Manage form settings

Configure everything from submission behavior to privacy settings. Learn how to customize the thank-you page, emails, access rules, form availability, and multi-language options to tailor the full form experience.

Open form settings

You can open Manage Form in either of the following ways:

• Option 1 (from the Dashboard): Hover over the form and click the Settings (gear icon) at the top right. A panel opens with a Manage Form entry (settings, sharing, connect) plus quick actions like Share, Clone Form, and Move to Folder. Click Manage form to open the full settings page.

  

• Option 2 (from the form builder): Click the more options (•••) icon at the top left to open the More menu, then choose Manage Form.

  

Manage Form opens a dedicated settings page with a left-hand navigation, grouped into three sections:

• Share & access: Share, Permissions, Invitations
• Configure: General settings, PDF naming, Thank-you page, Save later email, Notifications, Multi-language
• Connect: Cloud drive, Integrations, API playground

Each is covered below.

Share

The Share tab is where you publish your form and manage how it’s shared. Once you publish your form, this tab automatically shows your live sharing options across three types:

• Public URL: A direct link to your published form. Share it with others, and they can open and fill it in any web browser. You’ll also see a PlatoForms URL, which works as a fallback if the primary link ever has issues.
• Embed Script: Code snippet that displays your form directly on your website or web application. Choose from four embed options: standard, modal popup, floating button, or full-page display.
• QRCode: Display on your website or printed materials. Users scan it with their mobile device to open and fill out the form.

You can also click Open form to preview it, or Send via email to share the link directly.

Stop sharing

To take your form offline, click Stop Sharing at the top right of the Share tab. This unpublishes the form: existing links stop working, and the form returns to a Draft state until you publish it again.

Permissions

Control who can edit the form, who can submit it, and who can view submissions. See the Manage permissions guide for details.

Invitations

Send the form to specific people, with tracking, passcodes, and scheduled sends. See Create an invitation for details.

General settings

The General settings tab groups options into four cards: Submission, Availability & Limits, Privacy & Security, and Save for Later & Follow-up.

Tracking code

When Show tracking code on thank-you page is on, a tracking code appears after the user submits the form.

You can use this code to find the submission on the Submissions page by entering it in the search box.

Edit submission

When Show “Edit Submission” on thank-you page is on, users can edit and send the form again after submitting it. This is useful for making changes later.

Download completed PDF

When Show “Download PDF” on thank-you page is on, users can download a PDF copy of the completed form after submitting it.

Save for Later

When Enable “Save for Later” is on, a Save for Later button appears.

Users can save their progress, get a save-for-later link, and return within the expiration time to finish and submit the form.

• Save-for-later URL Expiration Time:

  Note

  Turn on Enable “Save for Later” first.

  Choose how long the save-for-later link stays active. Options include 1, 3, 7, 15, 30, 60, 90, 180 days, or never. Once it expires, the link can no longer be used.

  

• Save-for-Later URL is passcode protected

  Note

  Turn on Enable “Save for Later” first.

  When Save-for-Later URL is passcode protected is on, users must enter a passcode to revisit their saved form using the save-for-later link. After many wrong passcodes in a short time, the passcode page refuses for a while, even the right passcode. Wait and try again.

  

Incomplete entries

An incomplete entry is a form a respondent started but did not submit. With Enable “Save for Later” on, PlatoForms keeps such entries for you and lists them under Incomplete entries on the Submissions page (the switch at the top right shows how many are open).

• Save progress automatically

  On by default. An entry is kept once the respondent has filled in three answers or moved to the next page, even if they never click Save for Later. From then on every change they make is saved too. Respondents see no message on the form; add a sentence to your form if you want them to know. On HIPAA teams this option starts off.

• Respondent’s email field

  The field whose answer is the respondent’s own email address. It is used to follow up incomplete entries and to send reminders with the link to resume, and it is the same setting as Email To under Save later email. The first email field of the form is selected to start with; pick another when the form holds several, such as an applicant’s and a manager’s. When the field is empty but the respondent emailed themselves the link from the Save for Later popup, that address is used instead.

• Remind respondents who stall

  Pick up to three moments (1, 2, 3, 5, 7 or 14 days after the entry stalls). At each one the respondent receives their link to continue, using your Save later email text, with a line to stop the reminders. Reminders only go to the address in the Respondent’s email field. They stop when the entry is submitted or deleted, or when the respondent clicks the stop link.

• Notify us about stalled entries

  An entry counts as stalled after 2 hours, 24 hours or 3 days without activity (choose under An entry counts as stalled after). Choose An email per entry to get an email each time an entry stalls, or A daily summary for one email per day. Both go to the team members who can view the form’s submissions (set under Permissions) and add a Follow up to-do to the Inbox. The email shows the contact details and progress of the entry and a button to the list.

On the Incomplete entries list each row shows the last activity, the page reached and the answers given, the contact details found in the answers (email, phone, name) and a status: New, Contacted or Not interested. Use the chips to see entries idle for 2 hours, a day or 3 days, by status, or only those with a contact. From the row’s Actions menu you can Open the entry, Send resume link (the respondent gets their link with your Save later email text), mark the status, Add a note for your team, or Delete it. Select several rows to mark them contacted or send their links together.

Entries that come from a tracked invitation with Form is saved automatically are listed too, marked Invitation, without a link to open: the invitation link belongs to the recipient.

An entry leaves the list when it is submitted (the submission then appears on the Submissions page), when you delete it, or when its link expires.

Webhooks can receive these events too: in API Access, set a webhook’s Sends when to An incomplete entry starts, changes, stalls or is submitted.

Preview PDF before submission

When Preview the PDF before submitting is on, users can view a PDF preview of the completed form before submitting it.

Collect IP address and browser info

When Collect IP address and browser’s User-Agent from submitter is on, the form will gather the submitter’s IP address and browser details.

This is especially helpful for forms with e-signatures.

To see the collected data on the Submissions page, make sure IP Address and User-Agent are set to display in the Fields settings.

Preserve uploaded file original name

• When Preserve uploaded file original name is on, the uploaded file will use the label of the File Upload field as its name. This name will appear when you download the file from the Submissions page or upload it to a Cloud Drive.

• When this is off, the file keeps the name given by the user.

  Warning

  If your form has more than one File Upload field and the user uploads files with the same name (like my-file.png), one file may overwrite the other in the Cloud Drive. To avoid this, suggest in the Help Text that users give each file a unique name.

Set form passcode

When Form is passcode protected is on, a single passcode will be assigned to your form. Users need to use this passcode to access the form by clicking on its published URL.

After many wrong passcodes in a short time, the passcode page refuses for a while, even the right passcode. Wait and try again.

Convert submission data/time

Convert Submission Date/Time To lets you choose how the submission time is shown: using the submitter’s time zone, your time zone, or a custom one.

To see the converted time on the Submissions page, your form must include a date field: either a Date (MM/DD/YYYY) or a Date and Time field (MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss). Time-only values aren’t supported. Make sure this field is enabled in the Displayable and Searchable Field settings.

This setting lets you choose how to display the submission time:

• Submitter’s Time Zone: Shows the time based on the respondent’s local time. For example, if someone in Shanghai submits the form at 1:00 AM on April 29 (Shanghai time), this exact time will appear in the submission.

• Form Creator’s Time Zone: Converts the time to your time zone, based on your current time zone. For example, the same submission would appear as 1:00 PM on April 28 if your time zone is New York.

• Custom Time Zone: Always shows the submission time in the time zone you select.

Watch demo Time zone conversion for form submissions

Shared URL passcodes

When Shared URLs are passcode protected on, links like “edit Submission”, “PDF download”, or “attachments” will need a passcode to open. These links are available in Submissions page > Actions > Share > Submission Sharing panel. After many wrong passcodes in a short time, the passcode page refuses for a while, even the right passcode. Wait and try again.

Expiration Time for Shared URLs

Expiration Time for Shared URLs lets you control how long shared links (Edit Form, PDF download, or attachments) stay active. You can choose from 1, 3, 7, 15, 30, 60, 90, or 180 days, or set them to never expire. Once expired, the links will no longer be accessible.

Watch demo Passcodes and expiration times for safer forms

Allow search engines to index this form

When Allow search engines to index this form is off, the published form tells search engines not to list it. It is off by default for forms created since late August 2026; older forms were left on. Turning it on only allows listing; it does not submit the form to a search engine.

Disable form shared link, only invitation allowed

When Disable form shared link, only invitation allowed is on, the form opens only from personal invitation links (invitations sent with Tracking Invitation on), and from save-for-later and edit links of entries started from them. Anyone who opens the public URL, the embed or a QR code is sent to the Redirect link for invitation-only if you set one, or to an error page.

Form available at

Set when the form becomes accessible. For example, if you choose 2026-07-08 12:22, users won’t be able to open the form until that exact time.

You can also set a Redirect link before available: users will be taken to this link if they try to open the form too early. If you don’t set one, a default system message will appear instead.

Form expired at

Set when the form will stop accepting submissions. After this time, users won’t be able to access the form.

You can set a Redirect link after expiration to take users to a specific page (such as a thank-you or waitlist page). If not set, the default system message will show.

Submission limit

Set a maximum number of submissions (any number above 0) for your form.

Once the limit is reached:

• Users are redirected to your custom URL (e.g., a waitlist or promotion page).

• If no URL is set, they’ll see the default system message.

• The form can automatically unpublish and switch to Draft if you enable this option.

PDF naming

Set the display name and filename pattern for the generated PDF. See Manage form name for details.

Thank-you page

In this tab, you control what happens after someone clicks Submit on your form. By default, a success message appears, but you can customize it or redirect users to another page (like your website).

The thank-you page can also show the following. They are not typed into the message: the page adds them automatically when the matching switch in General settings is on.

• Tracking code (Show tracking code on thank-you page):

  A unique code to help identify the submission on the Submissions page.

• “Edit Submission” link (Show “Edit Submission” on thank-you page):

  A link users can revisit and reuse to edit their submission.

• “Download PDF” link (Show “Download PDF” on thank-you page):

  A link to download the submitted form as a PDF. Offered on PDF Fillable Forms, Web PDF Forms and Master Forms, not on Web Forms.

Use variables in redirect URLs

On the Thank-you page tab, if you choose to redirect users, you can include variables in the URL.

For instance, if you wish to transfer the customer’s name from input field #3 to your redirect URL (let’s say it’s https://yourdomain.com/) using the parameter name customer_name, the URL format would be: https://yourdomain.com/?customer_name={{data.fid3}}.

Notably, you can also include {{tracking_code}} or {{submission_id}} as a variable in the redirect URL. For example:
https://yourdomain.com/?customer_name={{data.fid3}}&track={{tracking_code}}.

This lets you customize the redirect based on user input and utilize tracking codes as needed.

Add thank-you page

You can click Add thank-you page (Logic use) to add different thank-you messages or redirect users to different pages based on their answers.

For example:

• Redirect job applicants to different thank-you pages by role.

• Show a custom message based on selected department or program.

Save Later Email

In this tab, you can customize the Email Subject and Email Body for the Save for Later feature.

• Email To: pick a text, choice or Dropdown field of the form. Its answer prefills the address box in the Save for Later pop-up, and the person can change it. It is the same setting as Respondent’s email field in the Save for Later & Follow-up card, so reminders and Send resume link go to this field’s answer (see Incomplete entries).
• Variables: {{ form_name }}, {{ form_id }}, {{ draft_url }} (the link to the saved form), {{ days_expired }} (the link’s expiry in days) and {{ draft_url_passcode }} (the draft’s passcode when Use random passcode is on; empty when the link needs no passcode). The list also offers the form’s fields, which insert the answers saved so far.
• The link is required: the Email Body must contain the link. If it is missing, the editor asks you to add it back, and the email cannot be saved without it.

For example, you can also include {{draft_url}} in the Email Subject.

When the user clicks Send in the Save for Later pop-up:

The receiver will get your custom email with a link to continue filling out the form later.

Notifications

Configure the emails sent to users and team members when the form is submitted, including attachments and custom variables. See Configure form notifications for details.

Multiple languages

On this tab, you can configure the form to be compatible with multiple languages. For more details, refer to the Enable multi-languages section.

Cloud drive

Automatically save submitted PDFs and data to Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, or Google Drive. See Connect a cloud drive for details.

Integrations

Connect your form to Zapier, Make, Slack, Stripe, and more. See the Integration guide for the full list of supported apps.

API playground

Try the REST API against this form directly in your browser, once the form is published and has at least one submission. See API playground for details.