Create and share forms to gather and organize information such as survey responses, intake project requests, or gather product orders within Smartsheet. Add, arrange, or remove form fields even after you’ve created your form.
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Create a new form
Before creating a new form, open or create the sheet to which you want to add a form.
When you create a form in Smartsheet, the connected sheet stores all the responses. Learn more about sheet creation.
- Select Forms > Create Form… from the top menu bar.
- By default, the form title corresponds to the sheet name, but you can customize the name.
The fields on the form correspond to the names of their associated sheet columns.
- Add, arrange, or remove form fields to your form. You can edit those fields later as well.
- Adjust any form-level settings using the Settings tab at the top of the form builder.
- Select Save at the top-right.
Find your form
There are a few easy ways to find your form:
From your sheet
- Open the sheet connected to your form.
- Select Forms > Manage Forms from the top menu.
- Select the three-dot menu to open up the form in builder mode.
This option is the only one with which you can find both active and inactive forms.
From the workspace panel
- Go to Home > All workspaces and find the one that contains your form or the associated sheet.
- Your form appears under their associated sheet.
If you don’t see your form, try refreshing or selecting the arrow to the left of the sheet name to expand the options. Only active forms appear in the workspace panel.
- Select Edit to open the form builder.
From Search
Open the Search icon on the left rail and search for your form by name.
If the results only show the sheet, use the Advanced Search Results option. Follow the form
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and sheet
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icons next to the name to select the right option.
Edit a form
You can customize your form in real time. Add, remove, or rearrange fields anytime, even after you’ve shared the form.
Edit your fields
You can add, remove, and edit your form fields even after you’ve shared the form.
- Open the form you want to edit.
- Select the Edit button on the top right corner.
- In the Form tab of the form builder, use the Fields section to add or remove a field.
Keep the following in mind:
- Adding a field to the form creates a corresponding column in your sheet.
- Removing a field from your form doesn’t delete or affect the corresponding column in the sheet.
- To delete a column, you need to do it directly in the sheet.
Add All/Remove All existing fields
In the Form tab of the form builder, use the Add All/Remove All options.
Add a form field
There are two ways to add fields:
Builder canvas
To add a new field using the builder canvas, you should:
- Hover over an existing field, and select the + sign at the bottom of the field.
- Name your field and select the type.
- Select Add.
The new field appears below the selected element on the form and a new column appears in your sheet.
Fields panel
To add a new field using the Fields panel, you should:
- Select +New Field
- Name the field and select its type.
- Select Add.
The new field appears as an option in the Fields panel and as a new column on the underlying sheet.
Keep the following in mind:
- If you want to add a field connected to an existing column in your sheet, select it from the Fields panel. You can also drag and drop it into the exact location you want.
- To add other form elements such as a header, description, divider, or attachment, select on the element in the left panel. Or drag and drop it into the exact location you want.
Fields panel elements
Use the following table to better understand when to use the different elements from the Fields panel.
| Use this | To do this |
|---|---|
| Heading/Description | Add a heading and section labels in your form. The header style is larger than question titles and description text. These fields can provide instructions for the people using your forms and help you gather the information you’re looking for. |
| Divider | Add a line to separate sections in your form. |
| Attachment | Allow users to upload attachments to the form (up to 30 MB per file, 10 files per form submission). You can only add one attachment field. Attachments appear as row attachments on your sheet. |
Character count limits on form fields
Consider the following limitations on the fields you can use in a form.
| Field name | Character count limit |
|---|---|
| Form title | 100 |
| Form rich description | 100 |
| Form field label | 100 |
| Form field rich help text | no limit |
| Header | 100 |
| Description rich text | 4000 |
| Confirmation message | 4000 |
| Response field | 4000 |
Remove a form field
Hover over the field and select the trash can icon to remove it.
Move a form field
Select the up or down arrow to move a form field. You can also select and drag the form field to where you want to place it.
Edit your field properties
To edit a field, select it in the form builder and use the Field Settings panel to the right.
You can select between two tabs:
- Field: Modify a field’s label and other properties
- Logic: Define what happens based on the values the user selected in the form field
Field
| Use this | To do this |
|---|---|
| Column properties box | Select the pencil icon to edit the column name, type, and properties if it contains contact list values or dropdown values. |
| Label | Use the label if you want the field title to differ from the column name. |
| Help Text | Add a description or further instructions for your submitters. This appears below the field label. You can also include a hyperlink (which opens in a new tab) or link to an email address that opens in the respondent’s email client of choice. If the links don't work as expected, edit the form, remove the hyperlink, save it, re-add it, and save it again. |
| Required Field | Make a form field mandatory. |
| Hidden Field | Hide the field if you don't want to display it in the form.
For example, to auto-fill Open in the Status column without user input, hide the Status field and set Open as its default value. |
| Validation | To help collect consistent, error-free data, add simple character and pattern-based validation to your form fields. For contact lists, you can use the Restrict to list values only checkbox. When you check this box, submitters can only select from the values you list in the column. |
| Display As | Choose how your field appears in the form. Display options vary depending on the column type.
For dropdown lists, you can use the Restrict to list values only checkbox. When you check this box, submitters can only select from the values you list in the column. |
| Default Value | Specify a default field value that appears automatically when submitters open the form. They can also change the value if preferred. |
| System Columns | You can’t add System columns to forms, but can be added to sheets to automatically track information, like submission date and time. |
Use the Display As section when editing your form to choose how your field appears in the form.
Display options vary depending on the column type.
| Column type | Available form field display options |
|---|---|
| Text/Number |
|
| Checkbox |
|
| Dropdown (Single-select) |
|
| Dropdown (Multi-select) |
|
| Symbols |
|
Consider the following when using the Field Settings section
- Submitters can never see hidden fields. You can see those in the form builder or the connected sheet itself.
- Select the multi-line text box if you expect a longer response from your submitters. You can customize how many lines you want the box to be.
- The option for vertical and horizontal radio buttons only appears for the specified column types in the table above.
Logic
Conditional logic lets you show or hide form fields based on user input—so submitters only see what's relevant.
Example: Show the Deadline field only when the Priority field is set to Urgent. If the user selects Low, the Deadline field stays hidden—even if it's required. Learn more about using conditional logic in forms.
Co-build a form with others
- Share the underlying sheet and grant Owner or Admin permissions to the collaborators cobuilding the form with you. Learn more about setting sheet permissions.
- Copy your browser URL to share your form builder with others.
