Everything you need to know about work with forms in ONLYOFFICE

5 October 2018By Nadya

Hello!

We have big plans about forms in ONLYOFFICE editors: we want them customizable, interactive, comfortable to fill out and, of course, with easily collectable data. It’s a pity that we could not add all these in one version. But we had a good start!

Learn how much you can do with forms in your ONLYOFFICE v5.2.

Forms in ONLYOFFICE editors 5.2

Everyone can create a beautiful form in online editors

Starting from v5.1 ONLYOFFICE editors have the Content Controls feature. It can be used to create well-structured blocks of content, and, what is the most important, templates and forms. It became cooler in version 5.2 because now you can adjust content controls appearance, for instance, highlight it with color (in bulk if you wish). To do so, select the field and use highlight options from the top menu.

You can also choose whether content controls appear in bounding boxes or not. And don’t forget to decide on the color of the borders!

Have a look at the settings window:

Note that bulk actions are also available. And you can protect certain fields from being edited or deleted.

Detailed instructions can be found in our Help Center.

Distributing forms for developers

Developers can distribute forms granting users restricted access. By enabling Fill Forms mode you will let users insert data into the chosen fields only. Check our API documentation for instructions.

At the moment this options is available for developers only. In the future versions, this Fill Forms mode will appear in the ONLYOFFICE interface for everyone to use.

Advanced data collection for developers

You can determine the database, to which the inputs will be collected, and automate data processing, but it requires some technical skills. And some plugins. You will need them to connect our editors to your own database.

We wrote some example plugins. They will allow you to:

  • Navigate through the inputs.
  • Save data from completed forms to your preferred database.
  • Insert collected data into specific documents.

Apart from own database, you will need your own plugin with your server settings. Create it yourself using our example or outsource everything to us. If you are interested in your own plugin for working with forms in ONLYOFFICE, contact our sales team.

Contact us

Why so difficult

We have just started with forms. Since it’s only a beginning, there’s a lot to add and improve. But even on this stage, you can make the most of ONLYOFFICE forms. Dare to try!