Form field types
Nineteen field types. Every one carries its own validation, every answer lands in your responses under an ID you control, and the four content blocks store nothing at all.
Text, email, number, phone and file fields
| Field | Stored as | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
Short Texttext | String | Required, if you set it. No format rule. |
Long Texttextarea | String | Required, if you set it. Renders as a four-row box. |
Emailemail | String | Must look like an email address. |
Numbernumber | Number | Numeric. Honours a minimum and maximum if you set them. |
Phonephone | String | 7–15 digits after punctuation is stripped, so +1 (555) 123-4567 and 05512345678 both pass. A + is allowed only at the front. |
URLurl | String | Must be a valid URL. |
Datedate | ISO date string | Native date picker; must be a real date. |
Timetime | String, e.g. "14:30" | Native time picker. |
File Uploadfile | The file itself, base64-encoded | Paid plans only. Required, if you set it. Size limits apply — see below. |
File fields are paid, and limited to 200 KB
Collecting an attachment needs a paid plan. On the free plan the file field is not offered in the editor and an attachment is refused if one is submitted anyway — ask for a link in a URL field instead.
A file field stores the file itself, inlined into the response as a base64 data URI rather than uploaded somewhere. That encoding adds about a third to the size, and a stored response is capped at 400 KB in total.
So each file is limited to 200 KB. Choose a larger one and the form says so immediately, naming the size and the limit, before anything is submitted — nothing is lost and nothing needs retrying. A response whose answers add up to more than 350 KB is refused with the same kind of message.
For anything bigger, ask for a link to a file the respondent has already put in Drive, Dropbox or S3 — a URL field is the right tool. Bear in mind too that the encoded file travels in full to any webhook and appears in CSV exports.
Radio buttons, checkboxes, dropdowns and rating scales
Four fields cover fixed answers, and the difference between them is how many answers they take and how much room they need. A radio group takes exactly one answer and shows every option at once; a dropdown takes one answer in a single line, which is the right choice past about seven options; a checkbox group takes any number and stores an array; a rating stores a number — five stars by default — which is the field to use for a 1–5 satisfaction or star rating scale.
| Field | Stored as | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
Selectselect | The chosen option's value | Starts genuinely empty, so a required select cannot be satisfied by simply not touching it. |
Dropdowndropdown | The chosen option's value — the same shape a Select stores | Starts genuinely empty, like Select. Shows a search box by default, which you can turn off per field. |
Multiple Choiceradio | The chosen option's value | One answer. Required, if you set it. |
Checkboxescheckbox | Array of values | When required, at least one box must be ticked. |
Ratingrating | Number | Five stars by default. |
Sliderslider | Number | Range with a configurable minimum, maximum and step. |
There is no matrix or Likert grid
A Likert grid — several statements sharing one agree-to-disagree scale in a table — is not one of the nineteen field types. For a single Likert-style item, a rating field or a radio group with your own labels does the job. For a full matrix you would need one question per statement, which is worth knowing before you plan a long survey around it.
Required dropdowns behave correctly
A dropdown starts on a genuinely empty option rather than pre-selecting the first one. Without that, a required dropdown looks answered while holding no value, and the respondent gets "this field is required" on a question that appears filled in.
Layout, not questions
These four structure the page. They collect nothing and never appear in your responses or in a webhook payload.
| Field | Stored as | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
Headingheading | Nothing | Splits a long form into sections. |
Simple Paragraphparagraph | Nothing | One block of plain text — explanatory wording, consent text, instructions. No formatting, and no limit on how many a form holds. |
Styled ParagraphstyledParagraph | Nothing | Rich content, written in a block editor: headings (levels 1 to 3), bullet and numbered lists, quotes, tables, dividers, images and video by URL, with per-block text colour, background colour and alignment, plus bold, italic, underline, strikethrough and inline code. A form can hold 2 of these; Simple Paragraphs are uncapped. |
Dividerdivider | Nothing | A horizontal rule. |
Two paragraph types, and which one to reach for
A Simple Paragraph is one block of plain text. It is the right choice for a line of instructions or a sentence of consent wording, and a form can hold as many as it needs.
A Styled Paragraph is a small block editor. Press / inside it for headings, bullet and numbered lists, quotes, tables, dividers, images and video, and use the toolbar for bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, inline code, text colour, background colour and alignment — each set on the individual block rather than the whole thing. The panel beside it sets the outer frame: width, padding, margin, corner radius and a border.
Because it stores both the document you edit and the HTML your respondents are served, a form is limited to 2 Styled Paragraphs. Simple Paragraphs are uncapped, so reach for one of those when you only need words.
Two limits worth knowing before you plan around them. Images and video are added by URL — there is no upload, so the file has to live somewhere already. And video means a direct media file, an .mp4 you host: a YouTube or Vimeo page link will not play. Link to the video instead until embedding is supported.
What settings does every field have?
Hover a field in the editor and click the gear. You can set:
- Field ID — the key the answer is stored and sent under. Set it to
firstNamerather than leaving the generatedcomponent-1787692637208. - Label — the question itself.
- Help text — a line under the question.
- Placeholder — greyed text inside the empty box, on the types that have one.
- Required — whether the form can be submitted without it.
Rename IDs before you collect answers
The field ID is your data schema. Answers already collected stay under the old key and will not merge with new ones, so a rename part way through splits a question into two columns.
What happens to a question left blank?
Optional questions left empty are absent from the response rather than present and null. So data.middleName being undefined means "not answered", and your code can treat missing and empty the same way.
The exact keys are described in the webhook payload reference.
Common questions
- Which field should I use for a phone number?
- The phone field. It accepts 7 to 15 digits once punctuation is stripped, so +1 (555) 123-4567 and 05512345678 both pass, and a + is allowed only at the front. An optional phone field can still be left blank.
- Why does my required dropdown say it is empty when an option is showing?
- It no longer does. A dropdown starts on a genuinely empty option rather than pre-selecting the first one, so what you see and what the form holds now agree.
- Which field makes a star rating scale?
- The rating field. It renders five stars by default and stores a number, so a response holds 4 rather than four stars — which is what makes it averageable in a CSV export or a webhook consumer. Use a radio group instead when the points need their own labels, such as a 1-to-5 scale reading Poor through Excellent.
- How do I make a field required?
- Every field type has a Required toggle in its own settings panel, including layout-free types like rating and file. A required field blocks submission until it is answered, and a required dropdown starts on a genuinely empty option so it cannot look answered while holding nothing.
- What size files can respondents attach?
- Up to 200 KB each, on a paid plan — file fields are not available on the free plan, and a free form neither offers the field nor accepts an attachment. Attachments are stored inside the response as base64 rather than uploaded separately, so anything larger is refused immediately with the size and the limit named. Use a URL field for bigger files.
- Do headings and dividers appear in my responses?
- No. Heading, Simple Paragraph, Styled Paragraph and Divider are layout only — including any image inside a Styled Paragraph. They collect nothing and never appear in a response, an export or a webhook payload. A form can hold 2 Styled Paragraphs; Simple Paragraphs have no limit.
- What happens to questions left blank?
- They are absent from the response rather than present and empty, so a missing key means the question was not answered.