In this lesson, you'll build a form right on an Ontraport Page. You'll add fields and a submit button, set up each field, style the form, and publish it.
Open your page from the Pages collection and add a block. That block is where your form lives. In the elements palette on the left, open the Forms and Sales section and drag a Form Field element into the block.
First, choose the object. That's the kind of record the form creates or updates. Pick Contacts for a lead opt-in form, or another object, like Companies or a custom object, if that's what you're collecting. Then choose the field to add. Fields come from your Field Editor, so to use a field that doesn't exist yet, create it first under Contacts, then Settings, then Field Editor.
To use a field from a related record, click the arrow to the right of the related field's name. Repeat this for every field you want on the form.
Next, drag a Submit Button into the same block. Make sure it's a Submit Button. The regular Button element just links somewhere, and it won't submit your form. Every form needs a Submit Button, and you can't publish the page if a block has form fields without one.
Click any field to open the form field editor. It has three tabs: Settings, Style and Position. In Settings, you set the field's label, which is what visitors see, and its placeholder text.
Check Required field? and the form can't be submitted until that field is filled in. You can also write your own validation message for anyone who skips it. Then click Done.
One caution: if a field is marked required in your Field Editor, it has to be on the form. Otherwise, the submission goes through, but no record is created.
Prefilling fields makes a form faster to fill out. Click the field, then click Show next to Advanced options. Choose Set manually to enter a fixed default value, or Match record's data manually to fill the field from the visitor's own record, like their name and email. That second option works when the form fills Contacts, or when it's on a dynamic page or block. For a custom object form on a regular page, you can only prefill fixed values.
Rich text fields let people format what they type, with bullets, links, bold and more. They're great for something like an About me section on an application. In the field's settings, choose the Simple editor for light formatting, or the Full editor, which adds colors, block quotes and alignment and works well for internal forms.
In its style settings, you can set how many lines tall the box starts and let it grow as people type.
Style your first field before you add the rest. Every field you add after it uses the same style, which saves you time. In the Style tab, pick a preset or one of your favorites, or click Edit Style for the details. Once you like a design, click the heart icon to save it as a favorite.
The Position tab controls the element's padding, margin, alignment and sizing.
To keep bots out, add a reCAPTCHA element to the block. You'll need a site key from Google first. To let visitors upload something, add an image or file field. The Forms and Sales section also has order form elements, which are covered in the Ontraport for payments course.
Before you send anyone to the page, set up the form's settings. Hover over the Submit Button, click the settings icon, and choose Form settings. That's where opt-in, thank-you pages and notifications live. We covered them in Form basics, and they get a deeper look later in this section. When everything's ready, publish your page.
So: put your fields and a Submit Button in the same block, set up and style each field, check your form settings, and publish. For a pop-up, or a form for another website, use an Ontraform. Next up: Ontraforms.