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Form Builder

The Form Builder is where you design and configure your forms. It's a visual editor with drag-and-drop reordering, real-time preview, and auto-save.

Builder Interface

When you open a form for editing, you'll see:

  • Toolbar — form title, status (draft/active), undo/redo buttons, preview, and publish
  • Canvas — the main editing area showing your sections and fields
  • Settings Panel — configuration options for the selected field or section

Two View Modes

  1. Build View — the default visual editor where you add and arrange fields
  2. Flow View — a visual diagram showing section routing and conditional branches (useful for complex forms with logic)

Switch between views using the toggle in the toolbar.

Working with Sections

Sections group related fields together. Every form starts with one section.

Adding a Section

Click Add Section at the bottom of the canvas. Each section has:

  • Title — displayed as a heading to respondents
  • Description — optional subtext below the title
  • Guide Text — additional instructions for respondents
  • Layout — choose between:
  • Stacked — fields arranged vertically (default)
  • Inline — fields arranged side by side

Reordering Sections

Drag a section by its handle to move it up or down in the form.

Deleting a Section

Click the section menu (three dots) and select Delete. All fields in the section will be removed.

Working with Fields

Adding a Field

  1. Click Add Field within a section.
  2. Choose a field type from the picker (see Field Types for the full list).
  3. Configure the field in the settings panel.

Field Settings

Every field supports these common settings:

Setting Description
Label The question text shown to respondents
Placeholder Hint text inside the input (disappears when typing)
Helper Text Guidance text displayed below the field
Required Whether the field must be answered before submission

Field-Specific Settings

Each field type has its own configuration options. For example:

  • Number fields have min/max value settings
  • File Upload fields have file type and size restrictions
  • Rating fields let you choose icon style (stars, hearts, thumbs up) and max rating
  • Scale fields support custom min/max labels

See Field Types for complete details on each type.

Validation Rules

Add validation rules to any field:

  • Min Length / Max Length — for text fields
  • Min / Max — for number fields
  • Pattern — a regex pattern the input must match
  • Custom — custom validation logic

Reordering Fields

Drag fields by their handle to reorder them within a section or move them between sections.

Deleting a Field

Click the field menu (three dots) and select Delete.

Form Settings

Access form-level settings from the settings panel:

Pacing Mode

Controls how sections are presented to respondents:

  • Quick — all sections on one page, traditional scrollable form
  • Considered — one section per page with Next/Back buttons
  • Guided — step-by-step wizard with progress bar

Submit Button

Customise the submit button text (default: "Submit").

Confirmation Screen

What respondents see after submitting:

  • Title — heading text (default: "Thank you!")
  • Message — body text
  • Redirect URL — optionally redirect to another page after submission
  • Notify Email — receive an email notification for each submission

Form Closure

  • Close Date — automatically stop accepting responses after a date
  • Max Submissions — set a maximum number of responses

Auto-Save

The builder auto-saves your changes as you work. The toolbar shows save state:

  • Saving... — changes are being saved
  • Saved — all changes are saved
  • Unsaved changes — you have local changes not yet saved

Undo / Redo

Use the undo/redo buttons in the toolbar (or keyboard shortcuts) to step through your edit history. The builder keeps up to 10 changes in the undo stack.

Preview

Click Preview to see your form exactly as respondents will experience it. Preview mode respects your pacing mode, styling, and conditional logic.

Publishing

Click Publish to make your form live. Publishing:

  1. Sets the form status to active
  2. Creates a version snapshot (for rollback later)
  3. Generates a public URL at /f/your-form-slug

You can unpublish a form at any time to stop accepting responses.

Version History

Every time you publish, Drift saves a snapshot of your form. To view or restore previous versions:

  1. Open the form and go to the Versions tab.
  2. Browse the timeline of published versions.
  3. Click Restore on any version to roll back.

This gives you a safety net — experiment freely knowing you can always go back.

Next Steps