Adding basic fields

When to use basic fields

Basic fields are the bread and butter of any form. You'll use them whenever you need to capture a single piece of straightforward information — a name, a date, a measurement, an email address, a price. They're the first thing you reach for when building a new form.

You'll find them in the left palette of the Form Builder under "Basic".

The basic field types

There are eight basic input fields. Each is designed for a specific kind of data, with the right keyboard and formatting built in.

Settings every field shares

Click any field on the canvas and the right-hand panel shows its settings. Most basic fields share the same core options:

• Label — what the user sees above the field
• Helper text — a small description below the field, useful for instructions like "Enter your full name"
• Placeholder — greyed-out hint text inside the field, e.g. "e.g. John Smith"
• Default value — pre-fills the field when the form opens
• Required — tick to make the field mandatory before the form can be submitted

Single-line text

Use Single-line text for anything short — names, references, codes, ticket numbers, vehicle registrations. It's the most common field type and the default for most things.

You can set a maximum length if you want to keep entries tidy.

Long text

Use Long text for descriptions, observations, comments and free-form notes. The field grows as the user types and always takes the full width of the form so there's room to read.

This is the right field for things like "General observations", "What happened", "Method of work" and "Notes for the next shift".

Number

Use Number for anything you'd want to count, measure or do maths on later. The field shows a numeric keyboard on mobile and you can set:

• Minimum allowed value
• Maximum allowed value
• Decimal places allowed

Good for headcount, scaffold heights, lift capacities, hours worked, bag counts — any time you'll want to total, average or filter on the value later.

Currency

Use Currency for prices, costs and estimates. It works just like a Number field but formats the result with your company's currency symbol (£ for UK installs) and the right number of decimal places (usually 2).

Great for cost estimates on a quotation form, budget figures on a variation request, or daily plant hire totals on a weekly report.

Email

Use Email to capture a contact email address. The field checks the format as the user types, so they can't submit the form with a typo like john.smithexample.com instead of john.smith@example.com.

Useful on visitor sign-in sheets, contact capture forms and incident reports where you need to follow up with someone afterwards.

Web link

Use Web link for a URL. Like Email, it checks the format as the user types — the entry has to start with http:// or https:// to be accepted.

Handy for linking back to manufacturer documentation, drawings on a shared drive, or supplier data sheets referenced in a method statement.

Phone number

Use Phone number for a contact phone number. Mobile devices show the phone keypad automatically. There's no strict format check — that's intentional, because phone numbers come in too many shapes (UK landline, mobile, international) for one check to fit all.

Date

Use Date when you need to capture a calendar date — inspection date, delivery date, expected completion. The field opens a calendar picker so users don't have to type, and dates are stored in the UK format (DD/MM/YYYY).

A typical site inspection form

A real-world example showing how the basic fields fit together. A daily site inspection might use:

• Single-line text for the inspector's name and the site location
• Date for the inspection date
• Single-line text for the weather conditions (or a Dropdown if you want to limit the choices)
• Long text for general observations
• Number for the headcount on site
• Currency for any unexpected costs to flag

That's most of a working form built with nothing but the basics — and you can always add more advanced fields once the foundations are in.

Next steps

• Adding dropdowns and checkboxes — for fixed-choice fields.
• Looking up real records on a form — for fields that pull from your employee, project and supplier lists.
• Showing fields only when needed — for hiding fields until they're relevant.