Originally published at: https://www.onlyoffice.com/blog/2022/01/how-to-create-fillable-forms/
Today we’ll see what ONLYOFFICE Forms are and how to create a standard fillable form, using a Sales Agreement as an example.
What ONLYOFFICE Forms are and what they are used for
ONLYOFFICE Forms are designed to make working with electronic documents easy. You can create, edit and co-edit documents with fillable fields online or locally and send them to others for filling out. It eliminates the cost of printing, storing, and distributing paperwork, reduces process time, and helps to avoid repetitive data entry and associated errors.
Here are some examples of fillable forms and where we can use them:
- Sales: purchase orders, sales agreements;
- Human resources: timesheets, employment agreements, job proposal templates, vacation requests;
- Accounting: expenditure requests, reimbursements, expense reports;
- Legal documents: loan agreements, non-disclosure agreements, testaments;
- Others: reports, admission forms, questionnaires.
Now, let’s see how to create a Sales Agreement form using different types of fillable fields.
1. Create a form template
First, you need to create a form template in .docxf format. There are two possible ways to do it:
- From blank
- From an existing .docx document (support for other text formats is coming soon)
We will take a Sales Agreement in .docx format previously used without fields.
Click the Create button —> Form template —> From text document. Browse for the necessary document.
Your .docx document will be converted to the .docxf format. Find more information about format specifications in White papers.
2. Add form fields
Once the content for a form is ready, we can add fields to fill out. They are available on the Forms tab.
*Please, note that the form tab is only available when you create a form template or open a ready one in docxf format.
Text lines
First, we add simple text lines. We will use them for a small amount of information, such as Buyer’s and Seller’s full names, addresses, and dates (the special date field with a calendar will be added soon).
Go to the Form tab —> Text Field.
By default, you can enter any number of characters into a standard-sized input area. To customize the fields, open the field properties on the right sidebar.
There are two fields with the Seller’s full name in the document. To simplify filling these fields and avoid mistakes and typos, we can associate these fields using the Key parameter.
So, we create the Seller key and choose it for the necessary fields. Now, when users fill in one field, the data in the other will appear automatically.
To give a hint to recipients, we add Enter Seller’s full name as a placeholder and John Smith as a tip (you will see it when you hover the cursor over it).
Check Required to make the field obligatory to fill.
Lock the field parameters not to change them accidentally while working on the forms.
In the same way, we will create the text fields in the document.
Fields with separate cells
Text fields can be divided into separate cells for each character. We will use them for the phone number to make the numbers more visible.
Create a text field as in the previous step. On the right sidebar, we check the Fixed size field and set the Characters limit to 12. Then, choose the comb of characters, define the cell width, and the border color. So each number will be in a separate cell.
In placeholder, we define the format for entering the phone number +12345678910.
Single choice
In agreement clauses with the choice of one option from a predefined list, you can use Radio Buttons.
To add them in the Purchase Price clause, we place the cursor in the right line and choose Radio Button. All created buttons are automatically merged into group 1. The user can select only one among the buttons with the same group key. It is also possible to rename the group key and regroup the buttons on the right sidebar.
For these buttons, we define group key Purchase Price.
In the following Payment clause, we also add Radio buttons. Then in the properties of one of the buttons, we create a new group key, Payment options, and select it for the others.
In this way, each group of radio buttons has its own name, and the buttons will not be mixed with others.
Multiple choice
Unlike Radio Buttons, Checkboxes allow selecting several options. In our Sales Agreement, several payment procedures can be applied. Here, we add checkboxes to the necessary lines.
Drop-down list
To create a given list of states where the disputes can be resolved, we can use Combo Box or Dropdown. The difference is that the combo box allows entering your option, while the dropdown offers to choose only from the suggested options.
We create a Combo Box.
To add the states to select, we enter the name of a state in the Value Options field on the right sidebar and click the plus sign. Using the down and up arrows, we can change the order of the states in the list.
Now all the fields are added. In the toolbar, we choose a single color for all fields to make them visible.
By default, the text in the fields is in Arial font, size 11. But if necessary, the text can be formatted to your liking.
3. Preview the created form
To see the resulting form, go to the Form tab —> View Form. This option shows the form in a way that will be available for users with form-filling access rights.
4. Save the fillable form
Our Sales Agreement is ready to be filled out.
Save the form template as a standard PDF file or in .oform format to share and fill it out online.
To do it in one click, use the Save as OFORM button and share it with Form filling access rights.
The users can also create and fill out forms in ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors and fill out forms on the go in mobile apps for iOs and Android.
Find ready-to-use Sales Agreement and other fillable forms in ONLYOFFICE Form Library.
Useful links
7 interesting facts about ONLYOFFICE forms
New features of ONLYOFFICE Docs 7.0
Latest version of ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors