Sentboxes and send reminders, giving you even more control of your
data.
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Prefill your forms
Prefilling your forms is where productivity meets efficiency.
Why?
Because pre-populated forms save your respondents’ time and effort, improving the chances that
your form conversions will increase. Plus, prefilled forms reduce the chances of duplicate data entry.
You can pre-populate your forms with respondent data that’s already stored within sources like
spreadsheets, CRMs (customer relationship management software like HubSpot, Salesforce, and
others), and even other forms.
Prefilling works by automatically matching the related fields from your data sources to the form, or by
manually matching the fields you select from dropdown menus. Benefits of prefilling forms include
· Improving the customer experience for your end users by personalizing submissions
· Improving data accuracy because of reduced reliance on recipient data entry
· Improving data security
Within the Form Builder, you can access the Prefill section in the Publish tab. You’ll see the various
methods currently available to prefill your forms.
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To help you make sense of these, we’ve outlined the methods in two categories:
1. Internal prefill options: manual, forms, tables, and SSO
2. External prefill options: third-party CRM solutions (Airtable, Pipedrive, monday.com,
Salesforce, and HubSpot)
Rather than going through each example, let’s look at a few examples from both groups.
Internal prefill options
Manual Prefill
First up we’ll examine Manual Prefill, which is perfect for sending a small or ad hoc number of prefilled
forms to recipients. A great example of this may be nonprofits that periodically call on small, dedicated
donor bases for more donations.
Click Add a New Prefill, fill out the form fields you’d like to use, and then click Create.
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Once you’ve created the prefilled form, you’ll be taken back to the Publish screen, where a new tokengenerated URL (which encodes the user data within a token) for your prefilled form will appear.
You’ll have the option to either let the respondent edit the prefilled fields or view them only.
When you select the prefilled form and click on the vertical ellipsis to the right of the prefill URL, you
can carry out several handy tasks:
· Edit the prefill sections
· Send an email invitation
· Copy the URL
· Rename the prefilled form
· Duplicate the prefilled form for
other recipients
· Delete the URL
Yo
u
can also click the URL under the name of the prefilled form to preview the form with prepopulated information.
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Click the Send Invitation button to invite your end users to fill out the form. You can include a
message with the invitation. Note that only one email address can be entered for each individual URL
you create.
When your respondent receives their form, the relevant data fields will automatically populate once
they open it.
Pro tip
Some fields don’t support prefill. They either present a data security
risk (payment and payment widgets) or present issues with third-party
development (widgets). Over time, however, new fields will be available for
prefill.
Tables Prefill
Now let’s look at prefill using Truform Tables. Anyone who uses collaboration and management
software on the regular will be a candidate for this method. For instance, if an HR team needs to
update organizational contact information, or a small business needs to repeatedly collect information
from clients, it’s handy to use data from your existing tables to prefill forms.
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To access the Prefill feature in Truform Tables, go to an existing table and click the Form dropdown
and then the Assign Form option. This will take you to the Publish tab of the form powering your table
(you can also access the Publish tab when creating a new form).
From there, select the Prefill tab on the left navigation. Then choose the table you’d like to prefill.
Once you identify a table from the dropdown, a second dropdown will be enabled so you can select a
specific tab. If there’s only one tab in your table, it will be selected by default.
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The available fields will be matched automatically within the platform, but you can add more as you
see fit. Click Save Settings to save your configuration.
To create new prefilled forms for the records in your associated table, click the Add a New Prefill
button.
At that point, you’ll be able to select individual or multiple records from your table. After making your
selection, click on the Create button to generate prefilled URLs.
you know?
While you can select all submissions in a table, you can only create 20 prefills
at a time. Also, the Truform Tables prefill method supports the following
elements only: Full Name, Email, Address, Short Text, Long Text, Phone,
Dropdown, Number, Single Choice, Multiple Choice, Scale Rating, and
Spinner.
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As with the Manual Prefill example earlier, you can then send the prefilled forms to your respondents
in one of two ways:
1. Select the checkbox for a row, and click the Send Invitation button that appears above the list.
2. Click the vertical ellipsis to the right of a row, and click the Send Invitation button in the menu.
You can also click the Select All checkbox to send multiple emails and prefilled forms at once. Upon
clicking the Send Invitation button, all the individual emails will be shown. You can send the email
directly to the email address from the form or change the recipient address manually.
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Finally, if you ever need to match different fields, you can do so via the Settings button. You can
select a different source table or tab to update your base information or add/remove additional field
matches.
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Pro tip
You might have noticed SSO Prefill as an option. With SSO, you can sync
your form recipients with the credentials already stored on your SSO server
(enabled by your identity provider). This gives enterprise organizations
increased form field accuracy and allows for easier completion of
submissions at scale. Note that SSO Prefill is available to Truform Enterprise
customers only.
External prefill options
If sales and marketing is your specialty, you need to consistently update customer or client
information. If you work in finance, retail, or real estate, you often collect (or update) customer data
for leads, orders, and purchases.
Whatever your industry, the external prefill method allows you to easily and securely pull information
from your CRM to pre-populate it into a form (on top of the customary piping of contact info from
forms into your CRM). In a way, prefill enables you to use Truform as a two-way hub for your contact
and lead list workflow.
Let’s take a look at one of these examples with Salesforce, arguably, one of the top CRM providers out
there. A ton of data is updated in the platform, but leveraging it to pre-populate your forms is easier
than you think.
To prefill forms through your Salesforce account, click on the Salesforce Prefill option. You’ll need to
authenticate your account so you can link your Salesforce contacts and leads to your form.
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In addition to logging in, you may need to enter a separate two factor authentication (2FA) code sent
to your email for additional security.
Depending on your marketing needs, you can select either Contacts or Leads in the dropdown menu.
After you make your selection, your Salesforce contact/lead fields and form fields will be synced
automatically.
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When you’ve set up the fields you want, click Save Settings.
Upon clicking the Create a Prefilled URL button, you’ll generate a prefilled form link for each record in
the Salesforce list.
Similar to the internal prefill options, you can select individual or multiple records. After making your
selections, click the Create button, and prefilled URLs will be generated for each contact record.
One benefit of having a two-way data flow between Truform and Salesforce (or any CRM) is being
able to automatically update your contacts and leads in Salesforce — through forms — so you don’t
have to make manual updates. For that reason, the default setting allows your recipient to edit
prefilled form fields. Conversely, you can select read-only mode to prevent editing of prefilled fields by
end users.
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You can preview the prefilled form by clicking the URL under the respondent’s name.
When your respondent receives your form, the relevant data from your prefilled matches will appear in
the contact details.
…
Regardless of which method you choose, prefilling your forms empowers you to use Truform in
creative ways. Whether you’re prefilling from Truform Tables or pulling information from your CRM to
pre-populate it into a form, prefill enables you to use Truform even more productively and efficiently.
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CSS
Part of going further with your forms is customizing the design elements so you can present your
business, organization, nonprofit, or personal brand in a way that matches your vision. After all, your
forms may be the first impression you make on your target audience and, with Truform, you can make
your vision your reality.
To customize the look and feel of your forms, you can employ Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Used in
conjunction with the primary coding language HTML, or XHTML, CSS handles the design and format
of your web page and simplifies the process of making the page more presentable. For example, CSS
controls the style of fonts, paragraph spacing, how background images or colors are used, and a
variety of other visual effects.
In the Build tab of the Form Builder, there are a couple of ways for you or your developer to access
and update the CSS for your form. The main way is by clicking on the Form Designer icon (the paint
roller) at the top right of the page.
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Once the Form Designer panel is open, go to the Styles tab and scroll down a bit to the Inject Custom
CSS field.
You can either enter your CSS code here or access the Advanced Designer. The Advanced Designer
will open a new screen with a broader CSS module.
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As an example, let’s say you want to change the background color of the form header. The color blue
reinforces a sense of trust for those who see it. So you may want to add code into the Inject Custom
CSS field to give the form header a blue background.
The cool thing about adding CSS code to your form is that it will dynamically update with your
changes as you enter your code. However, to finalize your changes, be sure to click Save.
…
Franz Kafka once said that “productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do
before.”
By adding helpful widgets, payment and collaboration integrations, and advanced functionality to your
forms, you can fully embrace your creativity and open up new pathways of working that are not only
productive, but efficient as well.
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Chapter 7
How to secure your forms
Trust. It’s the basis of any good relationship.
And the relationships you’ve built with your customers, donors, students, peers, or other form
respondents are even more important than family and friends. That’s because your family and friends
will give you another chance.
The moment you ask someone to fill out a form, you’re asking them (implicitly) to trust you with their
personal information, ideas, and thoughts. By doing so, you’re creating a relationship.
We all want to treat those relationships the right way. That means the forms you’re using at the core of
this exchange need to be secure and reliable. Any breach can cause you to lose trust and damage the
relationships you’ve worked so hard to cultivate.
As no-code solutions become more popular, they also become attractive targets for spammers and
hackers looking to take advantage and gain access to data.
Truform now averages more than 1.2 billion form submissions a day. With the amount of data and
information transmitted through forms, security has to be at the forefront of what we do, and this is
true at a website, account, and individual form level.
That’s why, among other security features, Truform has the highest level of mitigation and
multiplatform intrusion detection for DDOS attacks and server monitoring. Now, we know that sounds
like a fancy word salad. Broken down, it basically means we take form security very seriously, and you
should too.
But worry not; we’re here to walk with you through this journey and be your resource for secure forms.
Different organizations have different security needs (i.e., a healthcare organization will need HIPAAcompliant security while a small e-commerce business may be focused on payment data protection).
For this reason, we’ve built the tools to empower you to customize your own settings, so you can
properly secure your forms (and account) to fit your individual business needs.
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What kind of data needs to be secured?
The short answer to this question — when it comes to your customers’ data — is every kind. But
there are certain kinds of data that, due to their sensitive nature, require a heightened level of
security.
Here’s an example of form data types that need extra security:
Health/medical data: Health histories are protected under U.S. HIPAA
laws, which dictate that health information cannot be disclosed
without the patient’s consent.
Financial and tax information: Whether it’s a customer’s or donor’s
social security number, bank records, or salary information, this kind of
data needs a high level of protection internally and externally.
Education or student information: Student grades, behavioral
histories, and counselor records are protected under the U.S. Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Violations could result in
the loss of federal funding for a university.
Personally identifiable information: Generally this covers any
information belonging to an individual, such as address, phone
number, email, birthdate, identification numbers, associated family
information, etc.
Ways Truform helps you secure your forms
There are several measures you can take to secure your form data, form distribution, and account on
the whole. First, it’s helpful to understand the difference between a secure form and an encrypted
form.
Secure forms
By default, all of the forms created within Truform are secured with a 256-bit Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL) connection, so all form submissions are protected according to the industry standard. Forms are
also CCPA compliant. This is a base level of form security that requires no additional action on your
part.
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You can also make your forms GDPR compliant by electing to store data only in Europe, as well as
including a consent checkbox on every form that sends out emails to make sure respondents opt in.
Encrypted forms
Encrypted forms provide an additional layer of security that any account holder, regardless of plan
level, can use to protect form submissions.
In the Truform Form Builder, the Encrypt Form Data option is listed within the Form Settings tab of the
left navigation under Settings (you’ll need to click the Show More Options button to see it).
You can easily generate a private encryption key (download one or upload your own public key) to
access your form’s data. No unauthorized party, not even the Truform system administrator, will be
able to see your data (so it’s very important that you keep your encryption key safe and secure).
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Technically, you shouldn’t share your key with
anyone else. The goal with encryption is total
security.
Whenever you receive new encrypted form
submissions, you’ll be notified by email.
You can enter your personal key to view
the encrypted data in your secure Truform
account.
One final note to be aware of is that encryption does sacrifice some post-submission functionality.
Here are some of the form features that aren’t available with encrypted forms:
· PDF downloads (PDF documents and fillable PDF forms). You can, however, view the data
in Truform’s PDF Editor (and print it).
· Form Reports (Excel, Grid Listing, HTML table, RSS, Calendar). CSV download is available
through Truform Tables only.
· Form Emails (Notification and Autoresponder). Because your private key information
doesn’t hit our servers, this information can’t be sent.
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Password-protected forms
A password for every app is an accepted norm these days, so why not do the same to secure your
forms? Unlike form encryption, using password protection to maintain privacy retains all post-form
submission functionality. Password protection ensures that only the people you want to fill out your
forms will do so, ending any chances of spamming.
Additionally, passwords allow you to get creative in how you use your form. For example, associating a
password with your form can be a cool solution for offering product discounts, providing registrations
to private events, or keeping company information internal.
Similar to encrypted forms, the password protection option is available within the Form Settings tab
under the Show More Options button. Once you set up the password, you’re good to go, and your
recipient will be prompted to enter the password prior to accessing your form.
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And don’t worry, if you somehow forget your password, you can go back and reset it later.
Did you know?
For an extra measure of security, you can also password protect the PDF
attachments of the user’s submission(s). Simply enable password protection
in the advanced email settings for the form.
PCI certification for credit card payments
In the last chapter, we touched on accepting payments with your forms. Collecting credit card
payments for your orders, invoices, donations, and bookings means it’s all the more important for you
to protect your customer’s credit card information. Truform has security processes in place to do just
that.
All of your online forms are PCI DSS Service Provider Level I compliant (the security standard set by
the major global credit card companies and the highest security rating available). This essentially
means your customers’ data will remain safe as they use your payment forms.
Conveniently, you can choose from 30+ different payment gateways to use in conjunction with your
forms. And while most of the payment flows are completely handled by your chosen third-party
processor, for those that aren’t — PayPal Pro, Authorize.net, Card Connect, and Braintree — the users’
credit card information is processed over our PCI servers but never stored in any way.
Data and privacy regulations and what they mean
With the advent of the digital age, and the amount of data being transferred across our connected
world in the cloud, we need technological standards at both a governmental and geographic level.
These standards not only prescribe minimum levels of security for the companies collecting
information, but they also provide crucial protections and privacy for the individuals providing their
data.
When you start diving into the regulations, it’s easy to get lost in all the acronyms, but let’s take a
quick look at what they are and what they mean for your organization.
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Data/Privacy
Regulation
What is it?
What does it mean to
you?
HIPAA
The U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act protects individuals’ personal information and health
records. HIPAA requires healthcare institutions and
organizations that handle health and medical records
to follow certain standards in order to safeguard this
information.
This regulation mainly applies to
healthcare-related companies, but if
your organization collects any type of
medical records or health data, you’ll
need to ensure you abide by HIPAA
guidelines. Visit Truform’s pricing page at
Truform.com/pricing/ to see which plans
provide HIPAA compliance.
In 2016, the European Union and the United Kingdom
approved the General Data Protection Regulation, or
GDPR, although it didn’t go into full effect until 2018.
Designed to give consumers more control over how
their personal data is used by companies, GDPR sets
guidelines for the collection and processing of personally
identifiable information of individuals who live in (and
outside) of the European Union.
Companies that have any EU-based
customers will have to abide by GDPR
regulations, regardless of where their
websites are based. Moreover, under
GDPR, if a company experiences a data
breach, it must inform its EU and U.K.
consumers about what’s being done with
their data.
Health Insurance
Portability and
Accountability
Act
GDPR
General Data
Protection
Regulation
Conveniently, Truform makes it easy for
you to show that you use the site in a
GDPR-compliant way. We provide a Data
Processing Addendum (DPA), a selfserve and easy-to-execute document
presigned by Truform. Once the DPA
is filled out, electronically signed, and
submitted, it will automatically be sent to
us so there’s a record that this important
document was put in place.
CCPA
California
Consumer
Privacy Act
The California Consumer Privacy Act (or CCPA) went into
effect in 2020 and aims to protect the on- and offline
data of consumers in the state of California. Under the
CCPA, California consumers can opt out of the sale of
their personal data, which can include anything defined
as PII (personally identifiable information).
Though the CCPA and GDPR have a lot in common,
the CCPA protects consumers a bit more by requiring
businesses to
Truform complies with the CCPA and
never sells users’ data to third-party
organizations without their permission.
Any organization collecting data should
ensure it’s abiding by the guidelines of
the CCPA and giving users the option to
opt out of the sale of their data and an
opportunity to understand how it’s being
used or shared.
·
Include a “Do not sell my personal information” link
on their websites and privacy notices
·
FERPA
Family
Educational
Rights and
Privacy Act
Describe the data they share with service providers
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a
U.S. federal law mandating that parents have a right to
access their children’s education records, have those
records amended, and have control over their children’s
related PII. The law prohibits the sharing of that data
without a parent’s written permission. When eligible
students turn 18, or enter postsecondary education at
any age, these rights then pass to them.
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If you’re an administrator in a learning
institution or even a teacher using
forms for online quizzes, data records
for students must be protected at
all levels. Violations of FERPA can
restrict funding for your institution.
And because this robust law contains
pretty dense language, Truform offers
a comprehensive guide to help you
understand it in more detail.
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Securing form distribution
Whether it’s form access, form submissions, or your account, there are certain proactive steps you
can take to ensure you’re protecting everyone as much as possible.
Form access
When you’re ready to distribute your form, one of the simplest security measures is selecting the right
access setting. You have three settings to choose from, and it may be helpful to understand what
makes them different and in which scenario you might want to use each:
· Public access. Available to anyone, public access is the default access setting and is usually
used for very general forms, such as contact us forms, order forms, or other open forum needs.
· Private access. A private form is available only to recipients you have specifically invited to
fill out the form. These are best used in scenarios like conducting research among a limited
number of respondents or giving a test or quiz to students in a certain class or institution.
· Company access. To limit form access only to those within an organization, you can choose
company access. Examples of this kind of usage are internal-only forms like employee reviews,
bug or issue trackers, audits, inspection forms, and so on.
Public and Private access are pretty straightforward. However, with Company access, there are two
access permissions you can give. The first requires all respondents to have the same organizational
email domain. The second deals with single sign-on (SSO), which requires an Enterprise account.
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Form submissions
Spam and phishing attacks can, at best, clog up your inbox and confuse your team; at worst, they
create security leaks (if responded to). So it can’t hurt to provide another layer of security that
extends all the way to the form submissions you receive.
To combat spam submissions, there are Captchas and widgets you can use in your form. Here are a
couple:
· Truform Captcha. Captchas are a good way to authenticate your form users. By requiring users
to perform a simple yet randomly generated action, Captchas determine that your user is real
and not a bot. For convenience, our Captcha is a basic form element you can drag and drop into
your form.
·
Captcha widgets. We also have Captcha widgets that prompt the user to draw
something or solve a math problem.
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· Email validation widgets. Another cool way to authenticate your form users is by validating
the email address used in your form. Validation widgets like XVerify and the Email Validator are
great at automatically checking the validity of the address entered. This way, your user will be
required to enter a valid email prior to submitting the form.
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Pro tip
Another way to control your form submissions and perform quality control
on surveys is to disable your form after you’ve received a certain number
of submissions. Simply go to the Settings tab and click the Form Status
dropdown button. Choose Disable on Submission Limit from the dropdown,
and then set it to your desired number.
Securing your account
Finally, to properly secure your forms, it’s important to secure your Truform account as a whole. At this
point, most folks have experienced a version of digital security training, courtesy of your company,
your school, or another organization. You may be aware that one of the best practices from these
training sessions is the idea that you should never share your account credentials or logins (or reuse
passwords).
And with good reason.
Shared login credentials can end up in the hands of bad actors; or former employees can continue to
access sensitive company (and customer) information well after they’ve left your organization. Either
situation can negatively affect your organization.
Truform also carries out some proprietary security measures aimed at securing your account. For
example, the data within your account is continuously backed up in real time between multiple servers
hosted by Google Cloud. That data is also replicated to AWS servers by way of hourly snapshots to
ensure data redundancy through diversification.
Truform is serious about its commitment to industry-leading security protocols. If any issues ever
arise in Truform’s online platform or mobile apps, our 24-7 support professionals will work with you to
understand and identify the problem and take the proper steps to rectify the situation.
...
In an age when so much information is constantly exchanged, especially for business, forms can seem
like a throwback. But online forms help you collect the information you need to get things done without
paper, bottlenecks, or manual and error-prone data entry.
Now that you know how to build and distribute secure online forms, access your submission data, as
well as how to use forms to facilitate communication, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.
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