Import CSV/Excel Questions

When you need to create a big form with many questions, it can be time consuming to build, even using our whizzy Form Designer.

In many cases, the form that you are creating already exists as a Word or Excel file, which contains all the questions.  For these cases, our Import Fields function makes it fast and easy to get all the questions into your Form design.

To use our Import Fields feature, follow these steps:

1. Download our example CSV Template.

This is also found in the Form Designer -> Import Fields popup.

Tap on the “click here” link in the description text and you will get a full example CSV file in the required format.

2. Edit the template to add in all the fields you desire.

Often this involves cutting and pasting the question text from your existing Word/Excel form.

Make sure that you set the type of field against each question.

Set whatever relevant properties as needed by entering values into the designated columns.

If using Excel, make sure to save your file in CSV format when finished.

Important notes on template editing:

Do not leave empty rows between your field rows.

Do not change the order of columns or add others!

The template format is fixed and you will run into errors if you alter the columns in any way.

3. Save your template and import it into the Form Designer.

In the designer, click the Import Fields button on a Form that is in Draft or Test status.

Select your CSV file from step 2 above.

The system will import your fields and display these on success.

Otherwise you will see error messages explaining the problem.

Note that your new fields will NOT be saved by the import process.

This allows you to edit the fields in the designer before saving, but more importantly it means that any mistakes or problems introduced by your import can be forgotten by simply browsing to another page in the website.

That’s all there is to importing Form fields from CSV/Excel.

This is an extremely rapid way to get Forms prototyped and also massively reduces the time spent on mundane work like creating many questions in a Form.

Template Columns and Acceptable Values

The CSV template contains a number of columns, each one for a specific field property.

Note that this is not all the available properties found in the Form Designer – it is a subset of the most commonly used ones.

As such, you will probably need to tweak some fields after importing into the Designer.

Below is a full listing of each available column/property and accepted values.

Acceptable value are case-sensitive and must be match EXACTLY as specified below.

Property Default Value (if left blank) Description & Acceptable Values
1 Title Text Any text
2 Field Type Text Page
EndPage
Section
Text
Numeric
Date
Media
Location
Choices
Task
Hidden
Barcode
SketchThe EndPage type is not a field as such,
it is required to indicate where a Page ends.
3 Data Name If left blank, data name is generated from Title text.
We recommend setting your own data names.
Any alphanumeric value,
provided the name does not start with a number.
4 Hint Text Any text
5 Layout Vertical Vertical
Horizontal
Horizontal (Tablets Only)
6 Required False True
False
7 Read Only False True
False
8 Display Style Drop Down List Drop Down List
List of Choices

Auto-Complete Search

Only used for Choices type fields.

9 Static Options If blank, then assumes you are using a Data Source or
that you will input the static options in the designer.
A pipe separated list of the static options to display.Only used for Choices type fields.
10 Data Source If blank, then assumes using a Static List of options.
i.e. Static Options have been defined or options will be input manually in the designer
The exact name of an existing Data Source.Only used for Choices type fields.
11 Option Colors A pipe separated list of up to 5 hexadecimal color values.
e.g. #FF0000|#00FF00Only used for Choices fields that are set to Horizontal layout.
12 Dynamic Value A valid formula that calculates the dynamic value of this field.
e.g. {{text1}}
Use same syntax as you would in the Form Designer.
13 Visibility A valid formula that controls the visibility of this field.
e.g. {{text1}} = ‘Y’
Use same syntax as your would in the Form Designer.
14 Date Type Date & Time Date & Time
Date Only
Time OnlyOnly used for Date fields.
15 Number Type Integer Integer
Decimal
Long IntegerOnly used for Numeric fields.
16 Placeholder Text Any text which will be displayed within the field when it is empty
17 Default Value Any valid value (depends on field type) which will
be initially populated into the field
18 Background Colour If blank, then will be defaulted to #EEEEEE if the layout is Vertical, else transparent if layout is Horizontal. A hexadecimal colour value, or “transparent” if background is to be transparent.
19 Title Colour #000000 A hexadecimal colour value
20 Title Size Medium Small
Medium
Large
21 Title Decor normal normal
bold
italic
22 Hint Colour #CCCCCC A hexadecimal colour value
23 Hint Size Medium Small
Medium
Large
24 Hint Decor italic normalbold
italic