What are Form Fields in contractuo?
Form Fields are interactive elements that you can embed within forms used in Document Templates. They act like dynamic placeholders, prompting users to enter specific information during the document creation process. This information populates the document automatically, making them essential for generating customized and dynamic documents. They are basically Smart Fields embedded in Forms.
Think of them as building blocks within your forms. Users interact with these fields to provide details, and contractuo uses that information to populate the final document.
Types of Form Fields:
Contractuo offers a variety of Form Fields, each catering to different data collection needs:
- Text Fields: These versatile fields are placeholders for user input of any kind, typically short answers or text descriptions.
- Address Fields: Designed specifically for capturing complete addresses. Users can enter street address, city, state, zip code, and select the corresponding country from a dropdown menu.
- Number Fields: Allow users to enter numerical data (e.g., quantities, prices, percentages). You can optionally define a range for valid entries (e.g., limit product quantity between 1 and 10).
- Email Fields: Dedicated fields for capturing valid email addresses, ensuring proper format and reducing errors.
- Dropdown Fields: Allows users to select from a pre-defined list of options. This promotes consistency and simplifies data entry (e.g., selecting a payment term from a dropdown menu). Here are some best practices for using dropdown fields:
- Use complete sentences as field names (e.g., “Payment Term”).
- Include a question mark for fields that function as questions (e.g., “Select Preferred Currency?”).
- Checkbox Fields: Let users confirm or deny a statement with a simple click.
- Date Fields: Provide flexibility for capturing dates. You can choose from different display styles and even define a date range for selection (e.g., selecting a start and end date for a project).
- Contact Fields: Streamline data entry by allowing users to reference existing contacts within contractuo. When a contact is selected, the system automatically populates all their information into the document (e.g., referencing a client contact for their address details).
- Table Fields: Offer a structured way for users to input information into table cells. They can also add or remove rows and columns as needed, making them ideal for capturing tabular data (e.g., product details with columns for name, quantity, and price).
- Text Editor Fields: Offer a rich text editing experience within a popup window. Users can add formatted text with options like bold, italics, and bullet points. Similar to Text Blocks, you can pre-populate content within the editor (e.g., including pre-written contract clauses).
Who can benefit from Form Fields?
- Administrators and Content Creators: They design the underlying structures of documents and forms, including selecting and configuring appropriate Form Fields. This ensures consistency and automation when users generate documents.
- Financial Managers and Administrative Staff: They utilize these pre-defined form fields to generate and fill out documents efficiently. By simply providing the required information, the documents are automatically populated with accurate details.
Why Use Form Fields?
Form Fields are essential for several reasons:
- Dynamic Document Generation: They enable users to provide specific details during the document creation process, resulting in customized and dynamic documents.
- Improved Efficiency: Eliminate the need for manual data entry, saving time and effort for users.
- Enhanced Data Quality: By enforcing specific data formats and types within Form Fields, contractuo helps maintain high data quality across the platform. This ensures accuracy and reduces errors.
- Flexibility: Form Fields can be used in various document elements, including templates, text blocks, and within forms themselves.
In essence, Form Fields empower users to provide dynamic input during document creation, ultimately leading to efficient, accurate, and customized documents within contractuo.
Additional Information: By creating Smart Fields you basically create also Form Fields. Click here to see more details about the creation of Smart Fields.