Forming Forms includes 12 free field blocks. They only work inside a Form block, and the Form block only accepts field blocks, so you can’t accidentally build a field that submits nowhere. Forming Pro adds 16 more.
Settings every field shares
Select a field and open the Field Settings panel in the sidebar:
- Label: the visible label. Required fields get an asterisk after it.
- Name: the key the value is submitted, emailed and stored under. It’s generated from the label (lowercased, accents removed, other characters turned into underscores, so
Your Phone #becomesyour_phone) and stays in sync until you edit it yourself. - Placeholder: hint text inside the input.
- Help text: a note under the field, linked to the input with
aria-describedby. - Required: checked in the browser and enforced on the server.
- Message when empty: your own text for a required field left blank, such as “We need your email to reply.” Leave it empty for This field is required.
- Default value: pre-fills the input, or pre-selects the matching option on choice fields.
- Autofill: on input and select fields, tells the browser what to suggest (Full name, First name, Email, Phone, Street address, and so on), or Off. It maps to the HTML
autocompleteattribute. - Width: Full width, Three quarters, Two thirds, Half, One third or One quarter. Fields flow into a row and wrap, so two Half fields sit side by side. See Styling & Layout.
Not every field shows every control. The Hidden field has only a name and a value, for example, and the Submit button has just its text and width.
Styling isn’t in this panel. Color, typography, spacing and borders come from the block editor’s own design tools in the same sidebar.
Renaming a field on a live form: the name is the key entries are stored under. Change it and new entries use the new key while old ones keep the old one, so pick names before you publish.
Text fields
All of these have a Validation panel with a Message when the value is not valid setting, plus the rules listed below. See Validation.
Text: a single-line input for names and short answers. Validation: Minimum characters, Maximum characters and Pattern (regular expression), for example [A-Z]{2}[0-9]{4} for a booking reference.
Email: an <input type="email">, validated as a real address. The first valid email in a submission becomes the notification’s Reply-To, and it’s what privacy export and erasure match on.
Textarea: a multi-line input for messages, with a Rows setting (default 5). Validation: minimum and maximum characters and Show a character counter, which shows “120 / 500” under the box as the visitor types. Line breaks are preserved in entries and emails.
Phone: an <input type="tel">, which brings up the phone keypad on mobile. By default it accepts digits with spaces, dashes, dots, brackets and a leading +. Set a Pattern to require a specific format. Need country codes or a typing mask? See International Phone and Masked Input in Pro Field Blocks.
URL: an <input type="url">, validated as a web address.
Number: an <input type="number"> with Minimum, Maximum and Step in its Number constraints panel. All three are checked on the server too. A step of 5 accepts 0, 5, 10 and so on.
Choice fields
Select, Radio and Checkbox (multiple) have an Options panel. Each row has a Label (what visitors see) and an optional Value (what’s stored). Leave the value blank and it’s generated from the label. Add option, Remove, Up and Down manage the list.
Bulk edit: click Bulk edit to edit every option at once, one per line. To store a different value, add it after a bar: United States|US. Or choose Start from a preset list: Countries (in the site’s language, with ISO codes as values), US states, Months or Days of the week. Click Apply to replace the options.
Select: a dropdown. The Placeholder becomes a leading empty option, which makes “Choose one…” work with a required field. In the Choices panel, Allow multiple choices turns it into a multi-select list (visitors hold Ctrl or ⌘ to pick several). Only options you defined are accepted.
Radio: the same choice as radio buttons inside a <fieldset>, with the label as its <legend>. In Choices, set Layout to Stacked (one per line) or Inline (side by side).
Checkbox: two modes, set with Mode in the Checkbox type panel:
- Single (default): one consent box, ideal for “I agree to the privacy policy”. The Label is the text beside the box. If it’s required, the form can’t be sent without it. It’s stored as
1, and shown as Yes in entries and emails. - Multiple: a checkbox group built from the Options panel. Visitors pick several, with a stacked or inline Layout. Entries and emails show the chosen labels separated by commas.
“Other (please specify)”: Radio and multiple Checkbox fields can Add an “Other” choice. Picking it shows a text box for the visitor’s own answer, and that text is what’s stored. Change its wording with “Other” label. If “Other” is picked but the box is left empty, the visitor is asked to fill it in.
Other fields
Date: a native date picker. In Validation, set an Earliest date and Latest date, either A specific date or Today (so “today or later” works for bookings). Values must be real YYYY-MM-DD dates. For date ranges, weekdays only or blocked dates, use Pro’s Advanced Date field.
Hidden: sends a value with the submission without showing anything to the visitor. In its Value panel, choose where the value comes from:
| Value | Filled in by | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed value | Server | Submits the Default value. |
| Page title, Page ID, Page URL | Server | The page the form was viewed on. |
| Visitor name (logged in), Visitor email (logged in), Visitor user ID (logged in) | Server | Empty for visitors who aren’t logged in, in which case the default value is used. |
| Submission date | Server | The date the form was sent. |
| URL parameter | Browser | The value of a Parameter name in the page URL, for example utm_source or ref. |
| Referring page | Browser | The page the visitor came from. |
Server values are worked out when the form is submitted, so visitors can’t change them and page caching doesn’t affect them. Browser values can be edited by anyone, so use them for tagging and analytics, never for anything trust-bearing. Hidden values are saved with the entry. To capture UTM parameters from the first page of a visit, the landing page, IP address or user role, see Pro’s Smart Hidden Field.
Submit: the button that sends the form. Type its text directly on the button in the editor (default Submit), set its Width in the Button panel, and style it with the block editor’s color, typography and border controls. Every form needs one. It isn’t a data field, so it’s never validated or stored.
Pro fields
Forming Pro adds Signature, Rating, Slider, Toggle, Repeater, Image Choice, Likert Scale, Net Promoter Score, Advanced Date, International Phone, Currency, Masked Input, Password, Confirm Email, Smart Hidden Field and Content. They appear in the same Forming Form Builder inserter category. See Pro Field Blocks.
Related
- The Form Block
- Validation
- Styling & Layout
- Developer Reference: registering your own field type