Create your first form

This guide covers how to create a form, add components, and publish it.

Start a new form

You have three options:

Start from scratch — Click New form at the top of the sidebar, or in the top right corner of a workspace’s Forms page. You’ll get a blank canvas ready for building. The form is created in the workspace you’re in, or in the one you visited last when you use the sidebar button. See Workspaces to organize forms by team, client, or project.

Create with AI — From the empty canvas, click Create with AI and describe the form you want to build. Fomr generates the first draft for you, and it works whether you’re signed in or just trying things out as a guest.

You can adjust anything the draft comes with afterward. Buttons, colors, and layout all live in the Design panel on the Build tab.

Use a template — Click Template gallery in the sidebar to start from a pre-built template, like a contact form, survey, or registration.

Tip

Templates save time, especially when you’re getting started. You can always customize everything after.

A workspace's Forms page with the New form button

When you create a new form from scratch, you’ll see an empty canvas with actions to Create with AI or choose a template. Choosing a template opens the template gallery right inside the editor, so you can search, filter, and preview templates without leaving the page.

A form open in the editor canvas

Add your first component

The Components panel shows all available components—text inputs, dropdowns, checkboxes, images, ratings, and more. To open it, click the Components icon in the toolbar on the left side of the editor. (If you’re trying Fomr as a guest on a desktop, the panel is already open.) To add a component, click it or drag it onto the canvas.

Try adding a Short Answer component—click it in the Components panel or drag it onto the canvas.

/ Contact Us Saved

Build Workflows Configure Results

Publish

Contact information Preview

Components

Search...

Text questions

Short answer

Long answer

Contact details

Email

Phone

Link

Content and layout

Your name *

Enter your full name

Your email *

[email protected]

Your message *

Type your message here...

Send message

Email

Basic

Required

Placeholder [email protected]

Email

[email protected]

1 Open Components

2 Drag a component

3 Drop on the outline

4 Open its settings

Drag a component from the Components panel, drop it where the dashed outline appears, then click it to open its settings.

Customize each component

Click any component to select it. The settings panel opens on the right, and you can start customizing.

Every component also has a hide (eye) toggle, so you can keep something in your draft while leaving it out of the published form. See hiding and showing pages and components.

A selected component with the settings panel open on the right

To change a component to another compatible type, click the switch icon next to the component name in the settings panel and choose a replacement. Fomr keeps compatible settings and clears anything that no longer fits the new type, including incompatible default values.

The component type switcher open in the settings panel

Edit directly on the canvas

For most text, including questions, supporting text, image captions, and placeholders, you can edit right on the canvas. Just click and type. For image captions, turn on Caption in the settings panel first, then edit the text below the image on the canvas.

Use the settings panel for more options

The right panel gives you everything else. What you can customize depends on the component:

• Choice components — Add, remove, and reorder options
• Number inputs — Collect numeric answers
• Email and phone — Built-in format validation
• Image — Choose an image source, add captions, and set the size
• Media — Change the link, add a caption, and turn full width on or off
• Input components — Toggle required, add supporting content, set placeholders

Tip

The best way to learn is to explore. Drop different components onto your form and see what each one can do.

Preview before publishing

Click the Preview button in the top toolbar to see exactly what your users will see. Test the flow, check that validations work, and make sure everything looks right.

Previewing a form as a respondent will see it

Publish your form

When you’re ready, click Publish in the top right corner. Your form will be live and can accept responses.

Your draft does not need to be finished while you’re building. Fomr saves incomplete work automatically. When you’re ready to go live, publishing checks the form for missing, invalid, or over-limit content and shows any issues you need to fix first.

For multi-page forms, every normal page must include at least one question component before publishing will succeed. Intro pages are for welcome or instruction content and cannot contain questions.

Anything you have hidden—components or whole pages—is not included when you publish, but stays in your draft for later.

Remember to publish

Every time you make changes, you need to publish again. Unpublished changes stay in draft mode—your users won’t see them until you hit Publish.

Tips

• Keep it short — Every extra component reduces completion rates. Only ask for what you actually need.
• Write clear labels — “Your email address” is better than “Email.” Help users understand exactly what you’re asking.
• Group related questions — If your form is long, use multiple pages to break it into logical sections.
• Test like a user — Fill out your own form. If anything feels tedious or confusing, your users will feel it too.
• Ask yourself — “Would I actually complete this form?” If the answer is no, simplify.