What is Gravity Forms for WordPress?

pen and envelope

Easily create powerful web forms. Requires a paid subscription.

More Info

https://www.gravityforms.com/
https://docs.gravityforms.com/

Initial Configuration

Forms > Settings

  1. Enter a paid license key and click Next.
  2. Make sure Keep background updates enabled is checked and click Next.
  3. Select a currency.
  4. For No-Conflict Mode, enable On.
  5. If there’s an Akismet Integration option, choose Yes and click Next.
  6. Optionally, create your first form or click another menu item to skip for now.

Usage

Forms > New Form

When you click New Form, a pop-up window asks for a Form Title and Description. When you embed a form into a page/post, you’ll have the option of showing this title and/or description.

  1. Form Title: Enter something descriptive, such as Request Free eBook.
  2. Description: Enter a description such as Please fill out the form below to receive your free ebook. Your email will not be shared. *Required field.
  3. Once you click Create Form, you’ll be taken to the form editing page.
  4. On the form editing page, you can add fields to your form by clicking on the ones in the right-hand side. In addition to Standard Fields, there are Advanced Fields which are tailored to very specific types of user input such as name, phone, email, or physical address.
  5. When you click on a field, it appears on the left side. If you hover over it, you’ll have a few options in the right corner: expand/collapse, duplicate, and delete.
  6. Click on expand to show more options. Various fields have different options, but here are some of the more common ones:
    • General (tab)
      • Field label: (recommended) this is the field title the user will see when filling out the form.
      • Description: this will be displayed to the user and provide some direction on how the field should be filled out or selected.
      • Maximum Characters: (optional) enter the maximum number of characters that this field is allowed to have.
      • Required: check to make this field required. An asterisk (*) will appear next to the field label.
    • Appearance (tab)
      • Placeholder: use to give a hint at the expected value or format. The placeholder will not be submitted along with the form.
      • Description Placement: can be placed above or below the field inputs.
      • Validation Message: if you would like to override the default error validation for a field, enter it here. This message will be displayed if there is an error with this field when the user submits the form.
      • CSS Class Name: enter the CSS class name you would like to use in order to override the default styles for this field. You can use Gravity Forms’ CSS Ready Classes for easy advanced layouts: https://docs.gravityforms.com/css-ready-classes/
      • Field Size: select a form field size from the available options. This will set the width of the field. Please note: if using a paragraph field, the size applies only to the height of the field.
    • Advanced (tab)
      • Default Value: if you would like to pre-populate the value of a field, enter it here. Unlike the placeholder value, this value is submitted along with the form unless the user changes it.
      • Enable Password Input: check if you want the field to act like a password field where asterisks (*) cover the actual value entered by the user. The actual value is submitted along with the form.
      • Visibility: select the visibility for this field.
        • Visible: (default option) the field is visible when viewing the form.
        • Hidden: the field is hidden when viewing the form. Useful when you require the functionality of this field but do not want the user to be able to see this field.
        • Administrative: the field is only visible when administering submitted entries. The field is not visible or functional when viewing the form.
      • Enable Conditional Logic: check to set up a condition where this field’s visibility depends on other field(s) values. For more information, visit: https://docs.gravityforms.com/enable-conditional-logic/
      • Click Update Form to save your changes.

Forms > Forms

You’ll find a list of your existing forms here. Hover over a form title for a list of options.

  • Green Activation Switch: click to deactivate/activate the form. Be sure to remove forms from pages/posts before deactivation.
  • Edit: add/delete/modify the form fields.
  • Settings: edit settings, confirmations and notifications.
  • Entries: shows a list of submissions from your visitors.
  • Preview: shows an unstyled preview of your form.
  • Duplicate: make a copy of a form. Great to use if you need another form that’s only slightly different. Be sure to go through its Settings and make sure they still apply.
  • Trash: move the form to trash. You can recover a trashed form by clicking the Trash() link above the Apply button.

Settings

  • Form Settings (tab): most of the default settings work well, but here are a few options you should change.
    • Button textSubmit sounds a bit techie, so you may want to change it to something more friendly or specific such as Send Message or Request eBook.
    • Button conditional logic: (optional) check and configure this option if you want to hide the submit button unless another field (such as agreeing to certain terms) is checked. For more information, visit: https://docs.gravityforms.com/enable-conditional-logic/.
    • Anti-spam honeypot: check Enable anti-spam honeypot. Helps prevent spam submissions.
  • Confirmations (tab): this is the message or page a user sees after they submit a form.
    • Hover over Default Confirmation and click Edit.
    • Choose from one of the options below:
      • Text: enter the text you would like the user to see on the confirmation page of this form.
      • Page: select the page you would like the user to be redirected to after they have submitted the form. Create the actual page (for example, a Thank You page) before you set this option.
      • Redirect: enter the URL of the webpage (usually external site) you would like the user to be redirected to after they have submitted the form.
    • Click Save Confirmation.
  • Notifications (tab): this is where you set up notifications to be emailed to an admin and (optionally) an auto-reply to the submitter to acknowledge receipt of their submission.
    • Admin: hover over Admin Notification and click Edit.
      • Send To: choose Enter Email and enter the email address(es) of the recipient(s) of the submission. Separate multiple recipient email addresses with commas. If you need to route notifications based on conditions (such as the user picking a department), choose Configure Routing, then visit here for more information on conditional logic: https://docs.gravityforms.com/enable-conditional-logic/
      • Merge tags can be used to pull in information submitted by the user. They are denoted by {curly braces}.
      • From Name: from the dropdown, choose the name merge tag.
      • From Email: due to spoofing issues, you should fill out this field with an email that uses the same domain as the website which sends out the form. So if your website is example.com, you want to use something like info@example.com. This is purely to bypass spam filters on some ISPs.
      • Reply To: from the dropdown, choose the email merge tag.
      • BCC: enter email address(es) if you want this notification to include someone as a blind carbon copy recipient. Separate multiple recipient email addresses with commas.
      • Subject: this shows up as the notification email’s subject line.
      • Message: {all_fields} is a merge tag that will send the recipient all of the form’s submitted information. You can add more merge tags from the dropdown icon in the right-hand corner to identify information such as the user’s IP address.
      • Click Update Notification to save changes.
    • If you want to create an auto-reply to send the user a confirmation that their submission was received, follow these instructions:
      1. Click the Notifications tab.
      2. Click the Add New button and fill out these fields:
        • Name: enter User Notification.
        • Send To: choose Select a Field.
        • Send to Field: select the email field from the dropdown.
        • From Name: from the dropdown, enter the company name.
        • From Email: due to spoofing issues, you should fill out this field with an email that uses the same domain as the website which sends out the form. So if your website is example.com, you want to use something like info@example.com. This is purely to bypass spam filters on some ISPs.
        • Reply To: enter a real company email address.
        • Subject: this shows up as the auto-reply email’s subject line.
        • Message: enter a thank you message or something similar. It’s recommended that you also include the following so the user sees what they submitted:
          Here is the information you sent us:
          {all_fields}
        • Click Update Notification to save changes.

Forms > Entries

The list of user submissions appears here.

  1. Choose a specific form from the top dropdown (the default that is showing is the first form). You will then see a list of the submissions for that form.
  2. Click an entry to see full details or hover over an entry to see more options. Click the gears icon on the right-hand side to choose which data column should be visible.

Forms > Import/Export

You can import or export Gravity Forms from another site. You can also export entries to a CSV file.

Forms > Add-Ons

Add-Ons allow you to extend the functionality of your forms.

Let us help you install, configure and optimize your website forms. Contact us today!

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