Key concepts
On this page
These terms come up throughout the guide. Each section takes a minute to read and links to the full article.
Forms
A form is what people fill in. You can start one in three ways:
- From a PDF you already use. A PDF Fillable Form lets people fill directly on your PDF pages. A Web PDF Form gives them a mobile-friendly web form instead. Either way, you get a completed PDF back. A Master Form collects answers once and fills several PDFs with them.
- As a web form built from scratch, with AI, a template or a blank form. Adding a PDF output is optional.
- From a new document designed in PDF Document Creator, then exported as a PDF or published as an online form.
Form types compares them and helps you choose.
Fields
Fields are where people enter information: text, choices, dates, file uploads, signatures, payments and more. Web forms support every field type. Web PDF Forms and Master Forms also offer form-only fields such as payments, which work on the form but are not placed on the PDF. The PDF Fillable Form supports only the fields that can be filled directly in a PDF, so it has no payment fields. See Field types for every field and its settings.
Sharing a form
After you publish a form, you can share it as a public link, embed it on your website or show a QR code. Anyone with the link can open the form, unless you protect it with a passcode.
To send a form to specific people, use an invitation. Each recipient gets an email with a link to the form. With Tracking Invitation on, PlatoForms keeps the invitation, so you can see who opened and submitted it. Signature certificates are only created for tracked invitations and workflow steps with the certificate turned on.
See Publish and share and Form invitations.
Submissions and completed PDFs
Each time someone submits a form, PlatoForms saves a submission with their answers and uploaded files. For PDF forms, and for web forms with a PDF output, it also generates the completed PDF. The Submissions page is where you view, filter and export them.
See Manage submissions.
Notifications
When a form is submitted, PlatoForms can email you, your team or the person who submitted it. The default notification email attaches the completed PDF.
See Configure form notifications.
Core document features
- E-signature. People sign in a Signature field. On paid plans, a signature certificate records how each document was signed and links to a public verification page.
- Workflows. A workflow passes a document through several people, one step at a time, with approvals and branches along the way.
- Document requests and renewals. Document requests collect files such as an ID or a certificate after a form is submitted. Renewals ask for a new submission or a new copy of a file before it goes out of date.
Teams
Every account comes with its own team workspace. You can invite members, control who can edit or view each form, and switch between the teams you belong to.