Text

Free feature

Text is available to all Fomr users.

The Text component adds written content to your form. Unlike question components, it doesn’t collect responses—it displays information, instructions, or context that helps people answer the questions around it.

One text block holds a whole passage. A single block can contain several paragraphs, headings, bulleted and numbered lists, links, and fine print. You format everything from a toolbar that appears when you select text.

A text block with a heading, a paragraph, and a bulleted list in a form

When to use Text

Text works well for:

• Section introductions
• Instructions and guidance
• Legal disclaimers and fine print
• Context before a group of questions
• Lists of requirements, steps, or what to bring
• Any informational content

Tip

Text blocks are for display only. They don’t collect any data from respondents.

Adding a text block

1. Open your form in the editor

2. Open the Components panel in the left sidebar and click Text, or drag it onto the canvas

3. Click the block and start typing

4. Select any text to open the formatting toolbar

Note

Pressing Enter starts a new paragraph inside the same block—it doesn’t create a second block. Whenever you want another block, add it from the Components panel.

Writing in a text block

Paragraphs and line breaks

• Enter starts a new paragraph, with the usual spacing between paragraphs.
• Shift+Enter adds a line break without that spacing. Use it for addresses, short lines that belong together, or anywhere the next line is part of the same paragraph.

One block or several

A block is the unit you move around the canvas. Everything inside it travels together when you drag it, and it’s hidden, duplicated, or deleted as a whole.

• Keep it in one block when the parts belong together—an introduction and the bullet list that explains it, for example.
• Split it into separate blocks when you want to reorder the pieces independently, or hide one part of the copy without hiding the rest.

The formatting toolbar

Select some text and a toolbar appears above it. Everything you can change about a text block lives here—there’s no separate settings panel to open.

The formatting toolbar above a text selection

Control	What it does
Text style	Switches between Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, Paragraph, and Small
Bold, Italic, Underline	Emphasizes the selected words
Text color	Applies a theme color or a custom color
Bulleted list, Numbered list	Turns the selected lines into a list
Link	Adds or edits a link, and sets whether it opens in a new tab
Alignment	Left, center, right, or justify

Text style and alignment apply to whole blocks—every paragraph, heading, or list your selection touches. To change one line, select part of that line; to change several at once, drag across them. Bold, italic, underline, color, and links apply to exactly the characters you selected.

Text styles

Style	Best for
Heading 1	The title of a section
Heading 2	Sub-sections inside a longer passage
Heading 3	A short label above a paragraph or list
Paragraph	Body text (the default)
Small	Fine print such as disclaimers, footnotes, and legal notes

Sizes and fonts come from your form’s theme, so headings stay consistent with the rest of the form.

The text style dropdown with Heading 1-3, Paragraph, and Small

Text color

The color menu offers a row of swatches drawn from your form’s theme—text, secondary text, primary, and error—plus a crossed-out swatch that clears the color back to the default.

Theme swatches follow the theme. If you switch themes or adjust your colors later, text using a theme swatch updates with it.

Below the swatches, a color picker lets you choose any custom color. Custom colors are fixed: they stay exactly as you set them when the theme changes.

The theme swatches and the custom color picker

Tip

Prefer the theme swatches when you can. They keep the form coherent and save you from re-editing text every time you change the design.

Lists

Use the bulleted or numbered list buttons, or type - or 1. at the start of a line.

• Enter starts the next item.
• Enter on an empty item leaves the list.
• Tab indents an item into a sub-list, and Shift+Tab moves it back out.

While your selection is inside a list, the text style dropdown is hidden. Turn the list off first if you want to convert those lines to a heading or paragraph.

Links

Select the text you want to link, click the link button, and enter a URL. Use the icon inside the link field to choose whether the link opens in a new tab, then save.

To remove a link, select the linked text and click the unlink button.

Formatting shortcuts

Type these at the start of a line and the line converts as you type:

Type this	You get
#	Heading 1
##	Heading 2
###	Heading 3
-	Bulleted list
1.	Numbered list

These keyboard shortcuts also work while you type:

Shortcut	Result
Enter	New paragraph
Shift+Enter	Line break inside the current paragraph
Ctrl/Cmd+B	Bold
Ctrl/Cmd+I	Italic
Ctrl/Cmd+U	Underline
Tab / Shift+Tab	Indent or outdent a list item

Editor undo and redo covers text edits too, so you can always step back.

Pasting text

Paste a passage from a document or web page and it stays in one text block, with its paragraphs, headings, and lists intact. Formatting Fomr doesn’t support is dropped, so pasted content picks up your form’s fonts and sizes.

A text block holds up to 10,000 characters. If a paste would push the block past that, Fomr refuses it and shows a message—split the content across several text blocks instead.

Personalizing with answer piping

Type @ inside a text block to insert an answer from an earlier page, so the passage can greet someone by name or repeat a detail they already gave you. See Answer piping for the full setup.

Tips

• Keep it brief — Long blocks of text are often skipped. Get to the point quickly.
• Use for context, not questions — Text blocks don’t collect data. Use them to provide information that helps respondents answer the actual questions.
• Lead with a heading — A short Heading 2 or Heading 3 above a passage makes a long form much easier to scan.
• Reach for Small on purpose — Small is for fine print. Using it for the main message just makes it harder to read.
• Break up long forms — Use text blocks to introduce sections and give respondents a sense of progress.
• Don’t overuse — Too many text blocks can make forms feel long. Only add text when it genuinely helps.
• Write for scanning — Most people scan rather than read. Short paragraphs, lists, and plain language do the work.

Text blocks vs. supporting content

A Text component can stand on its own between questions, or live inside a question as supporting content. When to use which:

Use a standalone text block when	Use supporting content when
Introducing a section or page	Explaining one specific question
The information relates to several questions	The helper text belongs right under one title
You want a visual break in the form	The reader needs context at the moment of answering

Accessibility

The Text component is built with accessibility in mind:

• Headings create real structure that screen readers can navigate
• Text respects user font size preferences
• Links are announced as links

A few things that help:

• Use headings in order—start a section with Heading 1 or Heading 2, then go down a level—rather than picking a style purely for its size.
• Don’t rely on color alone to carry meaning. Pair a colored warning with wording that says the same thing.
• Check contrast when you use custom colors, especially against a colored or image background.

Handling in responses

Since text blocks don’t collect data:

• They don’t appear in form responses
• They’re not included in exports
• They’re purely for display purposes