You can use text boxes to gather comments, contact details, numbers, or other short answers. The block lets you choose the question type, set required fields, and control autocomplete.
You can add a text box for six question types:
Type | Description |
Text | Use this to ask general questions and gather text-based feedback from your respondents. |
Contact email | Use this to request and collect a valid email address from your respondents. The email address is then added as a contact to your account. |
Contact mobile number | Use this to request and collect a valid mobile number from your respondent. The mobile number is then added as a contact to your account. Choose to subscribe to SMS, WhatsApp or both. |
Numerical | Use this to ask numeric questions and gather number-based feedback from your respondents. |
Other phone number | Use this to request and collect a valid phone number from your respondents. We store the number in the form’s responses. You can map it to a data field, but you can’t use it for SMS. |
Other email | Use this to request and collect a valid email address from your respondent. We store the email address in the form’s responses. You can map it to a data field, but it isn’t used for sending email.
Use Contact email to collect an email address to use for sending. |
Before you start
Things you need to know:
This article assumes you are either editing or creating a new survey, page, or form.
Add a Text box
Expand the Form block menu, then drag the Text block onto the EasyEditor canvas.
Select the Text block, select Type question here and enter your own question.
To open the block’s settings menu, select the block on the canvas.
Expand the Question type drop-down menu, and choose the question type you want to ask.
Options: Text, Contact email, Contact mobile number, Numerical, Other phone number, and Other email.
If an answer is required, select the Required answer check box.
If you want to add a default answer, in the Default value box, enter your default answer.
If you want to add a watermark to the text box, in the Watermark box, enter the text you want to use.
Add respondents as contacts
To convert respondents into contacts, add a Contact email or Contact mobile number question to the form. Dotdigital stores all respondents when they submit the form in your master Contacts list under Audience > Contacts.
Contacts can be sorted into lists by:
Using the Add respondents option in the form’s Submit actions.
Selecting Add to list from the form’s report.
Creating a program to automatically sort contacts based on their answers.
Enable autocomplete
Autocomplete helps contacts enter form field values.
To edit your form block's autocomplete settings:
Select the form block.
Select the Settings tab.
Expand the Autocomplete drop-down menu and choose one of the following options:
On
By default, autocomplete is set to On. This means the browser makes an educated guess and autocompletes the field based on the information it has when a contact enters their answer.
Off
This prevents the browser from autocompleting the form field.
Other options
You can use this option only with Text box form blocks.
You can also change the autocomplete to one of the other options, such as name or country. This provides guidance for the browser on how to autocomplete that form field.