Form fields govern how data is collected and reported on in Apricot. A diverse selection of fields is available in the Form Designer to tailor your forms to your organization's data entry needs.

In the Field Choices palette, fields are organized by category or in alphabetical order within the "All" section. Once you've found the field you want to add to your form, you can drag and drop the name of the field into the main body of the form section.

Continue reading below to learn how to utilize the fields available in the Option category.

Checkbox allows users to check more than one displayed option within the field.

To add options to this field, click the "+" icon next to Field Choices once for each option you'd like to add. You can check "Use Lookup List" to view any previously created option lists, or you can manually fill out each text box. The character limit for this field is 255 characters.

The "Allow Other" property allows users to select an "Other" option and type in their own text separate from the given options. The Default Value property allows you to set a particular value for the "Other" option.

Note: Reporting on multi-select fields like Checkbox and Multi-Select Dropdown will render different grouping results than single-option fields when reporting. To learn more about this, click here.

Dropdown allows users to only select a single option. The dropdown list collapses the available options by default to simplify the form design.

To add options to this field, click the "+" icon next to Field Choices once for each option you'd like to add. You can check "Use Lookup List" to view any previously created option lists, or you can manually fill out each text box. The character limit for this field is 255 characters.

The "Allow Other" property allows users to select an "Other" option and type in their own text separate from the given options. The Default Value property allows you to set a particular value for the "Other" option.

Multi-Select Dropdown allows users to select multiple options from a dropdown by holding down the Control key while clicking each option.

To add options to this field, click the "+" icon next to Field Choices once for each option you'd like to add. You can check "Use Lookup List" to view any previously created option lists, or you can manually fill out each text box. The character limit for this field is 255 characters.

The "Allow Other" property allows users to select an "Other" option and type in their own text separate from the given options. The Default Value property allows you to set a particular value for the "Other" option.

Note: Reporting on multi-select fields like Checkbox and Multi-Select Dropdown will render different grouping results than single-option fields when reporting. To learn more about this, click here.

Radio displays all options within the field while allowing users to only make a single selection.

To add options to this field, click the "+" icon next to Field Choices once for each option you'd like to add. You can check "Use Lookup List" to view any previously created option lists, or you can manually fill out each text box. The character limit for this field is 255 characters.

The "Allow Other" property allows users to select an "Other" option and type in their own text separate from the given options. The Default Value property allows you to set a particular value for the "Other" option.

Note: You'll need to use an import to update an existing record if you need to clear data for a Radio field after the record has been saved.

Likert Scale displays a sliding scale of options for users to select a single value. Each option is associated with a numeric back-end value that is hidden from users. These values can be calculated with other Likert items or ranged responses to present a scored scale. This field can also be used for non-Likert ranged response applications.

To add options to this field, click the "+" icon next to Field Choices once for each option you'd like to add. You can check "Use Lookup List" to view any previously created option lists, or you can manually fill out each text box. The character limit for this field is 250 characters.

Fill out the numeric Backend Values for each option; the same number cannot be used for more than one option.

The Default Value property allows you to set a particular value as the default option.

There are two types of masked option fields: Masked Radio Button and Masked Dropdown. Consider the following when deciding whether or not to use these fields:

Masked Radio Button displays similarly to the Radio field in which users select a single option from the available values, but each option is associated with a numeric Backend Value that can be used in calculations with other numeric values collected on the form.

Select the Display Style for this field:

To add options to this field, click the "+" icon next to Field Choices once for each option you'd like to add. You can check "Use Lookup List" to view any previously created option lists, or you can manually fill out each text box. The character limit for this field is 250 characters.

Fill out the numeric Backend Values for each option; the same number cannot be used for more than one option.

The "Allow Other" property allows users to select an "Other" option and type in their own text separate from the given options. The Default Value property allows you to set a particular value for the "Other" option.

Masked Dropdown displays similarly to the Dropdown field in which users select a single option from a dropdown list, but each option is associated with a numeric Backend Value that can be used in calculations with other numeric values collected on the form.

Select the Display Style for this field:

To add options to this field, click the "+" icon next to Field Choices once for each option you'd like to add. You can check "Use Lookup List" to view any previously created option lists, or you can manually fill out each text box. The character limit for this field is 250 characters.

Fill out the numeric Backend Values for each option; the same number cannot be used for more than one option.

The "Allow Other" property allows users to select an "Other" option and type in their own text separate from the given options. The Default Value property allows you to set a particular value for the "Other" option.

Milestones/Goals is used to collect incremental data relating to an indicator or performance measurement of your program. Up to 10 milestones or goals can be defined, and the character limit for this field is 250 characters.

The brown indicator or "1" value is the initial goal, while the tan indicator or "10" value is the target goal. Enter the milestones or goals pertaining to the corresponding number.

The Default Value property allows you to set a particular value as the default option.