Hide or lock prefilled fields and opt-ins on forms

Once a lead has already filled out fields on a form, you can lock these fields and make them read-only, or hide them and just show the new fields when they revisit. Here’s how.

Table of contents

• Configure the behaviour of prefilled fields
• Configure the behaviour of prefilled opt-ins
• Example
• Field types that do not support hiding/locking
• Frequently Asked Questions

Configure the behaviour of prefilled fields

Users: Admin and, in some cases, Marketer users.

1. Go to Content or to your campaign.
2. Select your form or go to the Form step of your campaign.
3. Select your field and click Edit.
   
4. In the field options, go to If prefilled.
   
5. Okay, now let's configure it.

You can use this drop-down to choose whether this field, when prefilled, will be

• shown and editable by your participants (show),
• shown but not editable by your participants (lock: read-only),
• or simply hidden from your participants (hide).

Please note: If no information is available in a certain field for a particular participant, this field will be visible to them so they can supply that information.

Make sure to save your field.

Configure the behaviour of prefilled opt-ins

Users: Admin and Marketer users.

1. Select Content and go to Opt-ins.
   
2. Select Opt-ins again.
   
3. Select your opt-in and click Edit.
   
4. In the opt-in settings, go to If prefilled.
   
5. Okay, now let's configure it.

You can use this to choose whether this opt-in, when prefilled, will be

• shown and editable by your participants (show),
• shown but not editable by your participants (lock: read-only),
• or simply hidden from your participants (hide).

Please note: If a particular participant has not previously checked this opt-in, it will be visible to them so they can check that box.

Make sure to save your changes.

Example

If you choose to show field A (first name), lock field B (last name) and hide field C (email address) when these are prefilled, the participant will see the following the first time they see the form:

Assuming they fill out every field, the second time they take part in one of your identified campaigns, they might see:

When they come back to your channels, you can present another form with new fields (in this example, the "Address" field) and progressively fill out the profile of the participant.

However, when you show the form, you could also want the participant to fill in only new fields (empty). You would then hide the prefilled ones so that the participant doesn’t need to scroll through a long form:

Or, if you’d still like the participants to see the form in its entirety in the event that one of the prefilled items needs to be changed, then you would show all of them:

Field types that do not support hiding/locking

All fields can be hidden or locked (read-only), with the exception of

• File uploads (files and images cannot be pre-uploaded on a form)
• Related drop-down lists
• Hidden fields
• Facebook Likes (as form fields or opt-ins)
• Captchas in forms

Frequently Asked Questions

When would the form automatically be skipped?

If you chose to hide all your fields because you think prefilled items are most likely to be correct since they are populated from an existing database, the form will automatically be skipped when all fields are prefilled.

On the other hand, you can also use the option highlighted below. The form would be skipped if all required fields are prefilled. Empty fields will be visible to them so users can supply that information. Prefilled fields could either be shown, hidden or locked (read-only) depending on your settings.

Please note: The option highlighted above only applies to required fields. Working with optional fields, if you enable this feature and all required fields are prefilled, optional fields won't be shown and the form will get skipped.