What patient form templates are
Patient Form Templates let you design custom forms — intake questionnaires, consent forms, assessments, anything you need a patient or staff member to fill in — using a drag-and-drop form builder. Each template is made up of sections, and each section holds one or more fields.
- How to add and reorder sections and fields
- Every field type available and what it's for
- How default answers and answer options work
- The difference between archiving and deleting an item
- How to preview a form before saving
- What triggers a validation error on save
Building sections
A form is organized into sections. Each section has its own title, an optional description, and a set of fields.
Add a section
Click <strong>Add section</strong> to create a new section. The page auto-scrolls to the new section and briefly highlights it so you can see where it landed.
Name the section
Type directly into the section's title field.
Add a description (optional)
Click <strong>+ Add description</strong> to reveal a description textarea under the title, useful for instructions or context for whoever fills the form in.
- Click <strong>— Remove description</strong> to clear the text and hide the textarea again.
Reorder sections
Each section has a drag handle (a dotted grip icon). Drag it up or down to change the section's position. This works with a mouse on desktop and with touch-drag on mobile.
Adding fields to a section
Add a field
Click <strong>Add field</strong> within a section to append a new question. The page auto-scrolls to the new field and briefly highlights it.
Choose the field type
Use the type dropdown on the field row to pick what kind of answer you're collecting. See the field types table below.
Set the label
Type the question or label text into the field's text input.
Mark it required (if applicable)
Tick the <strong>Required</strong> checkbox if the field must be answered. This checkbox is hidden for Check boxes and Body chart fields, since "required" doesn't apply to them the same way.
Reorder fields
Each field also has its own drag handle. Drag a field to reorder it within its section, or drag it into a different section entirely.
| Field type | Use for |
|---|---|
| Single line | Short text answers |
| Paragraph | Longer free-text answers |
| Multiple choice | Selecting one option from a list |
| Check boxes | Selecting one or more options from a list |
| Date | Date values |
| Attachment | Uploading a file |
| Body chart | Marking locations on a body diagram, selected when the form is filled in |
| Signature | Capturing a signature |
Default answers for text fields
For Single line and Paragraph fields, click + Add default answer to reveal a textarea where you can set a pre-filled value. This is useful for fields that usually have the same answer, so staff or patients only need to change it when it's different.
Answer options for choice fields
For Multiple choice and Check boxes fields, click Add option to append an answer choice. Each option has its own drag handle for reordering, a text input for the option's label, and an archive/delete button.
Body chart fields
Adding a Body chart field to a form doesn't ask you to pick a diagram here in the builder — you'll just see a placeholder note. The actual choice of which body diagram to annotate happens later, when someone fills the form in.
Archiving vs. deleting
The remove button on a section, field, or option behaves differently depending on whether that item has already been saved.
- Archived items are hidden from the form by default but not permanently gone.
- A <strong>Show archived</strong> toggle in the header reveals archived sections, fields, and options so you can restore or permanently remove them.
Previewing the form
Click Preview to open a read-only modal showing the form exactly as an end user would see and fill it in. Use this before saving to check the form flows the way you intend.
Validation when saving
A few rules are enforced when you try to save a template:
- Every section needs at least one active (non-archived) field.
- Every choice-type field (Multiple choice or Check boxes) needs at least one active option.
The same builder, three places
This drag-and-drop builder engine isn't unique to Patient Form Templates. It also powers Custom Patient Fields and is what patients or staff interact with when actually filling in a form on a patient's Forms tab.