There are many different reasons you might want to create an event form to gather data from potential attendees. Registering a child for the church's Summer VBS is a good example. A form can allow you to collect all the necessary information, which might include such things as:
- Parent's names
- Parents' contact information
- Parents' preferred contact method
- Name of child being registered
- Child's age and/or grade
- T-shirt size
- Any allergies or medical conditions
- A parental permission statement
- Any activity restrictions for the child.
Below is an example of how you might set up a form for this kind of event.
First, make sure the event is on your calendar. For help with this, see Adding Events.
Next,
- Click the Forms
Icon to go to the Event Forms view.
- At the top of the page, click Add Form.
- You will get a list of existing events for which you can create a form, along with a calendar to select the date or date range for the event you are looking for.
- Select the event you want to create a form for, then type the name of the form you want to create at the top of the page, and click Submit.
- This will open the Edit Event Form view. It will fill in certain information by default.
- In the Header section, this includes:
- Form Name: the name you typed before clicking Submit.
- Event: The name and date of the event in question.
- Below that, two form fields are included by default:
- Name: Where the respondent can enter their name.
- Contact information: Where they can indicate how and where they prefer to be contacted about the event.
- In the Header section, this includes:
- You can then modify the form to customize it to your needs. In the Header section, click the Pencil in the upper-right corner to edit this section. You can change the Form Name here if desired, and:
- Fill in a Description with additional information about the event and/or the form.
- Click the calendar icon under "Expires After" to set an expiration date for the form, so it will not be available after the date of the event (or the cut-off date for a sign up/RSVP, for example).
- To collect the information listed above for our sample VBS event, you can add, in addition to the default Name and Contact Information fields:
- Additional name fields - one optional for a second parent, and one required, for the child being registered.
- Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
- Select Name.
- Set the Label to Name.
- Set the Prompt to something like "Parent name 2", or "Name of Child being registered".
- You may want to check the box to make this a required field for the child, but allow for a single-parent form by making the second parent name not-required.
- Click Save.
- An Email field for the parent(s).
- Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
- Select Email
- Set the Label to "Email"
- Set the Prompt to something like "Enter Email contact address".
- Check the box to make this a required field if desired.
- Click Save.
- A Phone number field for the parent(s).
- Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
- Select Phone.
- Set the Label to "Phone"
- Set the Prompt to something like "Enter Phone number".
- Check the box to make this a required field if desired.
- Click Save.
- A number field (or two if you want to record the child's age and grade).
- Click Add Field at the bottom of the list of fields.
- Select Number.
- Set the Label to "Age", or "Grade".
- Set the Prompt to "Age of child", or "Grade".
- You may want to make this field a range by entering a lower and upper cap if you only accept certain ages for your VBS.
- Click Save.
- Additional name fields - one optional for a second parent, and one required, for the child being registered.
- You might want to re-name the Label and/or Prompts for one or both of the default Name and Contact information fields. In our sample VBS event, we have changed the default Name Prompt to say "Parent Name 1", and added a second Name field for "Parent Name 2", and changed the Contact Info Prompt to "What is your preferred contact method?", after adding fields for both an email address and phone number.
- You may want to add other fields as needed, and/or rearrange the order of the fields on the form. To do this, use the arrows to the far-right of each field's entry to move it up or down until everything is in the order you need.
- Once you've added and arranged all the fields as desired, you can click "Back to form" and copy the link to share so people can access and fill out the form.