Here, we list down twelve tips you can use to create better forms with Jotform.

1. Change the Look and Feel of Your Forms With Themes

Jotform gives you complete control over the design of your forms, not just the colors. It has a theme store with several stunning themes for your forms.

The themes are categorized by their style and events, so you can easily find a suitable one for your form. Moreover, you can tweak the colors and style of these themes to suit your needs.

Most of the themes are free to use, but you need to pay a few dollars to use premium themes.

2. Use Conditional Logic

Using Jotform, you can use if-then conditions to build smart forms. These conditional forms change their behavior based on the respondent’s selections.

By using conditional logic, you can skip pages, show different questions to different people, add more form fields, do calculations, and display different notes- all depending on the answers.

You can also change the recipients of email notifications, depending on the selected choices. Thanks to logic, you can collect data more efficiently without turning off your respondents with irrelevant or too many questions.

3. Make Card Type Forms

Jotform offers two types of forms: Classic and Card. The Classic form displays all the questions on a single page, while the Card form shows one question per page.

The Card type forms provide some more features compared to traditional ones. Using Card forms, you can add an emoji-slider for ratings, use micro-animations, and verify email addresses instantly.

You can also use the different embedding features and allow respondents to continue filling forms later. Card forms can increase your completion rates and are a good option for shorter forms.

4. Add Widgets to Your Forms

To add more functionalities to your forms, you can use the Jotform Widgets. There are multiple widgets available for different purposes like analytics, rich content, video, verification, calculations, mapping, etc.

Some of the most useful ones are e-signature, inventory, terms and conditions, PDF embedder, and form calculations.

5. Integrate Forms With Other Apps

Jotform also lets you integrate your forms with a ton of other apps to streamline your workflow. On its Form Integrations page, you can find all the apps that are available for integration with Jotform.

The popular apps include Google Sheets, HubSpot, Airtable, Google Calendar, Dropbox, Mailchimp, and others. You can search these apps by categories, industries, and platforms.

6. Create Fillable PDF Forms

Other than online forms, you can create fillable PDF forms using Jotform’s powerful PDF editor.

Your respondents can fill these forms on any device without the internet and send them to you afterward. You can add different form fields to your PDF forms, make fields mandatory to fill, and insert a signature field.

If you already have a PDF form, you can convert it into a fillable one using Jotform. Although web forms offer more functionalities, PDF format works better in some cases.

7. Add CAPTCHA to Avoid Spam

When you’re posting a form on your website, there are chances of bots filling them and spamming your inbox. If you fear receiving automated responses, you can add CAPTCHA to your forms to protect yourself from spam.

This little feature helps you collect more accurate information, keeping the bots away. The different types of CAPTCHA available are:

reCAPTCHA Math Captcha JotCaptcha Drawing Captcha hCaptcha

8. Add Rating Fields

If you’re creating surveys, you can ask respondents for ratings. There are two types of ratings: star and scale. Star ratings let users rate based on the stars. You can set the numbers of stars, change the rating style, and add a sub-label.

On the other hand, scale rating asks users to choose a number between two values. You can pick the starting and ending values and specify what highest and lowest values represent.

To ask respondents for ratings of multiple things, you can also add an input table. Furthermore, you can keep the rows and columns of your choice and choose different input types like radio, checkbox, numeric, and dropdown. This feature is especially useful for satisfaction surveys.

9. Prefill Forms Fields

To make things easier for your respondents, you can use Prefill Forms feature. There are multiple sources from where you can prepopulate your forms.

You can integrate your forms with CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce, generate a custom URL for a prefilled form and send it to your customers. You can also prepopulate fields from previous forms or tables by matching fields.

Moreover, there’s an option to manually prefill the forms before sending them. This feature spares your respondents the tasks of re-entering basic information and increases the response rates.

10. Protect Your Forms With a Password

If you want only selected people to fill your form, you can protect it with a password. This way, only those who enter the password can access and submit your form.

Using password protection, you make forms for limited time/customers offers, surveys within the company, and other private forms. You can also email a password-protected copy of the filled forms to your respondents.

Similarly, you can encrypt the form responses so that only you can view the sensitive information.

11. Create Polls

If you are building surveys to learn about your audience’s opinions or choices, it is worth adding a poll. Using JotPoll, you can easily add a poll to your Jotform forms.

The upside of using a poll is that your respondent can view the results chart, total votes, and the percentage in real-time.

12. Receive Payments With Jotform

Jotform also offers multiple payments widgets that let you receive payment directly from your forms. For this purpose, you can choose from a wide range of payment gateways, notably PayPal, Stripe, and Square.

If you are building forms for event registration, training applications, or bookings, this feature can come in handy.

Make the Most Out Of Jotform

For anyone who creates professional forms often, it is worth exploring Jotform and testing all its features. The above-mentioned tips can help you get started with experimentation and create better forms.

This will not only help you leave a better impression on your clients/colleagues, but also reduce your workload with integrations.