How to create a new form with Jotform

Data is everything to so many businesses. No matter the size of your organization, you probably need to collect information either from customers, clients or even in-house staff. But how do you accomplish such a task?

One of the easiest methods of collecting data lies in the form. A form is a questionnaire you fill out that allows users to answer questions and submit those answers to you, where you collect the data to better understand your audience and make better-informed business decisions. Or, you could use a form to collect payment for products and services. Either way you use them, forms are a great tool for your business.

SEE: Hiring Kit: Database engineer (TechRepublic Premium)

Jotform is a great way to handle this process. Jotform features conditional logic, save and continue, form translation, ACH Payments, Google Analytics form tracking, offline forms, drag-and-drop creation, custom CSS, embedded forms, answer piping, customer relationship management integrations, Google reCAPTCHA, form management, email validation, recurring donations, electronic signatures, pre-populate forms, and much more.

Jotform offers four levels of pricing:

• Free: 5 forms per month
• Bronze: $19.50 per month for 25 forms per month
• Silver: $24.50 per month for 50 forms per month
• Gold: $64.50 for 100 forms per month

Now that your interest is piqued, let’s take a look and see just how easy it is to create a form with Jotform.

What you’ll need to create your first form with Jotform?

The only thing you’ll need for this is a valid Jotform account. Sign up for the Starter plan (free) to see if this service is right for your company.

How to create your first form

Log in to your Jotform account, and click CREATE FORM in the upper left corner (Figure A).

Figure A

In the resulting window (Figure B), you can either create a form from scratch, use a template, import a form or create a signable document.

Figure B

I suggest you select Use Template for your first form. Not only will this make learning the platform easier, but it’ll also give you some great ideas on how you can leverage forms for your business.

Scroll through the templates (Figure C), find a template that best suits your needs, and click Use Template. I’m going to select the Customer Registration Form.

Figure C

One of the first things asked for in the Customer Registration Form is the uploading of your organization’s logo (Figure D).

Figure D

Once you’ve added your logo, click Save.

With your logo now in place, you can begin customizing all of the elements within the form and even add some of your own. The first thing I might do with the Customer Registration Form is to change the requirement of the Phone Number. By default, the phone number is a required option for this form. To change that, click on the Phone Number element and then click the gear icon (Figure E).

Figure E

A new sidebar will open (Figure F), where you can change any aspect of the element. For me, I’ll unset the requirement option by clicking the associated ON/OFF slider until it’s in the OFF position.

Figure F

You can also add new elements to the template form. For that, click Add Form Element in the upper left corner (Figure G).

Figure G

A new sidebar will open (Figure H), where you can select from a good number of elements to add.

Figure H

Click and drag the new element to the proper position on the form. You can then customize the new element as needed (Figure I).

Figure I

When you’ve finished with all of the elements, click the SETTINGS tab at the top, and give the form a title and select the status (Figure J).

Figure J

If you click SHOW MORE OPTIONS, you’ll get access to warnings, language, translations, password protection and encryption.

At any time, you can click the Preview Form slider to see what the published form will look like. When you’re happy with it, click the PUBLISH tab, which will present you will four different ways to share the form:

• Link
• Email
• Social networking
• Creating an app

Share the form with your customers, clients, staff or whoever you need to collect data from. Then, sit back, and wait for the responses to start rolling in.

Jotform is a great way to collect data from those who use your company, might use your company in the future or who work for your company. Whomever you need to collect data from, Jotform can help you.

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