Create a form

• Plan your form
• Create your form
• Add elements to your form
• Organize your form
• Navigate the form builder page bar
• Save your form

Forms add style and structure to the way users edit, view, and add records in an app. Whether you're collecting new patient data, managing client contacts, or building an interactive inventory for construction materials, Quickbase forms create an easier data entry experience.

Forms are quick to create with the drag-and-drop, what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) form builder. You can customize, organize, and style your form to best suit your team's needs.

To use forms, you'll need an app with at least one table that has the fields you need to capture your intended data. For example, if you're creating a form to capture property details, like:

• Property description
• Year of construction
• Square footage
• Land acreage

You'll need to create a table with: 

• A text field for the property description.
• Numeric fields for year of construction, square footage, and land acreage.

You can also add new fields to your table without leaving the form builder canvas by using the quick add menu. 

Plan your form

Think about how you want your form to look and behave.

• How would you like to order your fields?
• Do you want display different fields on different pages of your form?
• Would you like to set forms as default for different roles or display certain fields when a record is being edited or viewed?
• Would you like to add color to your form to draw attention to certain data?

Once you have a good idea of how you want users to interact with your form, it’s time to start building!

Create your form

Select the table you’d like to use to create your form and go to the Table settings.

In the User interface column, you’ll find forms. Click +New to create your new form. This will open a blank form builder canvas. The form builder canvas (1) is your workspace. A new form starts with one section (2) and one column (3) on the canvas.

Add elements to your form

A form element is a field or component. 

1. Select Click to add here to add a form element to your canvas. This will open the quick add menu with a list of form elements for Table fields and Components.
2. Browse or search for the form elements you’d like to add and select them from the list. Select one or multiple form elements and click Add selected.

Note: Form elements will be added to your form in the order they were selected, with the first element selected at the top.

You can reorder elements by dragging and dropping them where you want them to appear on your form. Drag an element into an empty space in a section to create a new column. You can make changes to how your form element displays and behaves in the form element’s settings menu. Open it by clicking anywhere on the form element of your choice.

Organize your form

Group elements together

Grouped elements display horizontally on the same row when column width allows and stay together if you move them. Drag and drop one element on top of another to group them. 

Add columns, sections, and pages

Columns

Columns divide your form elements in each section.

• Click the Add column icon in a section to add another column.
• Adjust the width by dragging the column border. Note: Grouped elements will wrap to the next line when columns are too narrow to display them side by side.
• Change the color of a column and add a column heading in the column settings.

Sections

A section is a visually distinct container for your form’s columns. Sections fill the full width of the form canvas and expand vertically to accommodate the height of the columns they contain.

• Click Add section to add a new section to your form.
• Reorder sections in the section settings.
• Add a heading to help users understand what type of data they can find in each section. For example, in an inventory form you might create a section with the header "Purchase order details".

Pages

Pages display elements, columns, and sections on different pages that your end users can either tab or step through. For example, you can create a form that separates property overview information like square footage and year of construction from details like that date and time of recent showings. 

Adding two or more pages to your form will activate the form navigation at the top of the page. Click the page tab to jump between pages or scroll down to the page tab you want. You can drag and drop page tabs in the form navigation bar to reorder your pages. Pages can collapse and expand on the canvas to make it easier to build and edit complex forms.

• Select Add page to add a new page to your form.
• In the page settings, you can:
  • Choose to display pages as tabs or numbered steps.
  • Add a color to the page tabs.
  • Reorder pages
  • Add headings to pages

Using the form builder page bar

Manage your form on the fly with the quick actions in the form builder page bar.

• Click the form name to edit it.
• The settings icon opens the Form settings.
• The Undo and Redo buttons can help you avoid mistakes while building.
• Preview your form to see how it will look to end users.
• Customizable form rules control how your form will behave. Select Form rules to open the form rules builder. This is where you can create, edit, and view form rules.

Save your form

you’re ready to save your form, select Create form in the page bar to save the form and return to the forms page. If you’d like to stay in the form builder, click the arrow in the Create form button to expand the save menu and select Save and keep working.

View and edit your new form in your table settings under Forms.