How to Add Instructions to a Form

What You'll Learn

Learn how to add instructions at both the field level and form level to guide your users toward providing accurate information. This simple technique can significantly reduce data errors and save time spent on data validation.

Use Case

Sometimes, users misunderstand what information we want, and we need to add a little more direction to avoid hours of confirming the accuracy of information.

In this example, our multi-step application often receives responses to certain questions that do not align with our requirements, particularly when it comes to licenses. We specifically require licenses that have been issued at the state or national level.

However, we are encountering applicants who include other types of licenses in their submissions. To solve this problem, we want to add instructions to ensure we're capturing the right information the first time around.

Requirements

If this is your first time creating an app, you'll need to know some basics about adding tables, fields, pages, and elements. You can start by reading our Tables & Data section.

Steps

1. Select the Page with the Form

In the Pages section of the Builder, select the page with the Form Element you want to add instructions to.

2. Open the Form Editor

Click on the Form Element on that page to open the editor.

3. Open the Edit Input

In the Inputs section, hover over the field you want to add instructions to and click the edit pen icon:

4. Update the Field's Instructions

In the "Instructions" field on the field settings, change the text to whatever you want the instructions to say and then click the "Submit" button.

5. Instructions for the Whole Form

If you want to input instructions for the whole form, not just individual fields, you can update the description field at the top of the form. This can be edited from the "Settings" section of the element editor while editing Form Elements.

Now, when a user views the form, they'll see the instructions that you have added: