Field Types

Are calculations shown to the user?Can a user type in their own price (for example, donation or pay-what-you-want)?Can all questions and fields have a default answer?How do I add an e-signature to my form?Can I add or remove fields in the address question?Can I change the format of a date question?Can I check availability on and make bookings on multiple calendars?Can I control how many columns multiple choice answers are spread across?Can I include a yes or no question?Can I let customers buy more than one product or choose more than one subscription plan?Can I let submitters choose multiple answers for a multiple-choice or dropdown question?Can I let the user select multiple dates using one date question?Can I let the user type in their own answer for a multiple-choice or dropdown question?Can I limit the number of options that can be chosen for a Multiple Choice?Can I make a question for URLs?Can I prevent double bookings when people make appointments?How do I prevent users from entering decimals in a number field?Can I require only dates in the past or future?Can I require only "yes" to a yes or no question?Can I limit the number of characters for a response?Can I restrict which colors a submitter can pick with the color picker?Can I restrict the country in the address question?Can I set a description for each multiple-choice option (not just its option title)?Can I set the placeholder of a date question to text (MM / DD / YYYY) instead of numbers?Can I show just a calendar for a date question?Can I use answer piping to add answers to multiple-choice or dropdown questions?Can Multiple Choice options have images?Can my audience upload files to Paperform forms, and how do I make that happen?Can users directly capture and upload a picture from their mobile device into a form?Creating Terms & Conditions QuestionsDo you have a scale question and how do I add it to my form?What are the formatting options for phone numbers and can I validate them?Can I customize how products are displayed?How can I insert a checkbox?How can I let respondents provide a rating?How can I specify certain color swatches for the Color Picker field?How do I add a Country field to my form?How do I add a dropdown field to my form?How do I add a long text question field quickly?How do I add a matrix question?How do I add a name question field quickly?How do I add a number question to my form?How do I add a phone number field to my form?How do I add a question to my form?How do I add a question with radio buttons quickly?How do I add a rank question to my form?How do I add a slider question?How do I add a URL field?How do I add a Yes/No question to my form?How do I add multiple choice questions to my form?How do I add or remove subscription plans?How do I make the answer to a text question take up more than one line?How does the address field work and how do I add one?How does the color picker work and what does it look like?Is Google Address Search available on address fields?Is it possible to choose multiple countries in the country question?How do I randomize the option order for a Multiple-Choice or Dropdown question?Is there a way to show users a thumbnail of the image they uploaded?What are date fields, and how do I use one?What can I modify about an address question?What do Time fields look like, and how do I add one to my form?What is a hidden field?What types of questions or fields does Paperform offer?Can I restrict users to upload certain file types only?Why are answers to the country question not the full country's name in submissions?Will a user ever see a hidden field?Appointments GuideCalculations Cheat Sheet

Hidden Fields are useful for associating answers with your form without the respondent seeing the question. They can be used for a variety of tasks, including: UTM parameters, referral codes, user IDs, and more.

To add a Hidden field to your form, add a question just like you'd add any other question and choose Hidden for its type.

A Hidden field can only be answered by using:

Examples

We'll touch upon a couple of examples that illustrate why you might want to consider using a hidden field in your form. This not an exhaustive list, but serves to illustrate how they can be useful.

UTM parameters or codes

Submission data does include UTM parameters such as utm_campaign & utm_source when you export submissions as CSV file or when using some integrations (such as directly through Google Sheets or via Zapier). Other than that, though, it's typically hidden from even your view as the form editor and, thus, is usually not included when using answer piping.

To get around this, you can set Hidden fields with custom pre-fill keys equal to those parameters.

For example, if you want to capture the parameter utm_source:

  1. Create a hidden field with a custom pre-fill key of utm_source.
  2. Give the field a title so you can identify what this question corresponds to, but it can be whatever title works for your needs.

Then, when your URL has utm_source=twitter in it, for example, it will populate the hidden field with the custom pre-fill key of utm_source. That value can then be used elsewhere in the form, in custom emails or PDFs, dynamic success pages, or sent to another service through integration.

Identifiers

Another use case for Hidden fields is tying subsequent submissions to a specific person. There are two ways this might be useful:

  • Tracking a user through submissions on various forms
  • Tracking a user's referrals

On their own, distinct forms know nothing about each other. If you send a user from Form 1 to Form 2, Form 2 doesn't know what Form 1 is or that the user was sent to Form 2 from Form 1.

However, you may wish to tie those separate form submissions together by user. You can do this by pre-filling a hidden field on subsequent forms with the submission ID of the first form or with an ID you create on the first form, such as through a calculation that combines multiple pieces of data on that form.

Alternatively, you may not wish to track a user through multiple submissions but rather track multiple submissions that a specific user is responsible for; that is, a referral code.

If you set a referral code in a hidden field through pre-filling, you can tie multiple submissions to that referrer.

Note: Attributing specific submissions using the same referral code/ submission ID is the responsibility of the form owner - Paperform doesn't automate attribution within your results between forms/ different submissions.

Dynamic forms

You may wish to use pre-filling if the value passed isn't within the URL, or alternatively calculate the value a different way (a different calculation, a combination of answers from the form, etc.).

You'll need a place to store this value that isn't used in anything user-facing, though. If the value isn't in the URL, it can potentially disrupt your formatting and/or calculations. So, you can pre-fill a hidden field with that value.

For example, in a calculation you can use that value (if it exists) or another value if it doesn't. Suppose your pre-fill key for that hidden field is abc12. Your calculation would look similar to

example_variable = IF({{ abc12 }}, {{ abc12 }}, some_other_operation);

Here, we'll use the value stored in abc12 only if it exists. Otherwise, we'll perform some_other_operation.

Note: some_other_operation is not a valid expression, and only serves as an example here. Please refer to our Calculations Guide for more detailed instructions for how to use calculation fields.

These are just a few examples of what you can do with hidden fields. Explore and experiment to come up with ways that suit your unique use-cases.

Gotchas

  • While pre-filling and hidden fields are available on all plans, Answer Piping and Calculations are features reserved for specific pricing plans.