Publishing and versions
The builder always edits a draft. Respondents only see the published form, so you can rework a live form without anyone seeing it half done. Workflows work the same way; see How workflows work.
Publish
Section titled “Publish”Publish (or Publish changes) opens a dialog listing what will go live, in plain sentences: Added phone field “Mobile”, Renamed “Company” → “Organisation”, Made “Email” required, Changed theme. It also lists anything to fix first, and warns when a workflow uses a question you’re about to remove.
A dot on the button, and on Builder in the menu, means there are unpublished changes. Preview → Preview draft shows the draft as respondents would see it, without taking submissions; Open live form opens what’s published.
Versions
Section titled “Versions”Each publish is a version: v1, v2, v3. The publish menu has:
- Discard draft changes: back to what’s live.
- Revert to a version…: the version history, with what each one changed. Reverting puts that version in your draft; publish it to make it live (as a new version).
Responses keep their version
Section titled “Responses keep their version”Every response remembers the version of the form it was answered on, so editing the form never rewrites old answers:
- Opening a response shows the questions as they were then, including ones you’ve since renamed or deleted, and the option labels the respondent chose.
- In the response list, a response from an earlier version has a vN badge.
- The export has a Version column, and a question that was deleted later keeps its own column, so nothing is lost.
Edit a live form safely
Section titled “Edit a live form safely”You can change a form that’s already collecting responses. Nothing that came in before is lost or rewritten (see above), and nobody halfway through it loses their place.
Someone is filling it in when you publish
Section titled “Someone is filling it in when you publish”They can finish on the version they opened. Their answers are checked against that version, so a question you just added or made required doesn’t block them. The next visitor gets the new version.
That works for 24 hours after you publish. A page left open longer than that is asked to reload: This form was updated since you opened it. Please reload to continue. It’s how a tab left open for days can’t keep answering questions you’ve since changed.
Reloading keeps their answers
Section titled “Reloading keeps their answers”Answers are saved in the respondent’s browser as they type (unless you turn off picking up where they left off). After a reload on the new version they come back:
- Answers to questions that are still there, with the same type, are filled in again.
- An answer to a question you removed, or changed to another type, is left out.
- A choice you removed is unticked; the other choices stay.
- The form opens on its first page, since its pages may have changed.
Payments don’t get the 24 hours
Section titled “Payments don’t get the 24 hours”If the new version would charge them differently, the old one is refused straight away: a changed price or currency, a switch between one-time and subscription, or a payment step added or removed. They’re asked to reload before they pay, so nobody pays an old price. Edits that don’t change what they pay, like a new question or a reworded label, don’t send them back.
A payment that already went through (Apple Pay or Google Pay confirm before the form is sent) is always accepted, so nobody is charged without their response being saved.
Revisions
Section titled “Revisions”When a respondent corrects their answers through a send back for changes link, or Request changes on a response, it’s saved as a revision of the same response. It keeps its number, gets a Revised badge in the list, and the response’s Revision switcher shows each earlier revision. Lists and exports show the latest one.