New & Noteworthy

New API to update dropdown options easily

Updating those dropdown menus just got a whole lot easier! You can now ditch the manual option entry and uploading CSVs (though those methods are still available if you’re into that).

Just connect directly to your data sources through our slick new API - Update Dropdown List Options. One quick call and your dropdowns are automatically refreshed with all the latest options. Update a single field or every dropdown on your form - the choice is yours.

It’s the seamless way to make sure your users always have the freshest picks at their fingertips. No more stale, outdated dropdowns here! Just set it and forget it for dropdowns that never go stale.

Expanded Dropdown Capabilities

We’ve got an awesome upgrade for you – our Dropdown fields just got a lot more powerful. Here’s the scoop: you can now upload a CSV file with up to 5MB of data to populate your cascading dropdown options. That’s a huge jump from the old 100KB limit.

That means you can:

• Upload CSV files with 10,000 to 20,000 dropdown items
• Streamline setup of complex dropdown options
• Save time and reduce errors when populating dropdown options

How to use the improved Dropdown:

• Go to the field properties.
• Click Upload (Cascading) Dropdown.
• Select your dropdown options file and upload.

We’re committed to improving our platform. Reach out if you have any questions!

Introducing Repeat Fields: easily copy form sections

We’ve got something really cool to share with you: Repeat Fields!

Have you ever needed to get similar information from people, like multiple names or choices, and found it tricky? Well, Repeat Fields is here to help!

Just add one Repeat Field and you’ll get a whole section in your form that can repeat. Then, you can put all kinds of basic fields inside, like text boxes, multiple choice, or dropdowns. They’ll show up together in a neat group, making it super easy for people to fill out.

But that’s not all! You can set how many times this section repeats, and even customize the buttons to add or remove sections. It saves you time and effort!

Whether you’re collecting info from multiple people or need folks to list out multiple options, Repeat Fields has got your back!

So, what are you waiting for? Try out Repeat Fields and see how it makes building forms a breeze!

Two-factor authentication (2FA) - your double shield!

We’ve added a new security feature called two-factor authentication (2FA) to keep your accounts safer than ever. Here’s what it means for you:

How to turn on 2FA:

Activate Two-Factor Authentication in Account Settings, follow instructions to scan a code with your phone, and input the 6-digit number for added security. That’s it!

Backup codes:

• We’ll provide you with 10 special codes for emergencies if you can’t use your phone. Remember, each code is a one-time access pass if your 2FA device isn’t available.

• Securely copy or download your codes for safekeeping. Don’t forget, they’re crucial!

Accessing your account without your phone:
If your phone isn’t accessible, simply use one of your backup codes to regain access.

Making your team safer:
Boost your team’s security by encouraging everyone to enable 2FA for their accounts.

We’re always working to make sure your accounts are safe. If you have any questions, just ask! For more details, refer to Two-factor authentication.

Enhanced logic visualization

Wrestle no more with tangled logic flows! We’ve added a nifty visual aid to the Logics panel. For each logic rule, just click the little circle icon to color-code it. At a glance, you can now easily identify and distinguish between different logic paths within your forms.

This handy addition empowers you to organize logic structures more effectively, streamlining your workflow and boosting productivity. We bet you’ll craft even better form designs!

Give the new feature a whirl and let us know your thoughts. Your feedback helps us level up our form builder for an even smoother experience. Learn more about Logics here.

Enhanced business automation with PlatoForms and Make integration

Exciting news, form maestros! We’ve unleashed a powerful upgrade, introducing the seamless integration of PlatoForms with Make. This addition empowers you to connect with thousands of apps and APIs, supercharging your form workflows effortlessly.

What’s New:

• Make Integration Unleashed:

  • Why It Matters: Elevate your forms with personalized connections to a vast array of apps and APIs.
  • How It Works: Explore a user-friendly, no-code, drag-and-drop platform for creating multi-step integrations.

• Effortless Data Transfers:

  • Why It Matters: Streamline your processes by transferring data from PlatoForms to other essential tools.
  • How It Works: Trigger automation sequences seamlessly with support ticketing systems, payment gateways, CRMs, marketing tools, and more.

• Flexibility at Your Fingertips:

  • Why It Matters: Whether your integrations are simple or complex, PlatoForms and Make provide the ultimate flexibility.
  • How It Works: Customize your workflow effortlessly for a tailored automation experience.

Upgrade your form game with PlatoForms and Make Integration - where seamless connections and enhanced workflows collide! 🚀✨

Visual choices made easy with Picture Choice

At PlatoForms, we offer more than just Choice fields in text - we bring you the option to present choices through pictures! Elevate user interactions by uploading various pictures, allowing customers to make intuitive and visual selections.

Key Highlights:

• File Flexibility: Upload images effortlessly in PNG, JPG, JPEG, WEBP, and GIF formats.

• Efficient Batch Uploads: Streamline the process by uploading multiple images at once, saving time and enhancing form creation efficiency.

• Drag-and-Drop Simplicity: Rearrange images effortlessly with a simple drag-and-drop functionality. Preview changes instantly for the perfect visual presentation.

• Personalized Customization: Tailor image size and background style to match your preferences, adding a personalized touch to your forms.

Unlock Versatile Applications:

Captivate customers on e-commerce forms, empower event attendees with visual previews, revolutionize real estate property selection, and more - all through user-friendly Picture Choice field!

Enhanced conditional logic with “Required” and “Optional” rules

Now you have even more control over your online fillable forms with “Required" and “Optional" rules! Here’s a glimpse of what you can achieve:

• Precision in Form Completion: Tailor your form to gather the exact information you need. With the “Required" rule, ensure that users provide essential details when certain conditions are met. No more missing critical data!

• Flexible User Experience: Provide a seamless and user-friendly experience by using the “Optional" rule. Allow users to decide whether to fill in specific fields, giving them the flexibility to skip optional sections without hindering the form submission process.

• Adaptable Forms for Diverse Scenarios: Whether you’re creating a survey, application form, or feedback form, our new rules empower you to adapt the form dynamically. Set fields as “Required" or “Optional" based on user inputs or selections, making your forms responsive to various scenarios.

• Effortless Implementation: Our intuitive form builder makes it easy to implement these new rules. Simply navigate to the conditional logic settings, choose the field, define the condition, and decide whether it should be “Required" or “Optional”. No coding required – it’s that simple!

Upgrade your form-building experience with these enhanced conditional logic rules. Create smarter, more adaptive forms that cater to the unique needs of your users. Explore the possibilities today with PlatoForms!

Published form URL ready for third-party embedding

Now easily embed your form on any webpage with the new feature — the publish URL for oEmbed compatibility, avoiding Embed Script limitations and compatibility issues.

Major Benefits:

• Direct Embedding: Our Embed Script remains a preferred option for those familiar with HTML or JavaScript. However, this breakthrough alternative lets you effortlessly use your form’s published URL for smooth embedding on your chosen webpage. It’s user-friendly and automatically adjusts the form’s height, ensuring seamless integration that effortlessly blends with your webpage.

• Enhanced Flexibility: By simplifying the embedding process, you can flexibly use your form in various scenarios, whether it’s creating templates on Canva, embedding on website pages, or wherever you want to display your form.

• Instant Effect: Updates take effect instantly; your form will be immediately visible on the specified webpage, offering users an opportunity for instant interaction.

How to Use:

Just copy your form’s publish URL and paste it directly onto the webpage where you want to embed the form. No more hassle with intricate settings — enjoy the convenience of instant embedding! Enhance your creative journey with this easy-to-follow video tutorial.

Unlock efficiency: API update for seamless form invitations

What’s Fresh:

Exciting news! Our updated Create Form Invitation API is now live in the API Playground. Discover the convenience of filling in invitee details — email and name — with just a few clicks. Customize your email template effortlessly. And the highlight? Automatic activation of the signature certificate!

Perks:

• Unlock seamless digital signature certification with ease, ensuring a snug fit with your in-house systems. Say goodbye to manual data entry; now effortlessly prefill invitee info and dispatch invites in a snap.

• Explore the efficiency of automation, whether dealing with hundreds or thousands of entries. Plus, rest easy knowing that API and interface settings stay in sync for a hassle-free experience.

Upgrade your workflow with this nifty update. Questions or feedback? We’re here for you!

Exciting update: Insights across online PDF forms

Unlock the power of Insights, once confined to online web forms, now seamlessly extended to online PDF forms.

Key Features:

• Visual Logic Representation: Accessible in the Logics Panel, visually depict logical relationships between fields.

• Intuitive Insights Display: Click on Insights to reveal visual annotations and dashed lines above the form, providing an intuitive guide to field relationships.

• Enhanced Clarity and Guidance: Easily manage logic flow with clear annotations, simplifying navigation through complex structures.

Upgrade your online PDF forms with this enhanced Insights functionality for a more streamlined form-building experience and improved logic visualization!

Enhanced Table Field

Introducing our enhanced Table field, now more flexible than ever! Easily input, compare, and organize information, perfect for dynamic surveys, product selections, and detailed data entry.

Key Features:

• Easy to Add: Add the Table field from the Toolbar and adjust properties for clarity.

• Adjustable Table Size and Order: Modify table size and rearrange cells effortlessly to fit your needs.

• Customize Cells: Choose from four cell types or personalize specific cells for adaptability.

• Dropdown and Single Choice: Configure Dropdown options and group Single Choice cells easily for richer data.

• Text Input Options: Customize Text Input cells with text or numbers, making your form more versatile.

Upgrade to experience unparalleled flexibility in form creation! For more details, check our user documentation here.

Incorporate static text with dynamic field answers

Exciting News! Introducing the new form field - Description/Static Text. Easily add static info and dynamic form-filler answers.

Key Features:

• Craft clear descriptions.
• Cut down on repetition by copying responses.
• Reduce errors with a consistent approach to sharing information.

How to Add:

• 👈 Select Description (Online Web Form) or Static Text (Online PDF Form) from the Toolbar.
• ✍️ Add your info/description.
• 🔍 Choose other form field from the variable search box and place it where needed.

Upgrade for a smarter, user-friendly experience!

Upgrade your forms with human being verify 🤖🚫

Introducing ReCaptcha, our latest feature! Boost security and trust by ensuring submissions are from real humans.

Why ReCaptcha Rocks:

• 🌐 Elevates online form security.
• 🤖 Keeps bots and spammers at bay.
• 🚀 Boosts reliability and user trust.

How to Add ReCaptcha:

• 🔧 Go to our easy-peasy form builder.
• 🧩 Simply add the ReCaptcha field to your form.

Why Choose Us:

• 🌟 We’re on a mission to enhance your experience!
• 🔄 Continuously bringing you top-notch features.

Upgrade now and stay ahead in the digital game! 🚀🔒

Automatic PDF Compression

Introducing Automatic PDF Compression! To ensure a smooth experience for your email recipients, think about compressing PDFs larger than 10MB during the upload for conversion.

You have the choice to automatically compress those larger PDFs.This means faster loading times and a significantly improved user experience. Get the most out of your forms with this user-friendly feature! 🌟

Keep original form URL in cloning

Introducing an exciting new feature that lets you clone a form withe ease!

When you clone a form, enable this feature, and the new form will take on the original form’s URL, ensuring that respondents who have previously accessed the form using the original sharing will seamlessly transition to the new form.

Just remember, the original form remains inaccessible until you publish the new form, ensuring a consistent experience for your audience.

Preserve the original form’s URL in cloning for a smoother process and an uninterrupted respondent experience!

Unveil our all-new form builder!

We’re thrilled to introduce a transformative update to our form builder. Get ready to be amazed by the sleek and intuitive design, a selection of new field options, and improved functionality.

Here’s a glimpse of what’s awaiting you:

• 🎨 Intuitive Elegance: A more intuitive and elegant interface. With clearly defined toolbars and organized field sections, you’ll navigate through form creation effortlessly.

• ✨ Expanded Field Options: We’ve enhanced form-building with new field options: sliders for interactivity, ratings for feedback, video integration for richer engagement, and more.

• 🔗 Enhanced Visual Coordination: We’ve connected the left-side fields with their corresponding widgets on the right using clear lines, making it easy for you to quickly locate and pair your fields with their respective widgets.

• 🔍 Field Search Functionality: Our new field search function lets you quickly locate specific fields within the builder interface, saving you time and ensuring a smooth form-building process.

Ready to elevate your form creation game? Log in to PlatoForms now.

To open new the form builder,click the toggle button in the bottom right corner of the existing form builder interface. For more details, check the Explore the form builder section.

More exciting updates are coming soon as we’re committed to enhancing your PlatoForms experience. Your feedback is invaluable, so please share your thoughts and suggestions.

🚀 Happy Form Building! 🚀

Unlock new way to share your form

We’re excited to introduce enhanced ways to share your forms. In addition to Public URL and Embed Script, we now offer QR Code sharing for added convenience.

Here’s the highlights:

• Instant QR Code Download: Easily share your form by displaying the QR Code on your website. Users can quickly scan it with their mobile devices to access and complete the form.

• Effortless HTML Code Copy: With just one click, copy the HTML code for smooth webpage integration.

Give QR Code sharing a try today and streamline your form distribution! For additional details on sharing your forms, check out our user documentation.

Elevate your form design with enhanced properties

Elevate the appeal of your forms with our latest exciting enhancements in form design properties. Get ready to explore the new options that allow you to fine-tune your forms for a more engaging user experience.

Here’s what’s new:

• Help Text Placement: Effortlessly position help text below the field or label. This strategic placement ensures users have easy access to relevant guidance while filling out the form, enhancing clarity and accuracy.

• Label Layout Styles: Uncover a variety of label layout choices that transform your form’s visual presentation. Customize labels to match your design vision and create a seamless form-filling journey.

By optimizing help text placement and label layout styles, you demonstrate your commitment to user-centric design. This results in forms that are not only visually stunning but also intuitive and efficient for users. Ready to explore these enhancements? Delve into the details in our user documentation Form design properties.

Form building evolution: history versions

Discover peace of mind with our new ‘History Version’ feature:

• Automatic periodic saving: Your form is auto-saved at regular intervals.
• Manual saving: Quickly save a version with shortcut Control+S on Windows or ⌘Command+S on Mac.
• Publishing versioning: A new version with each release.

Access the saved versions from the Version History panel, where each version is marked with a colored dot to signify its type. Before restoring a version, remember to save your current edits with Control+S or ⌘Command+S. For published versions, you can also open the published form directly from this panel.

Gain greater control and confidence while crafting your forms with our History Version feature. For more details, check Restore to history version.

API Playground

Discover the magic of the API Playground — a feature that effortlessly blends with every form. Effortlessly delve into and test our API using real form data. Unleash the power to test major API endpoints without the hassle of coding! ✨

• If you’re the Team Owner, seamlessly utilize our API directly with a non-expiry token automatically generated for you.

• If you’re a Team Member, request approval and receive an OAuth2 token to delve into API exploration.

Programming enthusiasts can take advantage of the versatility offered by copying sample code in multiple languages, including shell commands using Curl, Python, JavaScript, Java, or Golang.

We hope you enjoy the API Playground!

• For more details about accessing API Playground, click here.

• For any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to our support team at support@platoforms.com.

Enhanced form design for online web form

Unlock more design options, an intuitive interface, and effortless theme switching for stunning online web forms. Transform your form’s look with a single click.

In the new design interface, take control of fonts, styles, and pre-built themes. Customize typography with Google fonts, upload background images, and add banners for personalized, visually striking forms. Don’t forget the one-click dark mode option for a sleek and modern alternative.

These new styles apply to online web forms. Your feedback is essential; if you want this design for online PDF forms, please tell us. Your input drives us to improve online PDF form design.

Enjoy the enhanced form design experience, and create visually captivating forms. For questions or assistance, reach out to our support team.

Enhanced logic control with ‘clear value’ action and ’else’ function

Achieve more responsive forms with the ‘clear value’ action and ’else’ function.

• ‘clear value’ resets a field after user action.
• ’else’ introduces an alternative action within a single logic, giving you more control.

For additional details, consult our Set Form Logic section.

Filter logics with ease

Do you have many logics in your online forms? Meet the Logic Filter – a handy feature that makes managing your logics a breeze.

You can find conditional logic in two ways:

• Use the filter to search for keywords, which will help you locate all relevant logics based on the keywords.

• Open the Logics panel from the attributes panel of a specific field, which allows you to find all the logics related to that field.

Save time and effort with the Logic Filter. See Filter multiple Form Logics for more details. Contact our support team for assistance. Enjoy using the Logic Filter!

Effortless selection with searchable dropdowns

Exciting news! We’re thrilled to announce the release of our new Searchable Dropdown feature.

Your respondents can now type a few characters, and the dropdown will instantly display matching options. This user-friendly element simplifies dropdown interactions, making it quicker and easier for respondents to find and select options, even in long lists. Say goodbye to endless scrolling and hello to efficient form-filling.

Enhance your forms with the Searchable Dropdown for a superior user experience. For more information, visit Make options searchable. If you need assistance, our support team is here to help.

Verify your email domain with SPF and DKIM

Previously, you could use your own email address to send notification or invitation emails. To do this, you needed to verify the ownership of that email address. However, since this verification is specific to an email address, there is a higher chance of it being rejected by the recipient’s email server.

Today, we are excited to announce a new feature that allows you to verify your custom domain using SPF and DKIM DNS records. By implementing SPF and DKIM, the sending email can be authenticated by the email server, ensuring successful email delivery and enabling your users to receive emails effectively.

Just make sure to have your own domain to use this feature. Visit our FAQ page to see the step-by-step process on how to verify your domain.

Image thumbnail for uploaded images on your form

We are thrilled to introduce a new feature that will enhance the efficiency of filling out PDF forms for your users: Thumbnail for Uploaded Images.

The image thumbnail functionality enables your users to quickly view the images they upload, preventing upload errors and saving them valuable time. With this feature, they can easily preview the uploaded image before finalizing the form submission.

To experience this feature, simply add an “Upload Image” field to your form, preview the form, and try uploading images. Once an image is uploaded, a small overview of it will be displayed on your online PDF form. What’s even more exciting is that the thumbnail is clickable, allowing users to enlarge and view the image in detail.

We believe that this new Thumbnail for Uploaded Images feature will greatly enhance the user experience and streamline the form-filling process. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team.

Email template for your online PDF form notification or invitation

We are excited to announce our email template feature—a feature designed to simplify email creation. Whether you need to send the form email notification or send form invitation to your users, you don’t have to type the same email again and again. With the help of this feature, you can now simply type once, save it as a template, and reuse it later.

You can use the email template in two ways:

• Form Invitation email
• Submissions notification email

You can create the email template through a single form (For individual use), and team form (A template that can be seen by your team members). This way, you can easily save templates and invite your team members to access, create, or collaborate.

Take note that when you create an email template in the form default settings, it will be accessed on your team—but if you’re modifying it in a single form instead, it isn’t shared and meant for personal use.

Now, you don’t have to worry about reworking email anymore—the email template feature offers speed and efficiency; allowing you to focus on providing error-free emails. Read more details in our FAQs page.

Elevate your form with e-signature certificates

More and more organizations are taking advantage of e-signatures today. Because of this, we finally launched an e-signature certificate feature here at PlatoForms!

With this feature, your online forms can now collect e-signatures from your clients.

Although we’ve had signature pads included in our forms ever since the beginning–but with this update, we can now generate a PlatoForms-issued signature certificate along with the signature pad. This signature certificate can ensure that the signature from your forms isn’t altered. This certificate has complete information about the signer:

• Timestamp of the sign
• IP address of the signer
• Email address of the signer

For convenience, you can view and download the signature certificate from PlatoForms’ submission page.

E-signatures are legally bonded to some states in the US, so make sure to consult with your lawyer about their validity to your country.

For detailed instructions about our e-signature certificate, refer to our documentation page.

Stripe Integration

We’re thrilled to announce that PlatoForms now includes Stripe integration!

From small businesses to big companies, everyone uses Stripe to collect and manage payments. As one of the most common online payment processing providers today, you can now integrate your forms with Stripe using PlatoForms. In this update, our forms can now accept payments via Stripe.

The best thing? Aside from Stripe’s usual charge, there is no additional fee! PlatoForms won’t charge on any form payment transaction.

To help you verify the payment integration, we provided a Test Mode integration. Through this, you can check whether the payment works well or not. To start, you can use a test credit card to complete the payment (This won’t cost anything!). Aside from verifying the payment, this amazing feature gives you the confidence to launch any kind of form payment. Once you confirm if the payment completely works as it is, you can enable Live Mode to your form integration for real transactions.

With our Stripe integration, you can now collect card payments, donations, and recurring payments through your online forms—all for free!

For detailed instructions about our Stripe integration, go to our documentation here.

Efficient form completion with pre-filled form

Simplify the form-filling process for your respondents with PlatoForm’s Pre-filled Form feature.

Send pre-populated forms to your respondents, making transactions faster and easier. Whether it’s customer orders, applications, enrollments, or reservations, this feature simplifies the process.

Your respondents won’t have to complete every field; we provide pre-filled forms with their information, making it easy for them to sign off and make payments. Explore further in our documentation.

Email invitation: simplify form management

Upgrade from old sharing methods of static links or embedding forms on website. Welcome our Email Invitation feature for real-time form management.

With this feature, easily monitor invitation status, submissions, and form openings. You have control over settings like expiration dates, password protection, and auto-saving. Tracked invitations provide insights into email delivery, open times, and submissions, including email receipts.

What sets us apart is our focus on personalization. You have the freedom to fully customize your email content, allowing you to tailor the subject and message for a more personalized approach with your clients. Moreover, our feature offers unparalleled flexibility in email distribution. You can opt to send invitations instantly or schedule them for future delivery, with the ability to set any time limit within a 30-day window.

Furthermore, for those seeking to distribute the same form to multiple groups, our new feature streamlines this process by allowing you to duplicate invitations. Whether you opt to enter up to five email addresses manually or upload a contact list that can be saved as a group, our feature makes it easy to extend your outreach to a wider audience.

For more information, visit our documentation.

Form Submission Data Retention Policy

The form data submitted by your users may include some sensitive information such as the customer name, address, date of birth, etc. Although PlatoForms has an extremely secure infrastructure and data security policy to protect your data, you may still not want your data to be stored for too long in any third party system. Our data retention policy can help you with this. You can choose different data retention periods, from 0-day to forever, all under your control. By default, the data retention period is 3 months. All form data submitted by your users will be stored in our system for 3 months after the last submission. During this time, many advanced features can be used to manage the submitted data, such as re-editing forms, traceable revision history, downloading PDFs, searching or sharing PDFs, etc. After the retention period, the submission will be permanently deleted from PlatoForms.

There is a special data retention policy: 0-day. To set a 0-day retention time, you must set up at least one Cloud Drive Integration, and once your data is uploaded to that cloud drive, the submission will be deleted immediately. PlatoForms primarily plays the role of a PDF generator to maximize the protection of your data. However, this also means that you cannot use any data management features or workflows, etc.

For more details, please check its help documentation page.

Receive instant submission notifications via Slack

Now, you can connect your forms with Slack for immediate submission updates. Get notified every time someone submits a form.

Open the ‘Integration’ window in your form settings, click ‘Add to Slack,’ and choose your preferred Slack Channels or direct message recipients to receive PlatoForms notifications.

You can choose which form information to display in your Slack message and add buttons for downloading the PDF or editing the form.

For detailed instructions, refer to our documentation. You can also watch our video tutorial for a quick start.

Fillable PDF Form Submission Summary Report

A summary report has been added under the submission page. On this report page, you can get the number of submissions for all forms. There are various filters to narrow the scope of the summary. For example, you can set a time range to look up the number of submissions in that time period, or do a keyword search by form or folder name. The report can be exported to CSV format so that you can easily share it or use the data in your custom reports.

This is the first version of our summary report. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to contact us, we are always happy to hear feedback from our customers to improve our product.

Appcues Integration

We are pleased to announce our integration with AppCues ( https://www.appcues.com/ ). Appcues makes it easy for you to deliver a exceptional user experience at scale, leading to happier customers and accelerated business growth. With AppCues, you can publish beautiful and in-app guides in minutes. If you has a very complicated form, AppCues is a good option to build a walkthrough guide to help your customers complete the form and improve the completion rate of your form.

We have more third-party integrations coming in the near future. If you are keen on integrating your fillable PDF forms and any other applications, please let us know and we will be happy to research and integrate to help your business.

Cascading dropdown lists feature

Introducing Cascading Dropdown Lists in PlatoForms! Simplify data collection with linked dropdown fields where choices in one field depend on the selection made in a previous field.

For example, in a car rental reservation form, users select a car brand (e.g., Ford), which dynamically updates the next dropdown to show models (e.g., Mustang, Focus). For even more specific details, you can create additional levels. It’s all about streamlining data entry. Try it now!

Enhance customer control: preview PDF before submitting

Now, you can offer your customers a more flexible experience. Enable the Preview the PDF before submitting option in Form Settings. With this feature, your customers can review the PDF at any point, even before submission. It’s all about giving them the confidence and control they deserve!

Customise Your PDF Forms

When you have finished building fillable PDF form in PlatoForms, you can edit the settings to rebrand the form to represent your organisation before sharing it with others. Here are some options you can consider:

Custom domain. The link to the shared form starts with https://forms.platoforms.com. You can edit this by customising the domain name to match that of your organisation.

Sender email address. When your form receives submissions, PlatoForms may send notification emails to your users. By default, the email address provided in the “From” section is mailer@platoforms.com. This email is unmonitored and any responses will be ignored. You can set up a customised email address instead so that replies from your users won’t be missed.

Logo and Theme. You can change the font size and colours, form background etc in Form Designer. You may also upload the logo of your organisation to the top of the form. For instance, the form can be edited to match the colour scheme and design of your organisation, allowing it to blend seamlessly when embedded into your webpage.

API and Webhook. This is the ultimate way to customise the features in PlatoForms. Except for creating, publishing of the form, and user management, you can implement nearly all features in PlatoForms, such as submitting the form, extracting the submission list, downloading created PDFs or retrieving submission raw data.

With these above features, you can create a fully customised form with personalised branding. It helps to establish a more professional outlook of your organisation and ensures all customer replies and inquiries are received.

Save for Later PDF Form

Your PDF may not be a simple one-page form. It can have multiple pages, many fields to fill, and even upload multiple attachment files. To complete such fillable PDF forms at once is very hard work. Your client may want to complete this form several times over a period of days. Our form is an online form that opens in the browser and loses content when the browser is closed. You can now enable the “Save for Later” feature to resolve this issue. You can enable it through form settings. When enabled, there will be a new “Save for Later” button in the form submission bar. By clicking on it, a URL link pops up while the form is saved. Form submitters can come back with this URL and everything will be the same as it was when they clicked “Save for Later”

Not only is this feature helpful for filling out a large form, but it can also be used to create a simple workflow. For example, your form requires two roles on the team to complete, the first person can fill in what needs to be filled in their role and then share that “Save for Later” URL to the next person, who will complete the other part of the form and submit it. It’s much simpler to create than our standard workflow.

This feature is available to all trial and paid users. You can find more details in our help document.

HIPAA-Compliant PDF Forms

We understand how important HIPAA compliance is, but also how difficult it can be to stay compliant. That’s why PlatoForms offer HIPAA compliant online forms. This will allow you to collect personal data without danger of non-compliance.

Here are a few common questions we receive about our service.

How to make your forms are HIPAA-compliant?

We offer HIPAA compliance to our Silver or Gold plan subscribers. If you are in an industry, such as insurance or medical, you can choose one of these plans and request HIPAA compliance for your team. After that, all forms of your team will be HIPAA-compliant.

Will PlatoForms sign a Business Associate Agreement?

Yes, we will sign a BAA to make sure you stay HIPAA compliant.

Is it easy to build a HIPAA Compliant form?

Yes, there is no different to build HIPAA-Compliant form with others. You can use our user-friendly form builder to create online forms for any PDF you use in the office.

To learn more, please visit HIPAA compliance document page. We’re looking forward to working with you and helping you get the personal information you need to serve your clients or patients.

Send a form in multiple languages

Creating multilingual forms made easy! Enhance user experience by catering to your customers in their preferred languages.

Here’s how it works:

• Create forms in multiple languages.
• Set a primary language as the default.
• Each language gets a unique URL.
• Users switch languages easily using the drop-down list.

Translating content is a breeze:

• Edit translations in your browser.
• Import/export translations with an Excel file.

Available on all our plans, including the free version, for worldwide engagement. Explore our user guide or video tutorial for more details.

Internationalisation PDF form i18n PDF Form

Reuse the submission content on PDF

If your PDF needs to be signed on every page, our previous method was to create a master form and then add the linked PDF. The master form field can be repeated anywhere on any page so you can put the signature in the right place. Your customers only need to sign once on the master form, and the PDF will automatically fill in all the signatures. Now, this feature comes to our online web form. Open the Field Properties dialogue box and click on the “Reuse Content on PDF” link. This field will add a copy to the PDF and drag it to the desired location. Again, you can place this “reuse field” on any page and anywhere in the PDF. Not only signatures, but you can also reuse any type of field, such as text box or checkbox. The implementation of our PDF online form is different. You need to add logic to copy the value of the field to another field. Read our documentation for more details.

Set the initial value on the text field

In previous versions, you could set default values ​​in a checkbox or drop-down list. You can now also set the initial value in the text field. It can not only set a fixed value, but also set the current date or time, and even get the initial value from the URL. For example, if you append parameters to the form URL ?foo=bar, when you set foo to the URL value, when the form is initially displayed, the text box will get the value of foo from the URL, which is bar, displayed on this text field.

Create smart forms with conditional logic

Your forms can be as comprehensive as needed, but not all respondents are required to fill out every field. Sometimes, specific choices or conditions dictate the flow of your form. That’s where conditional logic comes into play.

PlatoForms offers you the flexibility and sophistication needed to create intelligent forms that guide your customers seamlessly through the completion process. Our conditional logic is both robust and highly adaptable. Here’s what you can achieve with it:

• Show, hide, enable, or disable questions.
• Set values for questions.
• Copy values from one question to another.
• Perform calculations and populate answers.
• Navigate to specific pages within your online form.
• And much more.

Enhance your forms with the magic of conditional logic, guiding your respondents to complete forms with precision and ease. For more details, check here.

Flexible e-mail notifications

In the previous version, PlatoForms sends e-mails to the e-mail account you use for login in, so all your team members will know when your form got submitted. Now you can add up to 10 different e-mail addresses in the form of notification recipients. Furthermore, you can select the fields in your form, if they have a valid e-mail input, so the email can be sent at the address you mention. Here is a good example of how you can use this feature: if you want your customers to receive the PDF immediately after they completed the form. You can add an e-mail field in the form and ask them to fill in their e-mail address. All e-mails will have the completed PDF as an attached file, so the recipient of such an e-mail doesn’t need to log into PlatoForms to download the PDF manually.

PlatoForms Zapier App

Zapier is extremely easy to use and currently is the most popular method to interconnect your favourite applications. With only a few clicks, the tools you use most frequently will hook up and data will flow through from one to the other in an automated manner. Now, we are excited to let you know that PlatoForms is officially integrated with Zapier as well. It brings the full power of PlatoForms to more than 1,000 applications! When the submission of your form is successful, PlatoForms simply creates an afferent PDF and triggers a Zapier flow (which is called a “zap” by Zapier). Also, don’t be afraid to use your imagination and create your own zap, according to your needs, when it comes to automating your work. For example, you can send a Slack message to your team, import data into a Google Sheet, and upload a PDF to your CRM system!

Here is a step-by-step guide that will show you how to create a zap for uploading the submission data into Google Sheets or upload PDF files to Amazon S3. You can start everything we talked about free of any charge!

Except for our new Zapier integration, we have updated our API to version 4, it is fully compatible with Swagger, check it out here!

Folders for organized management

We’ve made your experience on PlatoForms even better with a more organized approach. We’re excited to introduce our new feature: Folders.

Now, on the Dashboard, you’ll find three tabs: Online Forms, Master Forms, and PDF Files. You can create folders under each of these tabs, allowing you to neatly categorize your content.

You can also keep things tidy by moving forms or files between folders.

We’ve also added sorting options for your convenience. You can sort your forms and files by name, creation date, or update date.

This update is all about making your workspace more organized and user-friendly. Try out the new Folders feature, and for more details, check our documentation.

Update your PDF attributes with more ease

In the previous version, in your PDF form builder or PDF file builder, if you wanted to change the font size, style, or colour to all your PDF widgets, you had to modify them one by one. Now, all of the builders feature a Style button on their top navigation bar. By clicking on it, you can change the font attributes to the desired widgets at once, within one PDF attribute panel. It features an advanced option as well, allowing you to decide if these changes also apply to the existing widgets or not.

Streamline form submissions with Cloud Drive integration

When you receive a submission on your form, PlatoForms will send you an email notification with a PDF attachment. You can also download the PDF directly from the Submissions page.

But that’s not all! Now, we’re bringing you an additional game-changer: seamless integration with your favorite cloud drives. This means that all generated PDFs will be uploaded to your chosen cloud folder the moment your form receives a submission.

Supported cloud drives include Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, and Google Drive. Setting up your preferred cloud drive is a breeze. Just follow the step-by-step guide or check our video tutorial.

Please note that this feature is exclusively available to our premium plans or trial users. If your trial version has already expired but you’re eager to explore this fantastic feature, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’re here to help you make the most of PlatoForms!

Create the PDF by API request

we are pleased to announce is the launch of our new API version 3. The most important features of this version are:

• You can use API to submit your form;
• Retrieve the definition of all fields belonging to your forms;
• Non-Expiry Token and Session Authentication are supported, plus OAuth2 authentication in version 2.

Why is the new API better? It boosts the potential of PlatoForms when merged with your in-house system, improving your work process. Let us take one scenario, in which your organization has data that needs to be printed on various pre-designed PDF files. With the help of PlatoForms, you simply upload the PDF files and use the drag-and-drop form builder to create the web form. Then, API comes into the scene, allowing you to post the data and generate the PDF files based on the fields mapping between the form and PDF. This way, you save not just time but also a lot of resources, which may be needed in the case of developing and maintaining a system that allows you to render data into PDF files. Also, don’t hesitate to use Webhook as well, a feature that gives you the chance to download a PDF file on the spot, as soon as it generation is completed.

The former API version, the API v2, will be withdrawn from use starting with the 1st of January 2019, due to the fact that it is outdated and depreciated. For more information about our latest API version, we kindly invite you to check our API documentation.

Form builder Enhancement

Our form builder was enhanced so that it can answer to your requirements in a more professional and specific manner.

• Copy and Paste
• Undo and Redo
• Alignment guidance
• Snap between widgets

Allow us to get into more details and present our new PlatoForms features, so you will have a clearer view of what you will enjoy if you choose our services:

• Now, all form widgets can simply be copied and pasted (Windows: CTRL-C, CTRL-V; MacOS: CMD-C, CMD-V), just as simple as that. This is a feature that can be used across any page within the same PDF. In other words, feel free to copy a widget from one PDF page and add it to another PDF page.
• Don’t you enjoy how the form looks after the changes you made? Then do find out that Undo and Redo can be applied for adding, deleting, resizing or moving any widget(Windows: CTRL-Z, CTRL-Y; MacOS: CMD-Z, CMD-SHIFT-Z). You can do this kind of operations on each page separately, so you don’t have to undo the entire form if you realize that one of its pages doesn’t respect your requirements;
• We introduced the alignment guidance feature, which allows you to quickly align the widgets. While dragging or resizing a widget, the alignment lines will indicate if it is aligned with other widgets next to the borders or middle area in a visible manner.
• If you drag and drop a widget in the proximity of another, it will automatically snap in a place that is in the proximity of the closest widget. If you want to disable this feature, just press and hold the SHIFT key when dragging widgets.
• In PDF, you can use keyboard arrow key to move the widget by pixel ad pixel.

It doesn’t matter what form builder you choose to use, as these features are present in all our builders, for example, the Web form builder, PDF form builder, Master from builder and PDF maker. So, have fun at making your own tailored form!

Submit a form and create multiple PDF files

It’s common that many PDF documents need to be filled in with some of the same information. For example, a lawyer may ask a client to fill in numerous PDFs with their personal information, such as name, address, phone number etc. Traditionally,, the lawyer would have to ask the client to write out their information again and again. But PlatoForms Master Form helps this. A master form is an online form, but, unlike our Web Online Form, it doesn’t need the PDF to be uploaded in advance. To build a master form, firstly, use our drag and drop form builder to create the layout. Then upload PDF linking to this master form. After the PDF has been uploaded, you need to map the fields from the master form to this PDF. We call this kind of PDF a Linked PDF. You can link any amount of PDF files to a master form.

You can then publish the master form and its linked PDFs. PlatoForms gives you a shared URL or embedded script so you can share this form with your clients. After they have submitted a completed master form, its data are used to generate all linked PDF files. This means, as in the previous example, the lawyer creates a master form and links all PDFs that need the client’s personal information. After the clients fill out the one master form, all linked PDF files are created together! No need to ask clients to write their name and address five times!

Like the normal form, you can view and download the PDF files from our Submission page. The download is a zipped package that includes all linked PDF files. Also, you can resubmit the master form to correct all linked PDFs at once. PlatoForms keeps all revision information so you can audit what modifications are made. Safe and easy!
For more details, please check out our help documentation: MASTER FORM BUILDER.

Letter Spacing

When it comes to PDF files, some text fields are designed for writing letter by letter in connected text cells; one cell being made to suit one letter or one number. For example, a driver license number or passport number etc. Before this feature was created, in order to come up with a tidy PDF containing such text format, you had to create much smaller text inputs and the user could only input the characters one by one, jumping from one cell to another. Now you can simply adjust the space between the letters, spreading them into those text cells in a neat and even manner, after typing them all at once.

Use A Custom Domain Name For Your Forms

We pleased to announce a new feature: you can share forms using your domain name URL! This feature is also called Custom Domain or Domain Name Masking. For example, the URL of your form was https://form.platoforms.com/frcaserswr. After set up, your form URL will be https://sales.yourdomainhere.com/form/frcaserswr. With this feature, you can easily hide platoforms.com from your customers.

To utilise this feature, you must own a domain name and have permission to change its DNS records (i.e. adding CNAME records for your subdomain name).

After you update the CNAME in your DNS registrar, our system will automatically install an SSL certificate to protect your form with HTTPS. Thanks to Let’s Encrypt, this certification is 100% free and we automatically handle everything for you, from installation to renewal.

For more details on how to set up, please check out our help documentation: CUSTOM DOMAIN.

A New Way To Present Your PDF Form Online

Our current service converts your regular PDF into an online web form. This allows your clients to fill out a PDF without any hassle, as it becomes just a typical online form. However, building the form may be a challenge that will test your patience, especially if your PDF is complex. Today, we are pleased to announce a new way to create your PDF form online. In this new mode, you simply drag and drop the input elements into your PDF to make it fillable. Even if your PDF already has a fillable form, this process will take just a snap as our system automatically does this for you. After the PDF form has been built, you can also publish it as a web page, then either embed it in your website or share its URL. Your clients can then open the web page and fill and submit the form. It is as simple as it sounds.

Here is the comparison of these two form creation methods: TRY THEM NOW.

Online Web Form

We transform your PDF form into a web form that is easy for everyone to fill out. Our web forms are compatible with all web browsers and they provide great mobile experiences and fast page loading. It will take more effort to build this form (as opposed to an online PDF) because you have to cover the web form and PDF mapping.

Online PDF Form

This is easy to build, keeps all the details from your original PDF, and is suitable for any complex PDF form. This form is only compatible with the latest web browsers – like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Edge – not IE. The page loading speed could be slightly slower if your PDF has many images.

One More Thing

We also have a great feature that was just released last month. If you don’t have a PDF just yet, you can always build one from scratch. We support most elements, regardless of their field type – text input, checkboxes, signatures, etc. Once you have completed the design of your PDF, you can convert it with one single click to our online web form^ or online PDF form. That’s all you need to do to allow your customers to complete it online!

^ You still need to map the PDF label to the web form label.

For more details, please check out our help documentation: ONLINE PDF FORM BUILDER.

Create PDFs From Scratch

I am pleased to announce PlatoForms can now make a fillable PDF document from scratch. The PDF Maker is a drag-and-drop editor to create a PDF from scratch. It supports various form field types – e.g., input box, choice, dropdown, signature, etc. All of these fields can have customised properties, for example: font, size, colour, border, background, etc.

The created PDF form will be read-only at this stage. To make it fillable, you can press the Make Online Form button on the editor function bar. PlatoForms will then convert this PDF to an online form. All PDF fields are mapped to relative online form fields. When your created PDF is converted to an online form, you need to bind the label, help text, or placeholder for the input fields. We try to make this as easy as possible, so all these inputs have auto-completed context text, which is extracted from your PDF.

You can create unlimited PDF documents and this feature is totally FREE!

For more details, please check out our help documentation: PDF MAKER.

Export Form Submissions

When your customer submits a form, our system will send you an email with the form generated PDF to your inbox. From our Submissions page, you can review the submission data and download or re-generate the PDF etc. You can also export the data.
Click the Export Submissions button and select a date range to set the scope of submissions to download. Before exporting, our system cleverly tells you how many submissions are within your selected period. Click the Export button and a zip file will start to download within a few seconds. The package includes one or more CSV format files – if this form has multiple revisions, like if you have published this form multiple times, the zip file will include a different CSV for each revision of the form.

You can open the CSV file with any plain text editor, MS Excel, or MacOS Numbers. All submissions of raw data are included, even the generated PDF URL. It is an easy alternative to our API if you want to import data into your system.

For more details, please check out our help documentation: EXPORT FORM SUBMISSIONS.

Web form designer

We pleased to announce that our form designer feature is released today! With our form designer, you can easily change form colour, font, size, layout, etc. It also supports embedded CSS to give you the super power to totally customise your form’s look and feel.

To access our form designer, in the form builder page press the Preview Form button on the top navigation bar. In the new window, click the Form Design button on the top right. The form designer is presented as a sidebar on the left-hand side. It is extremely easy to use. All changes are immediately reflected on the form in the preview section. Once you are satisfied with the new UI, Apply the design to save it. Note that this won’t impact the sharing form if it was published before. The new look is only exposed to the public when you publish the form again. This means you won’t impact your customers with an intermediary work, and you can save your design work frequently.

The form designer has two tabs. The first is Design, which is enough for most customisation requirements. If you want to have maximum control over your form, you can paste the CSS content in the second tab. All CSS in this tab has higher priority than defaults, meaning it will overwrite the existing styles.

For more details, please check out our help documentation: FORM DESIGNER.

Checkbox Vs. Radio Button

In a PDF, you usually need a tick or cross to mark selections. Choice is the proper widget to fit in. There are two kinds of Choice: one is Checkbox, which allows multiple selections, and the other is Radio Button, which allows only one selection. From its properties dialogue, you can turn on/off the Multiple Choices option to switch between easily.

Press Add Choice to add more items. Each item has a draggable square widget in the right-hand side PDF panel, just drag it to the proper location in your PDF. In the web form, each Choice item has a different label to tell what this option is for. Once it is selected in the web form, a tick or cross is rendered into your PDF at the location you dragged.

With the Other Choice option you can add a text box in the web form, which is rendered as text in your PDF.

For more details, please check out our help documentation: CHOICE PROPERTIES.

Clone a form

Save time on form creation! The “Clone” function duplicates existing forms effortlessly, allowing you to make minor changes like adding or removing fields or adjusting the layout without starting from scratch.

Once cloned, your new form inherits all fields, logic, and settings from the original. Need to add a new Text Input field? Simply insert it in the form builder, drag it to the right spot in the PDF, and effortlessly publish the updated version. Form editing made easy!

For more details, please check our user documentation here.

Preview with sample data

We’re excited to introduce a time-saving feature in our Form Builder! Now you can effortlessly streamline your preview process by prefilling specific fields with sample data.

For example, when building a form, inputting “John Joe” into the “Text Input” field for the name allows you to automatically fill that field with just one click of the Fill Preview Data button during the form preview. This not only enhances efficiency but also facilitates the swift preview of generated PDFs after form submissions.

Your pre-set sample data seamlessly integrates into the PDF preview when you click Preview PDF, providing a comprehensive snapshot of the submitted information.

Please note that certain fields, such as File Upload or ReCaptcha, require manual completion and cannot be pre-filled.

For more detailed instructions and insights, refer to our user documentation here. Upgrade your form-building experience today!

Introduce API Version 1

Embark on a seamless data journey with our inaugural API release!

🌐✨ Highlights:

• Seamless Access: Effortlessly retrieve form and submission information programmatically.

• Real-time Notifications: Empower your workflow with Webhooks, delivering instant alerts for new form submissions.

• Security with OAuth2: Safeguard your data with OAuth2 protocol; obtain a unique Client ID and Client Secret through our intuitive dashboard.

• Webhook Configuration: Tailor Webhooks to your needs by setting up event monitoring for submissions and receive PDF links in real-time.

• Comprehensive Documentation: Explore technical details and examples in our API documentation for a smooth integration experience.

• Accessible Across Plans: Enjoy API and Webhook functionality across all plans, with different usage volume limitations.

• Free for Trial Users: Trial users can harness the power of API and Webhooks at no additional cost.

For more details about OAuth2 protocol, check DigitalOcean’s article here.