Forms — Cairn

Start hereForms and leadsFormsForms let visitors send you things: a contact message, a booking request, a quote. You build a form once under **Forms**, then place it on any page with the **Form** block.Making a form

Go to Forms in the admin menu.

Click New form. The new form opens straight away.

Type a name in the box at the top, next to Forms. Visitors never see it; it is how you tell your forms apart.

Click Add field and pick a field type. Repeat for each question.

Click Save on the bar at the bottom of the screen.

The Forms list shows each form with its number of fields and Submissions. The icons at the end of a row edit, Duplicate or Delete it. Deleting a form also deletes all its submissions.Click a field to open its settings; drag the handle on the left to reorder.Field types and settingsAdd field offers: Text, Email, Phone, URL, Number, Paragraph (a big box for a message), Dropdown, Radio buttons (pick one), Checkboxes (tick any), Single checkbox (yes/no), Date picker, Time picker, Hidden, Note (static text) and Submit button.Click a field to open it. Depending on its type you can set:

Label: the question the visitor sees. Hide label keeps it for screen readers but hides it on the page.

Width: Full or Half. Two half-width fields sit side by side, such as first and last name.

Placeholder: faint example text inside the box, such as "you@example.com".

Default value: an answer filled in already, which the visitor can change.

Options: the choices for a dropdown, radio buttons or checkboxes. Add option adds one; the arrows reorder them.

Required: the form will not send until this is filled in. Required fields show a red star in the list.

A Date picker also has Allowed dates: Any date, Today or later (for a booking) or Today or earlier (for a date of birth).There is no separate help-text box. To explain something, add a Note (static text) field just above the question it is about.Each choice in a dropdown, radio buttons or checkboxes has an optional route to email box. Put an address there and, when a visitor picks that choice, the email goes to that address instead of the usual one. Handy for sending sales questions to one person and support to another.Where submissions go: the Settings tabOpen the form and click Settings. Under Notifications:

Send notifications to: the email address that receives each submission. Leave it blank to only store them.

Email subject: the subject line of that email.

Store submissions in the database: keeps a copy you can read and export from the Submissions tab.

Send a confirmation to the submitter: emails the visitor a copy, if the form has an email field.

Create a lead from each submission: adds each one to Leads. The Lead name, Lead email, Lead phone and Lead message boxes say which of your fields fill them; Auto (by convention) usually works.

If Send notifications to is blank and Store submissions in the database is off, every message is lost, though the visitor is still told it was sent. The Settings tab shows a warning when this is the case.Under After submit, Success message is what the visitor sees once the form has gone. Or fill in Redirect URL (optional), such as /thank-you, to send them to a page of your own instead.Email appearance adds an optional logo, header text and footer to the emails. Leave Submission handling on Internal unless whoever set up your site asks you to change it.Putting a form on a page

Open the page in the page editor.

Add a Form block from the block list where you want the form to appear.

In the block's settings, pick your form from the Form dropdown.

Publish the page.

The form takes its look from your theme, so it matches the rest of the site. Changes you make to the form under Forms show everywhere it is placed, with no need to edit the page again.A link can fill in a field for the visitor. If your form has a dropdown called "Service" with a choice whose value (the small box beside its label) is boiler_repair, a link to /contact?service=boiler_repair opens the form with that choice already picked. It only works with a choice the field really offers.Reading submissionsOpen the form and click Submissions. The tab shows how many there are, and each row shows the first few answers and When it arrived. Click the eye icon to read a whole submission, or the bin icon to delete it.Export CSV downloads every submission as a spreadsheet you can open in Excel or Google Sheets.You only see the Submissions tab if your account is allowed to read them. See Users and permissions.Spam protection and error messagesEvery form is protected from spam bots without you doing anything. It has a hidden trap field that only bots fill in, it rejects forms sent faster than a person could fill them in, and it limits how often the same visitor can send. Bots are quietly told "sent" and nothing is stored.Google reCAPTCHA can be added on top. It is invisible to visitors and is switched on by whoever set up your site.When a visitor misses a required field or types something that does not fit (an email without an @, say), the form shows a message under that field using its label, such as "The Your name field is required." To use your own words, fill in the field's Error message (optional) box.← The media libraryLeads →Getting startedPagesBuilding with blocksNavigation and lookMediaForms and leadsCatalogueShopBookings and membersRunning the siteCairnWebsites for businesses that need more than a brochure. Built, hosted and kept running by us.StartBuildRun© 2026 Cairn. All rights reserved.Built with Cairn.