Forms
How to manage your forms: read the list (public link, submissions, workflow and spam protection for each form), add a Primary or Update form, copy a form’s link, preview it and get its website code, search, filter and sort, drag to reorder, duplicate and delete forms, and spot forms with no spam protection.
On this page
A form is how leads get into your account without anyone typing them in. You put a form on your website, a visitor fills it in, and a new lead appears in OpenLeads with everything they entered. The Manage Forms page lists every form in your account and shows, at a glance, where each one lives, what it is made of, and how much it is being used.
The page was rebuilt. Each form now shows its public link with a one-click copy button, the number of submissions and when the last one came in, the workflow it starts, and the spam protection that is turned on. You can search, filter, sort, drag to reorder, duplicate a form, and add or delete one without leaving the page.
To get here, go to Settings and click Forms.
The page uses your account’s own names. If your account calls Forms something else, you will see that name in the tab and on the buttons instead. The forms in these pictures are examples.
The page at a glance
From top to bottom, the page has three parts:
- The toolbar – go back to Settings, add a form, open your form styles, or open Help.
- Search, filters and Sort – find a form by name or ID, show only one kind of form, and sort the list.
- The list – one row per form, with its link, its submissions and the things you can do with it.
The toolbar
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Account Settings | Goes back to the Settings page. |
| Add Form | Opens the window for creating a new form. See Adding a form below. |
| Manage Styles | Opens Form Styles, where you set the logo, colors, font and button that your forms use. |
| Help | Offers a short guided tour of the page, or opens this guide. |
Reading the list
Each row is one form. Reading across, a row tells you what the form is, where it lives, how busy it is, when it was made, and what you can do with it.
Form
The name of the form. Click the name to open the form and change its fields and settings.
Small tags can appear next to the name:
| Tag | What it means |
|---|---|
| Update | This form updates a lead you already have, instead of creating a new one. See Primary and Update forms below. |
| Private | This form has no public link. |
| Hidden from Add Lead | This form is not offered when someone on your team adds a lead by hand. |
The line under the name tells you what the form is made of:
| You see | What it means |
|---|---|
| 13 fields | How many fields are on the form. A new form with nothing on it says No fields yet in orange. |
| A workflow name | The workflow that starts each time the form is submitted. Nothing is shown when the form has no workflow. |
| A green shield | The spam protection that is turned on: reCAPTCHA, CAPTCHA, Honeypot, or more than one. |
| No spam protection | In orange. The form is open to the public, creates leads, and has no spam protection turned on. |
| 212 blocked | How many submissions the spam protection has stopped. |
Public link
The web address of the live form. This is the address you give to people, or link to from your website.
- Click the address to open the live form in a new tab.
- Click the chain button next to it to copy the address. A green message confirms it was copied, and you can paste it into an email, a text or a social post.
- A private form shows Private, no public link instead.
Submissions
How much the form has been used.
- The number is how many times the form has been submitted.
- The bar compares the form with your busiest one. The busiest form has a full bar.
- Last tells you when the most recent submission came in. Hold your mouse over it for the exact date and time.
- None yet means nobody has submitted the form so far.
The total for all of your forms is shown at the top of the page, next to the filter buttons.
For a form that creates leads, the number counts every lead that came in through it. For an Update form, it counts every time the form was submitted, and no “Last” time is shown.
Created
The day the form was made. Hold your mouse over the date for the time as well.
Actions
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| The eye | Preview. Opens the form in a new tab so you can see it the way a visitor does. |
| The brackets | Get the code. Opens a window with the form’s HTML source, for a web designer who wants to build the form into your own website. |
| The two pages | Duplicate. Makes a copy of the form. See Duplicating a form below. |
| The pencil | Edit. Opens the form, the same as clicking its name. |
| The bin | Delete. Deletes the form, after asking you to confirm. See Deleting a form below. |
Primary and Update forms
There are two kinds of form, and the difference matters.
| Kind | What it does | How people reach it |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Creates a new lead each time it is submitted. Most forms are primary forms. | Through its public link, or on your website. |
| Update | Updates a lead you already have. Use it to ask someone for more details, or to let them correct what you have on file. | Through a link you send them in a message. The link is tied to their lead, so the answers go to the right person. |
Update forms carry an Update tag in the list. To send one, open the form: its page shows the link to put in your message.
You choose the kind when you add a form, and you can change it later on the form’s own page.
Adding a form
- Click Add Form in the toolbar.
- Type a name. Only you and your team see it, so call it something you will recognize, such as “Website Contact Us Form”.
- Choose what it should do: Primary or Update.
- Click Create and open.
The form is created and opened straight away, so you can add its fields. A new form is placed at the end of your list.
A name can be up to 100 characters. If the name is left empty, the window tells you and nothing is created.
Putting a form to work
Once a form has its fields, there are three ways to get it in front of people.
Share the link
Click the chain button in the Public link column to copy the form’s address, then paste it wherever you need it. This is the quickest way to share a form.
Put it on your website
Open the form by clicking its name. Its page gives you a short piece of code to paste into a page of your website, which shows the form right there.
If your web designer would rather build the form into your site themselves, click the brackets button on the form’s row. It opens the form’s HTML source for them to work from.
Check it first
Click the eye on the form’s row to preview it before you send it to anyone. The preview opens in a new tab.
Spam protection
A form on the open web will sooner or later be found by spam robots. The list shows which forms are protected, so you do not have to open each one to check.
| Protection | How it works |
|---|---|
| reCAPTCHA | Asks the visitor to confirm they are not a robot. |
| CAPTCHA | Asks the visitor to type the characters shown in a picture. |
| Honeypot | Adds a hidden trap that people never see and robots fill in. Visitors do not have to do anything. |
A protected form shows a green shield with the protection it uses. Next to it, blocked tells you how many submissions have been stopped.
To see only the forms that need attention, click the No spam protection button at the top of the page.
To protect a form, open it and turn on reCAPTCHA, CAPTCHA or the Honeypot in its settings.
The No spam protection button only appears when at least one form needs it. Private forms and Update forms are not flagged.
Finding forms: search and filters
Search
Start typing in the search box. The list narrows as you type, and it matches both the name of a form and its ID number. Click the X next to the box to clear the search.
Filters
The buttons next to the search box show one kind of form at a time. The number on each button is how many forms it holds.
| Button | Shows |
|---|---|
| All | Every form. |
| Primary | Forms that create a new lead. |
| Update | Forms that update a lead you already have. |
| No spam protection | Public forms that create leads and have no spam protection turned on. |
While a search or a filter is on, the text next to the buttons tells you how many forms are showing, for example Showing 2 of 9.
Changing the order
The order of the list is yours to set, and it is saved for everyone in your account.
Drag a form
Each row has a small handle on its left edge. Press on it, drag the row up or down, and let go. The new order is saved straight away.
Dragging works on the whole list. While you are searching, or looking at one kind of form, the handles are hidden. Click All and clear the search to bring them back.
Sort the whole list
Click Sort to reorder every form in one go:
- Name, A to Z
- Name, Z to A
- Newest first – the most recently created form at the top.
- Most submissions first – your busiest form at the top.
Sorting changes the saved order, the same as dragging does. You can still drag a form afterwards to fine-tune it.
Duplicating a form
When you need a form that is nearly the same as one you already have, copy it instead of building it again.
- Find the form in the list.
- Click the two pages on its row.
The copy appears directly under the original, highlighted in green for a moment, with (Copy) added to its name.
- The copy has the same fields and the same settings as the original.
- It gets its own public link, and its submissions start at zero.
- Click its name to open it, rename it, and change whatever needs to be different.
If a field on the original uses a Dynamic Workflow Trigger, open that field on the copy and set the rule again.
Deleting a form
- Click the bin on the form’s row.
- Read the message. It tells you what will stop working and how many submissions the form has had.
- Click Delete to go ahead, or Cancel to keep the form.
Deleting a form cannot be undone. Before you delete one, keep in mind:
- Its public link stops working, and so does any copy of the form on your website.
- For an Update form, any message that links to it will stop working.
- If you only want a fresh start, duplicate the form first and delete the old one once the new one is in place.
Form styles
A style is the look of a form: your logo above the fields, your colors, your font and your own button. One style can be shared by as many forms as you like, so changing the style changes all of them together.
Click Manage Styles in the toolbar to create and edit styles. To choose which style a form uses, open the form.
Who can change forms
Adding, editing, duplicating, reordering and deleting forms all need the Manage Forms permission.
Without it, you can still open this page and see the list, but it is view-only:
- A note at the top of the page tells you that you cannot manage forms.
- The Add Form, Manage Styles and Sort buttons are not shown, and there are no drag handles.
- Form names are not links, and the only action on each row is Preview.
If you need to manage forms, ask your account administrator for the permission.
On a phone or a small screen
The page works on a phone. The columns stack, so each form becomes its own small block with the name on top, then the link, the submissions, the date and the action buttons.
Help and the tour
Click Help in the toolbar for two choices:
- Take the tour walks you through the page in about a minute. It points at each part in turn and explains it.
- Open the help guide opens this guide.
Use Next and Back to move through the tour, or the X to leave it. You can take it again at any time.
Tips
- Give forms clear names that say where they are used, such as “Website Contact Us Form” or “Open House Sign In”. The name is only seen by your team.
- Look at Last now and then. A form that has been quiet for weeks may have been removed from your website by mistake.
- Click No spam protection once in a while and protect anything it finds. The Honeypot is the easiest to turn on, because visitors never see it.
- Always preview a form after changing it, before you send the link to anyone.
- Put the forms you use most at the top of the list, so they are the first ones your team sees.
- To try out a change safely, duplicate the form and make the change on the copy.
- Before deleting a form, check its submissions and when the last one came in. If it is still being used, it is still on a web page somewhere.