Here’s the thing about building form software in 2025: everyone’s chasing the same dream—beautiful, simple forms that anyone can fill out.
But we kept hearing a different story from our customers: “We have 500 PDFs. They’re not pretty, but they’re what we use. Can you help us with PDF to online form conversion without losing our layout?”
So this year, we didn’t just make forms prettier — we focused on something harder: making existing workflows actually digital. Here’s how that played out.
The Core Problem We’re Solving
Most form builders assume you’re starting from scratch. Pick a template, drag some fields, share it. Done.
But real businesses don’t always work that way. They have:
- Government forms from 1987 that still need to be filled out
- Legal contracts their lawyers spent years perfecting
- Industry-specific forms they can’t just “redesign”
- Approval workflows that involve actual humans saying yes or no
That’s the gap we’re filling. Not “create any form you want” but “take the forms you already have and make them work in 2025.”
Everything we built this year follows that thread.
Act 1: Making It Easier to Get Started
AI PDF Recognition
The biggest barrier wasn’t designing forms—it was converting the ones people already had.
Upload a PDF. Any PDF. Government form, contract, application. Our AI looks at it and identifies the fields automatically.
Is it perfect? Not exactly — but it gets you 90% of the way there without saying a word. What used to take 45 minutes now takes about five.
One customer thought digitizing all their forms would take months. With AI recognition, it turned into a weeks-long project instead.
Why this matters: You can’t digitize your workflow if step one takes forever. We removed that friction.
Act 2: Giving You Control When You Need It
JavaScript Customization
Sometimes you need your form to do something specific. Really specific.
Maybe it’s a loan calculator that updates in real-time. Maybe it’s custom validation that checks against your internal database. Maybe it’s just… weird.
So we let you write actual JavaScript in your forms. Not widgets. Not plugins. Actual code.
Why this matters: Most form builders force you to choose between “easy but limited” or “powerful but complicated.” We wanted both. Use the visual builder for 90% of your form, then drop into code for that one special thing.
Four Ways to Embed
Forms don’t live in isolation. They go on websites. And every website is different.
So we added four embed modes:
- Standard: Classic iframe embed
- Modal: Popup on button click
- Popup: Floating button in the corner
- Full Page: Take over an entire section
Save your styling once, reuse it everywhere.
Why this matters: Your form shouldn’t fight with your website. It should fit naturally, wherever you need it.
Act 3: Handling Real-World Complexity
Repeat Fields
Real life is messy. Forms ask for “up to 5 family members” but someone has 7. Or “previous employers” when someone’s had 12 jobs.
Repeat Fields let users add as many copies of a section as they need. Click “Add Another”, new section appears.
Why this matters: The alternative is either making 20 copies of the same fields or telling users “sorry, only 5 allowed.”
Multiple Password Levels
Not all forms need the same security. Your company BBQ RSVP is different from patient intake forms.
We added three password levels:
- Opening the form
- Accessing saved progress
- Viewing shared submissions
Mix and match based on what you need.
Timezone Management
Now you choose:
- Submitter’s timezone
- Your timezone
- A custom timezone
No more mental math across borders.
Act 4: The Details That Actually Matter
Text Spacing Control
Government forms, legal contracts, insurance documents—they need pixel-perfect alignment.
We added three spacing modes:
- Natural
- Distributed
- Custom Blocks
Why this matters: “Close enough” isn’t good enough for compliance.
Smart Table Selection
Rate 10 products across 5 categories? Select entire rows or columns at once.
Small friction gone → higher completion rates.
Act 5: Making Forms Feel Human
Conversational Mode
Long forms are intimidating. Conversational forms show one question at a time—no rebuild required.
Toggle once, keep all logic and fields intact.
Workflow Reminders
Real workflows involve real people who forget.
We added scheduled reminders (up to 3). If they finish early, remaining reminders auto-cancel.
Act 6: Enterprise Needs
Submission Limits & Auto-Unpublish
Hit your submission cap → form automatically unpublishes and redirects.
Form Transfer
Hand off an entire form—including submissions—directly to your client’s account.
Web Form Templates
Not everyone starts from a PDF. We added templates for applications, surveys, checklists—real ones people actually use.
📊 Real Stories from Real Teams
Healthcare: Dr. Curtis Fischer automated 90% of his practice’s paperwork.
Non-Profit: Max Ufer cut administrative time by 80% to focus more on members.
Education: Amit Petal used Zapier integrations to achieve a 3x faster turnaround.
Act 7: Closing the Year Strong
By Q4, something shifted.
Teams weren’t just digitizing forms—they were digitizing entire processes: HR onboarding, medical intake, multi-step approvals. The gaps became clearer, so we closed them.
A Template Library That Actually Helps You Start
We expanded to 1,000+ ready-to-use templates.
Click “Use This Template” → you land in the builder with a complete, editable form.
No blank page. No setup.
Batch Actions for Submissions
When you get hundreds (or thousands) of submissions, you need efficiency:
- Delete in bulk
- Download PDFs in bulk
- Manage current-page selections instantly
A tiny feature with enormous impact.
Smarter AI Everywhere
AI Recognition got faster.
AI Form Generation grew up.
More accuracy. More context. Less busywork.
Conversational Mode Grows Up
Not just “nice.”
Teams used it to cut drop-off dramatically—one question at a time just works.
Workflow Reminders That Keep Humans Moving
People forget. Automated nudges keep workflows alive without becoming annoying.
The Through-Line
AI recognition. JavaScript. Timezones. Text spacing. Conversational mode. Enterprise workflows. Templates. Batch actions.
All answering one question:
How do we help real businesses digitize real workflows?
Not just pretty surveys. Not just more templates.
But transforming paper, PDFs, and email chains into something that actually works digitally.
What’s Next
2026 is about going deeper:
- Smarter AI that understands industry context
- Better collaboration with real-time editing
- More workflow intelligence
All still guided by the same goal: digitize the workflows you actually have.
Try It Yourself
👉 Start your free trial
📚 Read the documentation
🎥 Watch tutorials
Questions? Talk to us
P.S. If you’re still manually typing PDF data into spreadsheets… we should talk.
Happy form building! 🚀
From the PlatoForms team—making forms that work for how you actually work.
