Your first form

This walks one form all the way through: create it, publish it, share it and read what comes back. It takes a few minutes, and everything except importing a PDF is free.

Before you start, check the workspace switcher in the header. The form will belong to whichever workspace it shows.

1. Start the form

On an empty Forms page you are offered two ways in.

Choose	When	Cost
New Form (or Create your first form)	You are starting from scratch, or the form is short	Free
Import PDF	You already have the form as a PDF, even a scanned paper one	Credits, shown before you start

From scratch

New Form opens the builder with one empty field. Give the form a title, then for each question set a label and a type (text, date, dropdown and so on). Add field adds another. The full tour of the builder is in Building a form.

From a PDF

Import PDF, choose the file, and check the price line under it. Press Analyze and build form. FormsUI reads the document, finds its questions and opens the builder with them already in place. A long document can take a few minutes. See Importing a PDF.

An imported form has one advantage worth knowing about: every submission can be written back onto your original PDF, in its printed blanks.

2. Check it and save

Whichever way you started, look over the questions before anyone sees them:

• Tick Required on anything that must be answered.
• Tick Sensitive on Social Security numbers, account numbers and the like. Those answers are stored encrypted and shown masked.
• Leave Who can fill this form? on Public for your first form, so anyone with the link can open it.

Press Create draft (or Save changes on an import). You are back on the forms list, and the form is a draft: it exists, but its link does not work yet.

3. Publish

Press Publish on the form's row. Its status changes to published and a copy button appears in the Link column.

Publishing locks the form's questions. That protects the answers people send: each submission stays tied to the exact questions it answered. If you need to change a question later, Back to draft reopens it, and turns the link off until you publish again.

4. Share it

Three ways, from the form's row:

Button	Does
Copy (in the Link column)	Copies the form's link, /f/<slug>, to paste anywhere
Invite	Emails the link to a list of addresses you paste in
Prefill	Makes a link with some answers already filled in for the recipient

Open the link yourself in a private browser window and submit a test answer. It is the quickest way to see what people will see.

More on each in Publishing and sharing.

5. Read the submissions

By default FormsUI emails you when the form is submitted. The email links to the submission rather than containing the answers.

Open Submissions in the header for every submission across your forms, or the list icon on a form's row for just that form. View shows the answers, with sensitive ones masked, and offers the PDF downloads. See Submissions.

Where to go next

• Split a long form into steps, or let people add "another vehicle": see sections.
• Fill in the answers that never change, like the property address, once for everyone: see Preset answers.
• Have the finished submission signed: see Signatures.
• Work with colleagues: see Teams.