Create your first form

With Funnelforms you build a form as a sequence of steps: visitors answer questions and send their contact details at the end. In this article you create a new form, get to know the parts of the editor and publish the result. It applies to Funnelforms Free and Funnelforms Pro.

Requirements

• You need a WordPress user account with the right to edit forms.
• Publishing actions, redirects and custom CSS can need further rights (see "What happens if I lack rights?").
• In Funnelforms Free some question types and settings are part of Funnelforms Pro. They carry the Pro badge in the editor.

Where to find it

Funnelforms → Forms. At the top right, New form starts a new form; in the row of a form, Edit or a click on its name opens it.

Features at a glance

• Start from the template gallery (by goal, industry and language) or with Start from scratch
• A canvas on which every step is a card and lines show the way visitors take
• A side panel on the left to add questions, contact steps and ends
• Properties on the right with two tabs per step: the content (Question, Fields or Contact step) and Logic, or After sending at the contact step
• Workspaces at the top: Structure, Design, Settings and Embed. You find the figures of the form under Funnelforms → Statistics.
• Automatic saving as a draft, Preview and Publish
• A short tour when you first open the editor

Step by step

1. Open Funnelforms → Forms.
2. Click New form at the top right. The New form gallery opens.
3. Choose the language for your visitors under Language of the form, if the choice appears.
4. Find a fitting template with the Goal and Industry filters or the search. Preview lets you try it without saving anything.
5. Click Use template. The editor opens with a new draft. Continue with step 8.
6. For a form without a template, click the first card Start from scratch.
7. Enter a Name of the form and click Create. Only you see the name; visitors see the questions.
8. The first time you open the editor, a short tour starts. Click Next until it ends, or Skip tour.
9. Choose a question type in the side panel on the left, for example Choice. A click adds it after the selected step; you can also drag it onto the canvas.
10. Click the new step and change the question and its answers on the Question tab on the right.
11. Switch to the Logic tab and set under Go to which step comes next.
12. Click the Contact step and open the After sending tab. It holds the mails after sending and, under Then visitors see, the end.
13. Check with Preview at the top right how visitors see the form.
14. Click Publish and then Publish now. The dialog then shows the shortcode for embedding. More ways to embed opens the Embed workspace.

How it works

What does an empty form contain?

An empty form starts with a contact step (fields Name and E-mail address) and an end with the thank-you text. The texts are in the language of your website. So it can be published right away; add more questions before that.

How is the editor laid out?

• Side panel on the left with the tabs Add and Questions. Under Add the question types sit in the groups Pick answers, Type in and Content and more, plus Contact step and End under Finish. Under Questions you see every question of the form with a search, a type filter and the switch Required only.
• Canvas in the middle. Each card is a step (Step, Contact step or End). The first step carries Start. Flags such as Not reachable, Check or Stuck point out gaps in the flow. The contact step shows what happens After sending.
• Properties on the right. With nothing selected, the panel shows the name of the form, the number of Steps, Questions and Ends, the Logic check and jumps to Design, After sending and Settings.
• Top bar with the back arrow, name, status, save state, the workspaces, the language choice (for multilingual forms), tour, Undo, Redo, Versions, Preview and Publish.

Where do I set what happens after sending?

At the contact step itself: select it and open the After sending tab, or click After sending in its card on the canvas. A workspace of its own remains only for forms without a contact step. The After sending jump in the properties also leads to the contact step.

How are changes saved?

The editor saves a draft automatically while you work. The top bar shows All changes saved, Unsaved changes or Saving…. Visitors do not see the draft, only the published version.

What happens when I click "Publish"?

The editor saves first and checks the form. If it finds problems, the dialog lists them under Fix these first and Publish now stays locked. Otherwise visitors see the new version right away; the previous one stays under Versions.

What happens if I lack rights?

If changes need a right you do not have, the dialog shows Someone with more rights has to publish this. Tracking code, scripts and custom CSS need the right to use unfiltered HTML. Changes to actions, redirects and entry settings need the right to see entries. You can still prepare the draft.

What is different in Funnelforms Free?

The editor looks the same. Pro question types such as Slider or File upload sit in the side panel with the Pro badge and cannot be added. Under Settings, the card More settings names the Pro features; Pro settings a form already uses appear in Free as a card of their own so you can switch them off. If a form uses a Pro feature, for example after an import, Funnelforms Free cannot publish it until you remove that feature.

What does the tour show?

The tour has five stops: Questions and content (side panel), The funnel (canvas), Properties, Preview and Publish. It starts only once per browser and only when you open the editor in the Structure workspace. The Tour through the builder icon at the top starts it again at any time.

Best practices

• Start with a template that fits your goal and change questions and texts instead of starting from zero.
• Give the form a meaningful name so you find it again in the list.
• Look for the sentence "Every step leads on and every end can be reached." in the Logic check before you publish.
• Test the form in the Preview on computer, tablet and phone.
• Write a short note in What changed? (optional) when publishing; it appears later under Versions.

Troubleshooting

Tips

• The form appears under Published in the list only after you publish it. Before that it is under Drafts.
• The arrow at the top left (Back to the forms) takes you back to the list. The editor folds the WordPress menu while it is open.
• The ? key shows all keyboard shortcuts; the L key switches between the content and the logic of the selected step.
• If you leave the page with unsaved changes, the browser asks first.

FAQ

Can I still change a template after creating the form? Yes. The template is only the starting point. The new form is a draft of its own in which you edit questions, texts and paths freely.

Do visitors see my form while I am editing it? No. Visitors only see the published version. Your changes stay a draft until you click Publish.

How do I put the form on my page? After publishing, the dialog shows the shortcode. You can also use the block, the Elementor widget or the form's own page. All ways with code and instructions are in the Embed workspace.

Does Funnelforms Free limit forms or steps? No. Free limits neither forms nor steps, fields or entries; the line to Pro is drawn only at features.

Related articles

• Templates
• Build steps
• Embedding a form