We’ve just released custom email templates, a feature that enables you to receive notifications customized in terms of content, layout and appearance. You can create new email templates in your Settings → Notifications → Customize Emails section.

Click on Manage to open the customization lightbox and press Create New to set up a new email template. When the Preview is OFF, you can view and edit the HTML code of the notification template. Let’s go over several common customization options.

1. Less submission content. When you don’t want to include all user input in the notification email, delete the form fields that you don’t need. What you see in the customization lightbox is the code for the HTML table that holds the notification email content. Form fields are contained in individual rows, which are marked by the <tr> and </tr> tags (beginning and end). Delete the code for the rows that you want out and save the new email template.

2. No submission content, just an alert message. We started working on this feature when one of our users told us that he wanted to receive only an email alert and then to access the submission in his 123ContactForm account. Now you can achieve this by deleting the entire predefined content of the notification email and typing the alert message instead. Quick note: If you want to insert a line break, use the tag <br /> instead of pressing Enter.

3. Message containing user input. You can create notification email templates consisting in more elaborate alert messages that contain user input elements. Use the codes listed on the right side of the customization lightbox to do this. Example: [%Name%] has just filled out your form and can be contacted at [%Email%]. Such codes can be used for each of the form fields and bring user input into the notification message.

4. HTML/CSS customization. If you like to play around with HTML and CSS, you can change and style the default submission table to brand the email template in the way that suits your company image best or you can start setting up an email template from scratch.

To visit the Users section, click on the newly added tab in your main menu. The section is structured much alike your My Forms section, only that – instead of forms – it lists users.

You can create subusers, edit their information and manage permissions. Subusers will access their accounts like any other 123ContactForm users and they will be on the service plan that you are on. Their login data will be sent to them via email, together with basic information on how to use the 123ContactForm platform.

How much control will subusers have over their forms? It is up to you. There are three permission levels – No access, View only and View & Edit – that you can set, separately, for the sections Form Editor, Settings, Submissions and Reports.

How many subusers can a master account create? It depends on the plan that you are on. On the Platinum plan, you can create 5 subaccounts. On our new Diamond plan – 20 subaccounts. If you need more than 20 subusers, contact us.

Read more about how to set up 123ContactForm subaccounts and get to work – your clients will be thrilled!

The kangaroo has arrived on the 123ContactForm main page with two major updates (other than its very presence): 123ContactForm subaccounts and a new service plan!

You are now able to create subusers and grant them access to viewing and editing the forms you’ve set up for them. Subusers will access their accounts like any other platform users and will be on the service plan you’re on. We’ll get into more detail in a future post. Meanwhile, learn more about 123ContactForm subaccounts in our Help section.

Our new Diamond plan allows for creating 20 subaccounts. It is meant especially for web designers and agencies. It starts with a 15-day free trial.

In fact, from now on, all paid plans – Gold, Platinum and Diamond – start with the two week trial. Upgrade your account and start exploring them! And keep close – the kangaroo has unveiled only half of its suprises.

To gear up the integration with Top Producer for your form, go to your Settings → Applications section. Select Top Producer in the dropdown list and press Add. 123ContactForm generates a username that you will need in a second to set up the integration on the Top Producer side. This username contains your original 123ContactForm username and the ID of the form for which you set up the integration.

The next part is done in the Top Producer interface. Log in to your account, go to the Settings section, click on the tab Contacts and then on Lead Setup. The link Add Lead Provider opens a new section where you need to type the 123ContactForm information. Select 123ContactForm in the Lead provider name dropdown; the URL box will be completed automatically. In the Username box, paste the username generated by 123ContactForm. Next, provide and confirm your password and select the person whom the leads created with the integration are meant for. Press Add Lead Provider and you’re done here.

Back to the 123ContactForm Settings section, click on Customize to open the customization lightbox and create field associations. Match the Top Producer fields listed on the left side of the box with 123ContactForm fields. Select the latter in the dropdown lists provided. Email, First Name and Last Name are required fields; all the rest are optional.

User information will now be transmitted from your 123ContactForm web forms to your Top Producer account. Enjoy!

Hidden buttons

Submit, Calculate and Purchase – these buttons can easily be hidden.

1. Submit: You can find this button listed in your Settings → Rules section. Set up a rule that hides it until a specific field is completed.

2. Calculate: If you don’t want for calculations to be available in your order form, paste this code: #id123-button-calc {display: none;} in the Settings → Themes → Use Custom CSS section.

3. Purchase: But if you only want to give an order estimate and to receive no actual orders, use the code #id123-button-send {visibility: hidden;}, which will hide the Purchase button.

State instead of Region

The predefined Address field contains the subfield named Region. Many of our US users prefer to have the field instruction State displayed instead. Since our service is used worldwide, it is fair to stick to Region in the default version of the field.

But you can always change it into State really easily. In your Settings → Translations section, click on Add Translation, select Region in the dropdown list and type State in the text box. That’s it!

Agreement request

When you want to make sure that form users agree with your Terms and Conditions, with a Privacy Policy or with similar documents, you can include a required and unlabeled one-choice Checkbox field at the bottom of your form, which makes it explicit that users are giving their consent. Right below it, place an HTML block containing a link to the web page where they can access the document.

So what makes web forms so important on a website? There are several main reasons.

1. Contact forms and order forms are essential on the web. What is more appealing to clients’ customers: an email address posted on the contact page or a stylish, easy to fill out web form? Web users migrate towards websites that welcome their messages.

2. Clients are usually in love with the websites designers create. They treat them like babies, they like to play with them and to witness their positive impact on the company’s image. Forms can provide the interaction that will keep your clients thrilled long after the first couple of days.

3. Forms bring added value. The scope of web forms can be wider than the one initially perceived. Forms can process payments and can be integrated with 3^rd party apps – like MailChimp or SalesForce – which turn them into real marketing tools.

For at least these three reasons, web designers and web forms make good allies. Online form builders are one of the quickest and easiest ways to make an impression and to keep clients enthusiastic about their websites.

With WordPress order forms, you don’t need to get your hands dirty with any source code whatsoever, although the mechanism behind your order form is complex and highly secure. Read below the three easy steps required to post your order form on WordPress.

1. Create your order form. To build your order form, you can start from the 123ContactForm order form template. Add and edit form fields, list the products/services that you offer and customize an order form theme. Keep in mind that, when listing your products, you can use radio buttons with images, to make the offer more attractive. Also, don’t forget to add your company logo to the order form theme.

2. Set up the payment integration. The most popular choice is the order form with PayPal payment integration, but you can also create Google Checkout order forms or Authorize.net order forms. To set up the payment integration for your form, visit your Settings → Payments section. Select the payment processor(s) that you want to use, assign prices to fields, create advanced calculation formulas, if you need to, and customize payment notifications. Tick Enable payments for this form when you’re done to activate the payment integration for your order form.

3. Post your PayPal order form on WordPress. To post your order form on WordPress, you need to install the 123ContactForm plug-in for WordPress: download it, unzip it and move it to your wordpress/wp-content/plugins directory; then, in your WordPress dashboard, click on the Plugins tab and press Activate for the plugin named 123ContactForm for WordPress. The contact form plugin for WordPress is now installed and you can choose one of two different ways to publish your PayPal order form on WordPress.

The first way to post your order form on WordPress is to visit your 123ContactForm Get Code & Publish section, choose the Wordpress publishing option, copy the code provided and paste it in your post. The other way of publishing your WordPress order form is by using an API Key generated by 123ContactForm. After you paste this key in the WordPress interface (in the 123ContactForm plugin customization lightbox), all the forms that you have in your 123ContactForm account will be listed in the plugin lightbox and you simply need to choose the one that you want to post. Learn more about how to post your order form on WordPress.

Not only will the form and survey charts and reports look cooler, but you will also be able to manipulate data in new ways. Stay tuned!

The dashboard enhancement that has been active for a couple of days now is a change in message delivery. When you log into your account, a nice lightbox shows up on your screen, containing the latest and most important 123ContactForm messages. Click on the links provided to fix errors or to read about 123ContactForm here, on our blog. The messages you open (in a separate tab) are marked as read and disappear from the lightbox (unless they are flagged as red, in which case you need to fix the problem as soon as possible). When you’re done, close the lightbox and start managing your forms. After you read all latest news, the lightbox won’t show up at login anymore, until something new comes up.

On your actual 123ContactForm dashboard, the only change is that the message list looks pretty much like your mailbox: unread messages are written in bold, whereas read messages are not.

We believe this is a more efficient way to make sure that your account and forms are up-to-date and that you are aware of all new platform features and capabilities.

The beauty of choice fields is sometimes affected by the fact that a logical sequence of options is not compatible with the perception of choices you want to inspire users with. Simply put, let’s say that you’ve got a dropdown list with eleven options: 0, 1, 2.. 10. You want to set number 5 as a default choice, in order either to emphasize it or to be neutral in presenting available choices. But, up to now, you couldn’t make 5 default unless you rearranged choice field options by placing 5 at top of list. The first option was the automatically preselected one.

Well, guess what! Now, you can deal with choice sequences and default values separately. Set up your choice list and then select, without affecting list order, the choice field default value. Our feature update applies to dropdown lists and radio buttons fields.

In dropdown lists, the option selected most frequently (or the identical or different middle choice) is usually the default value. The main advantage in using a dropdown list with default value is the fact that you’re making the task easier for users.

Radio buttons with default values work very well with service plans. Preferred plans are emphasized graphically on web pages; the same principle can be applied to the radio buttons field of your subscription form.

To set a default value for your radio buttons field or dropdown list, click on it in the main view of your Form Editor to open its Edit Panel. Once you’ve typed the options in the Available Choices box, they are loaded in the dropdown list named Default Choice. When you add, change or remove and option, the Default Choice list is updated. Select the default value and view the result in your main view.