Build, publish, and share a form

A form belongs to Personal or the selected team. On Forms, choose Create form, give it a title and choose a starting point: Blank form, Contact form, Feedback form, Registration form, Application form, Request form or RSVP form. A starting point copies its questions into the new form; it does not change how the finished form works. Paste JSON builds the form from a document instead (see Build a form by pasting JSON).

The Forms list shows each form's status (draft, published or closed), its views and responses, and links to its Responses and Settings.

Pages and questions

The editor saves the working draft as you type. To change the title or the introduction shown under it, choose Edit beside the title in the page bar.

Pages, on the left, lists the form's pages. Add page adds one; reorder pages with the arrow buttons or by dragging. A form with more than one page gives the respondent Next and Back instead of showing the whole form at once.

Add question adds a question to the selected page. Choose its Answer type: Text, Textarea (a longer answer), Email, Phone, URL, Number, Radio, Checkboxes, Select, Yes/No, Date, Time, Rating, Scale or File. A URL answer such as example.com is accepted and saved with https:// added. For Radio, Checkboxes and Select, enter one choice per line in Choices. A Scale runs From 0 or 1 To 5 or 10, with optional words for the lowest and highest numbers, such as "Not at all" and "Completely". Help text is shown under the question. Tick Required when an empty answer should block submission. Add content adds a Heading, Text or a Divider. Move questions and content with the arrow buttons or by dragging the handle. Add at least one question before publishing.

A File question accepts PDF, JPG, PNG, WebP or plain-text files up to 10 MB; the files are private to the people who can see the form's responses (see Review and export Form responses).

Conditional visibility shows a question only when another question's answer equals the value you enter. A hidden question is not required and its answer is not stored. Deleting a question also removes the conditions that use it; before anything is removed, the confirmation names each question with such a condition. A question left with no other condition will always show. The published form keeps its conditions until you choose Publish changes.

Preview shows the draft as respondents will see it; a preview cannot be submitted.

Publish and close

Publish copies the current draft into a fixed form version and opens its public address. Later edits remain a draft until you choose Publish changes. Each response stays attached to the version the respondent saw, so a question edit does not rewrite an earlier response. Once published, View form opens the public page.

The public address is made when the form is created. Anyone with the link can open a published form unless Require sign-in is on, so treat the link as public access, not as a password.

Close form, in Form settings under Publication, stops new responses. The public page says the form is closed; the form, its versions and its responses are kept. To accept responses again, choose Publish in the editor.

The view count on the Forms list counts visits to the public page by anyone except the person who created the form.

Form settings

Form settings, in More in the editor's page bar, holds:

• Require sign-in: only people signed in to Magpie can submit.
• One response per person: each signed-in person can submit once. It can be turned on only while Require sign-in is on.
• Email me for new responses: on by default. The form's creator gets an email with a link to each new response.
• Magpie link: a line under the form with the Magpie name and an offer to make a form. It is shown on every form on the Free plan. On a paid plan, turn it off to remove it from that form; other forms keep it until you turn each one off. If the paid plan ends, the link comes back on forms it was removed from.
• Payment: charge for each response (see Require payment for a Form response).
• Appearance: choose Plain, Paper, Blue, Dark, Magpie, Ink or Sage. The public form changes as soon as you save; it does not wait for Publish changes.
• Collaborators and Publication.

Collaborators

Team access follows the team's permissions. To give someone else access, select Add collaborator on Collaborators, enter their handle and choose the access. Can view allows the form and its responses to be read. Can edit also allows changes, publishing, closing and response actions.

Someone who is not on the team will be invited. Once they accept, they join the team as a guest who can open this form and nothing else in the team, and the form is listed on their Forms page when that team is selected; see Guests on a team. Until then Collaborators lists them under Invited, with Cancel. A guest of the team is added at once, and members of the team cannot be added because they have access through it.

Only people who can edit the form through its team can add or remove collaborators and move the form to Trash. Removing someone who has nothing else in the team also removes them from it, and the confirmation says so.

Trash

More, the last button in the editor's page bar, holds Responses, Form settings, Import JSON and Move to Trash. A form in Trash keeps its responses and their files; its link and payment pages stop working and no new responses or payments can start. Restoring it within 30 days brings back the form, its responses and its link. When it is deleted forever, its responses and their files go too; records of payments it took are kept.

In the native app

Form editors can publish a draft or close a published form from the form's action menu, and open Settings to change Require sign-in, One response per person and Email me for new responses; these save immediately. Edit questions changes the title, introduction, completion heading and message, pages, questions of every type, headings, supporting text and dividers, and moves questions and pages. Its conditional visibility also offers not equals, contains, answered and not answered. Payment, Appearance and Collaborators are in the same menu, and team members who can edit a form can move it to Trash there.

If a saved edit is missing after reloading, or publishing reports a condition you cannot identify, Contact support.