Frequently asked questions

Do I need to sign up?

You need an account to build and manage forms, but there's no password — just an email and a one-time code we send you, or sign in with Google if you'd rather skip the code.

Why do you need my email?

It's your login (via a one-time code), and it's where every submission on your forms gets sent.

Where do submissions go?

Straight to your inbox, the moment someone submits. TinyForm doesn't give you a dashboard of past responses to check — it emails you instead.

Do you store the answers people submit?

Not by default. A submission is emailed to you and a response counter goes up by one — the content of the answers isn't saved unless you turn on "Also save responses" for that form, which keeps them so you can export them as a CSV later.

Is it really free?

Yes — creating and managing forms is free.

What kind of fields can a form have?

Text, email, paragraph, number, phone, date, time, URL, a dropdown or single-choice buttons with your own options, a 1–5 rating, a checkbox (one yes/no box, or a tick-many list), a file upload, a camera button for photos, a signature box, and a doodle on an image of your own. You can also add a repeating group of fields (e.g. one set per child or guest, or a group visitors add to themselves), a running total, and layout content — a section divider, explanatory text, or an image — between fields.

Can I change the message people see after they submit?

Yes. In Dotdown™ add a .post line at the end, then the heading and text you want. You can use .image and .link under it, and {Name} shows what the visitor typed in the field called Name. To send people to your own page instead, write .post > https://your-site.com/thanks. With no .post they see a short default thank-you.

Thank-you page in Dotdown™ →

What is the doodle field?

A drawing field: visitors sketch or circle directly on an image, with a finger or a mouse, instead of describing it in words. Use one of our outlines (a body, a floor plan, a car, a roof) or paste a link to your own image, as long as the link is public. The drawing arrives in your inbox with their other answers. In Dotdown™ it is one line: .doodle Mark the damage: https://example.com/car.png

Try an example drawing form →

What is Dotdown™?

Dotdown™ is a tiny text format for building forms by typing. On the New form or Edit form page, open the Dotdown™ box next to Fields and type lines like .text Your name* or .select Plan: Free, Pro. Press Enter and the form updates. Chain several fields on one line, and put the title, description and tags between two --- lines at the top. The full syntax for every field is on the Dotdown™ page.

Dotdown™ syntax for every field →

How do I make a field required in Dotdown™?

Put a * at the end of its label: .text Full name* is required, .text Nickname is optional. For choices, put the star before the colon (.select Plan*: Free, Pro), and for a field with no label put it right after the type (.email*). Visitors see the same * next to required fields.

Required or optional in Dotdown™ →

Can I go back and forth between Dotdown™ and the normal field rows?

Yes. Open the Dotdown™ box on a form you already have and it fills itself with that form as text. Edit either side and the other follows when you press Enter or click To form ⤵. Applying replaces all the field rows with the text, so keep a line for every field you want to keep.

How Dotdown™ works →

Can I split a form into pages, or send people to a different page based on an answer?

Yes. Put .page Payment where a new page should start; visitors get Back and Next buttons and Submit on the last page. To jump on an answer, add > and a later page title (or submit) after a choice: .radio Plan: Free > submit, Pro > Payment, Team. Jumps only go forward, so a form can never loop. You never need to type submit on the last page, because it submits anyway. Pages a visitor skips are not checked and their answers are not sent.

The .page guide →

What happens to files people upload to my form?

They're emailed to you as an attachment and never stored on our end — opted into saved responses or not. If you've turned on saving responses, the stored copy just notes that a file was emailed to you, not the file itself.

Can I repeat a group of fields, like one per child or guest?

Yes — a "repeating group" field ties to a number field elsewhere on your form (e.g. "Number of guests") and shows that many copies of whatever fields you put inside it as people fill it in.

Can I start from a template instead of building from scratch?

Yes — there are 45 built-in templates covering schools, churches, small businesses, and nonprofits/clubs (registration, permission slips, onboarding, expense reports, membership forms, and more). Pick one and it pre-fills the builder; you can still edit everything before saving.

Can I see what a form looks like before publishing it?

Yes — the builder has a Preview button that shows the form exactly as a visitor would see it, without saving anything.

Can I reorder or remove fields?

Yes — each field has up/down arrows to reorder it and a ✕ to remove it, right in the builder.

Why won't my Google Drive image show up? I pasted the link.

The Image field and the Doodle field's background both just take a link — we don't host anything for you, so the link has to already be public. The most common cause is a Google Drive link that's still private. Here's how to fix it in Drive:

1. Go to drive.google.com and upload the image, if it isn't already there.
2. Right-click the file (or select it and click the share icon), then choose "Share".
3. Under "General access", change it from "Restricted" to "Anyone with the link".
4. Leave the role as "Viewer" — nobody filling out your form needs to edit it.
5. Click "Copy link", then paste that exact link into TinyForm's Image URL (or Background image URL) field — TinyForm automatically converts it to a working direct-image link, so you don't need to edit the URL yourself.

Back in the builder, hit "↻ Recheck link" — it forces a fresh check without needing to retype the URL, which is handy if you fix the sharing setting after already pasting the link.

My image isn't on Google Drive. How do I check its link works?

Any host works (your own website, Dropbox, Imgur, etc.) as long as the link points straight at the image file and anyone can open it without logging in. To check:

1. Copy the link and open it in a private/incognito window — if it asks you to log in, or shows a web page instead of just the picture, visitors will not see it either.
2. Right-click the image on that page and choose "Copy image address" (or "Copy image link"), and use that link instead of the page's address. A direct image link usually ends in .jpg, .png, .gif or .webp.
3. Paste it into TinyForm's Image URL field. A preview appears right below it; if it stays blank or says "Couldn't load that image", the link is not public or not a direct image link.

Dropbox: change the end of a share link from dl=0 to raw=1. Links from a private or login-protected site will never load for visitors.

I connected Google, so why is there no Google Sheet icon on my form?

Connecting your Google account only allows Sheet syncing — it doesn't turn it on for any form. Syncing is a per-form switch, and a form's Sheet is created the moment you switch it on. That's why a connected account can still have forms with no Sheet. To get one:

1. Make sure Google is connected: on the dashboard, click "Connect Google" (it says "Connected as …" once it worked).
2. On the form's row, click Edit (the pencil).
3. Tick "Also sync each submission to a Google Sheet" and click Save. TinyForm creates a Sheet for that form right then.
4. Back on the dashboard, that form's row now has a full-color Google icon that opens its Sheet.

A dimmed Google icon on a row means you're connected but that form isn't synced yet — click it to jump to that form's Edit page. Only submissions made after you switch syncing on are added; earlier ones aren't back-filled. Turning it off and on again reuses the same Sheet, and disconnecting then reconnecting Google keeps your existing Sheets, though syncing pauses while you're disconnected. The email you get for each submission is unaffected either way.

How do I share my form's link?

On the dashboard, click the chain-link icon on the form's row — it copies the public link (tinyform.org/f/your-form) to your clipboard and the icon flashes a checkmark to confirm. Use the QR icon for a scannable code, or the embed icon to copy code that puts the form inside your own website.