Create and Add Forms

Gravity Forms is a versatile plugin that allows users to create forms. Forms can include conditional logic and the responses are saved in the WordPress system but can also be sent to one or more recipients via email.

For more information please visit the Gravity Forms User Guide.

Gravity Forms Tool Video Tutorial

Note: This video is from a third-party services and may not completely reflect the type of content and/or functionality of  Tufts University’s JumboPress.

Video guide

• 0:00 – Create a new from & form fields
• 1:32 – Adding and deleting a field
• 3:00 – Simple contact form, field options, make a field required, field description
• 5:44 – Radio buttons, checkboxes, multi-select dropdown fields
• 7:00 – Preview form
• 7:20 – Reorder fields
• 7:35 – Form settings
• 8:50 – Confirmation settings
• 10:15 – Notifications settings
• 15:20 – View form entries

Create a New Form

1. Select Forms → ‘New Form’
2. Enter ‘Form Title’ (required) and ‘Description’ (optional)
3. Click on ‘Create Form’ and you will be redirected to the ‘Form Editor’

Populate/Edit a Form:

4. In the ‘Form Editor’, click on the type of field you would like to add. It will be added to the bottom of your form.
5. To edit individual form fields, click the field to expand its options.
6. To re-order fields on your form, drag and drop to arrange them in the desired order.
7. When you are finished, click the ‘Update Form’ button to save your form.

Set Form Submission notification:

8. Before leaving hover over ‘Form Settings’ and click on ‘Notifications’
9. Set up a new notification to someone on your team to receive a notification when someone submits a form.
10. Click on ‘Save Notification’
11. The new form is now complete. There other options such as custom confirmation messages and scheduling you form under ‘Form Settings’

Note: Gravity Forms Checkboxes are binary, for example: Enabled/Disabled, Yes/No, etc. Although they provide multiple options, the first option is considered the desired field, and its name will be displayed as the field name in admin reports. If you wish to have a multiple choice field, use the Multiple Choice field type.

Conditional Logic:

Conditional logic allows you to make your form more dynamic and show different fields depending on what a user may select in something like a dropdown menu.

Note: This video is from a third-party services and may not completely reflect the type of content and/or functionality of  Tufts University’s JumboPress.

Settings

Form Settings

This section allows you to edit the Form Name and Description, the form layout, what the submit button says and even allows you to schedule a specific amount of time the form is available to users.

Note: Always click on ‘Update Form Settings’ before moving on to a different screen or section if you have made any changes.

Confirmations

A confirmation is the message the user sees once they submit a form. This can be customized per form and can even have a conditional statement, so that depending on the user’s answers a corresponding message appears.

To create a confirmation:

1. Create or Edit a form
2. Hover over ‘Form Settings’ and click on ‘Confirmations’
3. Enter a tile and the message at minimum. Add conditional logic if desired.
4. Click on ‘Save Confirmation’

Notifications

Notifications enable you to manage communication that takes place as a result of a form submission. This allows you automatically to send an email to:

• The user immediately after a form is submitted.
• An administrator with the contents of the submitted form.

Notifications to Administrator or Users

To enable email notification to administrators or users, click Add New and configure the following settings:

• Send to Email
  • Enter the email address you would like to receive the notification.
  • You may optionally select Routing which allows you to route the email based on field selections.
• Subject
  • Enter the subject you would like used for the notification email.
  • You may optionally insert form field variables in this field using the included Insert Form Field drop down.
• Message
  • Enter the body message you would like used for the notification email.
  • You may optionally insert form field variables in this field using the included Insert Form Field drop down.
• Disable Auto-Formatting
  • When enabled, auto-formatting will insert paragraph breaks automatically. Disable auto-formatting when using HTML to create email notification content.
  • Save the changes

To finish click ‘Update Notifications’

Note: You will likely create one notification for administrators and then repeat all steps to create another customized notification for users.

Entries

The Entries page displays all entries generated by form submissions. From this screen you can browse, sort, and modify entries.

Embedding a Form on a Page

Create the shortcode using either the shortcode builder, or by entering it manually.

Using the Shortcode Builder

1. Position your cursor on the page or sidebar where you want to insert the form.
2. Click the ‘Add Gravity Form’ tool on the toolbar.
3. Select the form to insert from the dropdown list. Form options:
   1. Display form title: Checking this option will display the form title.
   2. Display form description: Checking this option will display the form description.
   3. Enable AJAX: Checking this option will enable your form to be submitted via AJAX. Submitting the form via AJAX allows the form to be submitted without requiring a page refresh.

Important: due to limitations with reCAPTCHA, forms containing a reCAPTCHA field will not be submitted via AJAX even if this option is enabled.

Entering Shortcode Manually

Use the format and options as in the following example:

[ gravityform id=1 title=false description=false ajax=true ]

Note: The form ID is required.

You can also specify the tabindex option to specify the starting tab index for the fields of this form.

Edit an Existing Form

To edit an existing form select ‘Forms’ on the vertical toolbar in the dashboard. The Forms page displays a list of all your forms. You can manage and edit your existing forms, you can also get basic analytics on the form usage.

Forms Page Fields

The following fields are displayed:

Form Editing Options from Forms Page

Hover over a form in the list to see the form options. The options are:

• Edit: Edit the form using the form editor.
• Settings: Edit the forms settings including form settings, confirmations, and notifications.
• Entries: View the entries for this form (see details later in this document).
• Preview: Preview the form to see how it will look to the end user. This can also be used to test the form.
• Trash: Delete a form and ALL entry data associated with the form.

Once you have edited a form save your changes by clicking ‘Update Form’.

Import/Export Forms

You can import and export the following from Forms → Import/Export:

• Export Entries
• Export forms
• Import Forms

Export Entries

The Export Entries tool allows you to export your form entry data as a CSV file which can be opened in Excel.

1. Select Forms → ‘Import/Export’.
2. The Import/Export page defaults to the ‘Export’ tab.
3. Select the form from which you would like to export entries.
4. Check the checkbox next to each field for which you would like to export entry data.
5. You can optionally specify a date range.
6. When you are ready, click ‘Download Export File’.

Export Forms

The Export Forms tool allows you to export your forms as a XML file.

1. Select the ‘Export Forms’ tab.
2. Check the checkbox next to each form you would like to export.
3. Click ‘Download Export File’.

Import Forms

The Import Forms tool allows you to import from XML files. This is useful for transferring forms from one Gravity Forms installation to another.

1. Select the ‘Import Forms’ tab.
2. Select the Gravity Forms XML file you would like to import.
3. Click ‘Import’.