Forms

A form is a page whose canvases are named as fields. Someone fills in the fields and presses Submit form, and the answers are added to a destination you choose.

Creating a form#

Choose New (+) ▸ Form. DunneNote creates a page called Untitled form with a first text canvas and an empty answers table, and confirms with "Form created — name the canvas as a field to begin."

To make any canvas a field, select it and use Form field. Add as many fields as you need.

What each field answers with#

A drawing or picture answer is stored as a copy. If you redraw the signature on the form later, or delete the original canvas, answers already submitted don't change.

Where answers go#

Use Answers go to to choose the destination:

• A table. Each submission adds one row, with each field in its own column. You can show the answers on the form page and show when each one was submitted. You can also start a new, empty answers table with the same columns as an existing one.
• A document. Each submission adds one written entry.
• A file. Each submission adds one more entry to a file inside the notebook.

Filling it in#

Submitting reads what is saved in each field at that moment, so a form you filled in yesterday submits what is in it now. If a field can't be read, the whole submission is refused and the field is named, rather than a blank being stored.

A template placeholder picture counts as unanswered, so a required photo field refuses until you put a real image in it.

Tab order#

Tab order decides the order keyboard focus visits a form's fields when you press Tab. It has nothing to do with which canvas is in front. That is the canvas's Layer. See Arranging canvases.

Field labels chooses where the form shows its fields' labels.

Reading the answers table#

The answers table never shows a blank where something went wrong:

Forms as templates#

A form makes a good template. Press Keep content in templates on label text and decoration pictures, and leave it off for the fields, so no answer is carried into new copies. The page's tab order and answer destination travel with the template.

How to use Forms#

Forms have several simple uses today. Primarily, they are intended to save lists of information in tables. Create a form to collect fields of data, then the destination table will accumulate many results in one place as they are added one by one.

Related#

• Tutorial: build a form
• Known limitations