How to use the Form Designer

The Form Designer allows you to control:

• What information is collected in your directory
• How that information is labelled
• How entries are displayed to users
• How search and filtering work

Customising your form ensures your directory fits your specific use case, whether you're listing businesses, members, venues, services, or anything else.

Where to find the Form Designer in your dashboard

1. Log in to your Community Box dashboard
2. Open the directory you want to edit
3. Click Form Designer which is located on the left menu

You’ll see two main sections:

• Profile Form – controls what information is collected
• Overview Designer – controls how that information is displayed

❗If you have more than one directory, make sure to select the correct directory you want to work with from the drop down at the top of the page under Form Management

Profile Form (how information is collected from your members)

The Profile Form controls the fields that appear when adding or editing a profile.

These are the fields that members (or admins) complete when creating entries. You can also create admin-only fields that are not editable by members.

You can:

• Add new fields
• Edit existing fields
• Delete fields
• Reorder fields
• Control who can edit them
• Decide whether they appear publicly

The order of the fields here determines the order they appear in the profile form.

Adding or reordering fields

To add a field:

1. Scroll to the bottom of the form
2. Click Add Field
3. Choose the field type

Examples include:

• Single line text
• Paragraph text
• Email
• Website
• Location
• Category
• Social media
• File upload

To reorder fields:

Simply drag and drop fields into the order you want.

❗The File Upload field is only available on paid plans.

Field settings explained

Each field contains several settings that control how it behaves.

Question Title

This is the main label that members see when filling in the form.

Example:

Do you travel to clients?   

Input Field (Internal Label)

This is primarily used for internal reference or system identification.

Most users do not need to change this unless managing multiple similar fields.

Details Label

This controls the label shown on the public profile when the information is displayed.

Example:

Question title:

Do you travel to clients?   

Details label shown on profile:

Travels to you   

Placeholder

Placeholder text appears inside the input box as an example.

Example:

example@email.com   

❗Placeholder text disappears when the user starts typing, so it should be used for examples rather than instructions.

Editable By

This controls who can edit the field.

Options include:

• Profile Owner & Admin – both can edit
• Admin only – only dashboard admins can edit
• No one – the field is locked

The No one option is useful when importing data such as:

• Membership IDs
• Reference numbers
• Imported database values

This prevents accidental changes.

Visibility

Controls whether the field appears publicly in the directory.

Options typically include:

• Public
• Private (admin-only information)

This is useful if you want to collect internal data that should not appear on the public profile.

Required

When enabled, this field must be completed before a profile can be saved.

❗ A field cannot be both required and admin-only. If this happens, a warning icon will appear.

Searchable

This determines whether the field can be used in directory search results.

For example:

• Searching by location
• Searching by speciality
• Searching by service type

Note: Fields that are not visible publicly generally should not be searchable.

Ordering

This allows admins to sort or organise profiles based on this field.

This can be useful when creating featured listings or custom sorting options.

Managing categories and tags

The Category fields allow you to organize profiles using tags. These fields are especially important if you plan to use advanced search or filtering. You can add as many as you want, however too many can lead to a cluttered look to your directory.

In the Profile form, you can:

• Remove default options
• Add new options manually
• Paste a list of options from a spreadsheet

To update category options:

1. Click the category field
2. Edit the list of available choices
3. Click Update

For example, you could have a category called Speciality with the following tags:

• Vegan
• Gluten Free
• Raw Desserts
• Organic

Users can select tags when filling in their profile.

You can add multiple category fields if needed, for example:

• Category 1: Speciality
• Category 2: Service Type
• Category 3: Region

For a more detailed guide on categories and tags, please read this article: Working with categories and tags

Adding or removing fields

You can remove any field that is not relevant to your directory.

For example:

• Remove First Name and Last Name if you’re listing businesses
• Remove Contact Email if it’s not required
• Remove social media fields if not needed

To delete a field:

1. Click the field
2. Select Delete
3. Click Update

Tip: Keeping only essential fields improves usability and reduces clutter.

Location fields

The Location field integrates with our mapping software to automatically find most places.

When entering an address:

1. Begin typing the address
2. Select the correct result from the auto-suggestion dropdown

This ensures:

• Accurate map display
• Reliable proximity search
• Correct geocoding

❗ If you paste a full address but do not select it from the dropdown, the location may not map correctly.

Overview Designer (how information is displayed on the public profile)

The Overview Designer controls how profiles appear in the overview grid of your directory. You can choose which fields from the Profile form to show in the overview, before people click to read more in the popup.

The popup automatically displays all fields that are set to visible.

Field settings explained in the Overview

You can add fields from the Profile form to the Overview Designer by clicking into one of the boxes. It will automatically show you available fields for that area, and you can add multiple fields to each area.

Profile picture

Choose whether to show an image on the overview. If your form includes multiple image fields, you can choose which image appears in the directory grid.

Display Name

The main title shown in the directory grid, for example, Business Name

Subtitle

A secondary line shown beneath the title, for example, First name and Surname

You can also choose whether the subtitle appears on a new line or inline with the title.

Categories

You can select a category field (or multiple category fields) to show tags directly in the directory listing.

This allows users to quickly see what type of profile they are viewing.

Paragraph

This is designed for bios, but you can add add any text field to this area.

You can also set how many characters should show on the overview. People will be able to click on Read more to open the popup and read the full bio.

Location

Choose whether to show the location on the overview grid. You can set the format for how the location displays in

Social media

Social media fields can be included in the Overview Designer. These will appear as icons for the relevant platform.

Saving Your Changes

After making changes in the Overview Designer, remember to click Update. This saves your changes to the directory layout.

How form design affects search

The fields you create directly influence how users interact with your directory.

For example:

• Category fields allow filtering
• Location fields allow map searches
• Searchable fields allow keyword search

Before finalising your form, think about how users will browse and search your directory.

Best practice tips

• Keep it focused
• Only collect the information you genuinely need.
• Use clear naming
• Rename fields so they match your niche and audience.
• If users will filter by location, category, or speciality then make sure those fields are included.
• After making changes, refresh your directory preview to check how it looks.
• Add a test profile and review it as if you were an end user.

Summary

The Form Designer allows you to choose:

• What data is collected
• How it is laid out
• How it is displayed
• How users search and filter entries

Taking time to configure your form correctly will result in a cleaner, more intuitive directory experience for both admins and users.

Need help?

If you need help with the Form Designer, our support team is happy to help. Simply send a message from within your dashboard or email help@communitybox.co.