Build a form

In Pencil a form is called a flow. A flow is a short run of screens that people move through one at a time. This page covers creating a flow, adding questions, choosing question types and checking your work in a preview. To send people down different routes, see Answer paths.

Start a new flow

1. Sign in and open Flows. The page is titled Your flows.
2. Choose New flow. On a fresh install the form is already open under Create your first flow.
3. The first time, enter your Business name. Pencil asks for it once, because your name appears on every public form. You can change it later in Settings.
4. Pick a template or Blank flow.
5. Enter a Flow name (for example "Post-visit feedback") and a Public link. The public link is the last part of the form's web address, /f/ followed by the link, written in lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens. When you type a name, Pencil suggests a link made from it. Picking a template fills in the template's name and a link that ends in eight random letters and numbers, such as customer-feedback-25e5a2da. Edit the link to something short and readable before you create the draft, because it is the address people see.
6. Choose Create draft flow. The builder opens.

Templates

A template is only a starting point. It creates an ordinary draft that you can edit freely before you publish.

Each template ends with the completion screen "Thank you. Your response has been received."

The builder

The builder has three parts side by side:

• Steps on the left lists every screen in order.
• The middle shows the Current draft step as a respondent will see it, using the same controls.
• The panel on the right holds the settings for the selected step.

A flow is made of three kinds of step:

• A Welcome screen. It is optional and can only come first. Add welcome screen appears until you have one.
• Questions. A flow needs at least one.
• Completion screens. A flow needs at least one, and you can have several. Each has its own wording, so different answer paths can end in different messages.

Use Add question, Add completion screen and Add welcome screen to add steps. A new question goes in just before your completion screen. To rearrange, select a step and use Move up or Move down. Duplicate copies a step, and Delete removes it.

Deleting a question from a draft never removes answers you have already collected. Those answers stay in your results, ledger and exports with the question that asked them.

Edit a step

Select a step, then change it in the right-hand panel:

• Prompt is the question or message people read.
• Extra wording, then Why ask this?, adds a line of explanation under the prompt. It is a good place to say how you will use the answer.
• Question type sets what people can answer (see below).
• Required response makes the question mandatory. A required question only blocks people who actually reach it. If an answer sends someone around it, it is never asked and never counted as missing.
• Default next screen says where people go after this step when no answer path applies. Every step except a completion screen needs one before you can publish.

When you are done, choose Save. One Save stores everything on that step together: its wording, choices, settings and answer paths. If anything is invalid, nothing is saved. Once Pencil says Saved., the edit is kept even if you reload.

While a step has unsaved changes you cannot switch steps, add or move steps, preview or publish. Save, or choose Discard changes.

If two operators edit the same flow, the first to save wins. The second sees Another operator saved first. The latest draft has been reloaded. and nothing is overwritten.

Question types

Pick the type that matches how people should answer. The types are:

Nobody starts with an answer picked. A No, a 0 or a rating only counts once the person has chosen it. A required Consent question can only be answered by accepting.

Choices

For choice types, use Choice to add options and Remove to take one away. Type each option's label into its own field, which is numbered Choice 1, Choice 2 and so on.

Behind each label sits an Answer value that Pencil makes from the label. It is the value used in exports. Rename a label later and the value stays the same, so your exports stay consistent. If you need to change it, open Advanced on that choice.

Preview your flow

Choose Preview draft to try the draft as a respondent. You answer with test data, and Pencil shows the route it would take. A preview never creates a response, sends nothing and does not change any counts.

• Continue preview and Back in preview move through the screens.
• Inspect answer path opens Evaluated path, which lists each rule on each screen as matching or not matching and shows which one was chosen.

The preview uses the same rules as the live form, so what you see is what people will get. Preview is unavailable while a step has unsaved changes.

Copy, edit and archive

• Duplicate flow on a flow's card makes an independent draft with the same questions and paths. Give it a Copy name and Copy public link, then choose Create independent copy. The copy has no responses, invitations or history. The original keeps all of its responses.
• Editing a flow that is already published changes only a new draft. The live form does not change until you publish again. The dashboard shows Unpublished changes on any flow whose draft differs from what is live.
• An archived flow cannot be published or reopened, and Pencil refuses to save, add or duplicate its steps. Deleting or moving a step is not refused yet, and either one changes the draft that Duplicate flow copies, so leave an archived flow's steps as they are. To work on it again, duplicate it and edit the copy.

Next: Answer paths, or go straight to Publish and share.