Caldera Forms allows you to create simple through to advanced forms on your website relatively easily. You will see the Caldera Forms option from your WordPress Dashboard menu, and you can click on Caldera Forms to get creating.
There will usually be one or two forms already created as examples, and to create a new form click on the New Form button.
Once you click on New Form, you will be able to select from some templates already created for you such as a Contact Form.
We will choose the Blank Form option to start from scratch. Once you click on the Blank Form option you will need to give your form a name and click Create Form.
Form Layout
The form builder uses rows and columns to arrange and build your form.
You can use the double arrows to split a row, and create two columns in your form.
Before:
After:
When you hover over a row, you will have the option to click on Duplicate or Edit Field as shown in the two icons below:
When you click the Edit icon you will see some options appear on the right hand side of the page.
Here you can choose the field type (these are explained further down on the page).
You will need to give each field a Name, and a Slug (usually the same as the name – all lower case with no spaces).
Depending what Field Type you choose, you will have further options.
To add a new field to your row click the plus symbol as shown below:
You will then see a popup, where you can choose what type of field you would like to add. These are explained further below.
Form Fields
Basic
Single Line Text
Single Line Text
Single Line Text allows you request any text from the customer such as their Name.
You can see the field will update and give you a preview of the options you choose as below:
Hidden Field
Hidden field lets you create a field that will not be seen by the customer, but can hold a specific value. For instance you may wish to record the IP address of the customer filling out the form.
Email Address
Email address is fairly self explanatory, and requests the customer enter their email.
Button
Button lets you add a Submit button so that the customer can sen the form to you.
Phone Number
There are two options for Phone Number – Basic and Better.
It is likely best to add the form to your website and test each option to see what works best for you.
Number
Number lets the guest choose a number, such as how many guests are staying. You can set a minimum and maximum if need be.
Paragraph Textarea
The Paragraph Textarea let the customer fill out text such as a message to send to you.
Rich Editor
The Rich Editor is much the same as the Paragraph Textarea option, however you will give the customer added formatting options as seen below:
URL
URL lets the customer enter a website address.
Select
Dropdown Select
The dropdown select option lets you add specific options for the customer to choose from. These could be numbers or text options. There is a button at the bottom of the field options to add these:
Checkbox
The Checkbox option is similar to the Dropdown Select, however you give your customers tick options to select:
Radio Buttons
Radio buttons is very similar to checkbox, but has a slightly different look:
Autocomplete
Autocomplete lets you add a number of any options for the customer to choose from, they will also be able to start to type which will filter the options based on what they have entered:
Date Picker
Datepicker lets you easily request a date from the customer, such as arrival or departure date. When the field is clicked on the customer will have a calendar to easily choose the date.
Toggle Switch
Toggle Switch is another option similar to Checkbox or Radio Buttons, but perhaps looks a bit nicer:
Colour Picker
Colour Picker lets you request a chosen colour from the customer:
State / Province
The State / Province option only gives American States:
eCommerce
We will not cover this section, as we do not recommend to take credit card number via an online form – and you could get in trouble with your Bank!
File
The File section lets you allow your customers to upload a file with their email.
Content
The Content option lets you add line breaks or summary explanations to break up your form or explain things or give information.
Special
The Special section gives you advanced options for using reCAPTCHA to stop robots from sending spam emails – however for this to work you will need Site Key and Secret Keys from Google – you can read more about this here.
Email Section
From Name
This can either be the name of the form, or you can choose a form entry such as the customer email:
From Email
Email Address for sender. If you want to use a form field use the “Reply To Email” setting below. Do Not Use A Magic Tag.
Reply To Email
The email address of the person filling in the form. This will allow replies to the email to go to the sender.
Click in the field and choose the email option from your form if you have used one.
Email Recipients
Who to send email to? Use a comma separated list of email addresses to send to more than one address.
BCC & Email Subject
You can send a BCC email to recipients, and the Email Subject will show in the subject line of your email inbox.
Email Message
You can leave the email message with the tag – {summary}, which will send you all fields from your form, or you can customise this as necessary.
Save & Preview Form
There are more options for Processors; Conditions; Revisions; Variables etc however we will not cover these advanced options that are not necessary for most users.
Once you have completed your Form Layout and Email section, you can Save and/or Preview the form.
We would recommend to test the form to make sure it functions as you expect.
Adding The Form To Your Website
When you are ready to add the form to your website go to Caldera Forms from your Dashboard menu and you will see a list of all forms.
If you hover over the relevant form you will see an option to Get Shortcode:
Once you click on the Get Shortcode link you will get a Shortcode to copy that you can paste into the text editor on any page on your site to add the form.
The Shortcode can either be added to the standard WordPress page editor:
In the PageBuilder you can add the Shortcode in an HTML or Text Editor module:
Further Help
For further help there are a number of YouTube Videos with instructions and demos, or if you are having any trouble please email webhelp@seekom.com.