Text Input Field: Capture Freeform Responses with Powerful Formatting Options

📄 Text Input Field: Capture Freeform Responses with Powerful Formatting Options
 

The Text Input field in Ontraccr is your go-to for collecting open-ended responses. From job descriptions to reference links, this field is versatile—and comes with some smart controls like character limits, number-only input, and hyperlink formatting.

✍️ What is a Text Input Field?

A Text Input field allows form users to type in freeform answers—letters, numbers, symbols, or even URLs. It’s ideal for collecting information that isn’t stored in a database.

🛠 How to Add a Text Input Field

1. Go to Step 2: Fields
2. Click ➕ Add Field under any section
3. Choose Text Input from the Field Type dropdown
4. Enter a question or label in the Title field

⚙️ Configuration Options

✅ Optional Field

• Default: Required
• Enable this checkbox to make the field optional

🔠 Character Limit

• Toggle: Add Character Limit
• Input the maximum number of characters
• Users see a live character counter as they type

🧠 Use Cases:

• Limit field length to prevent PDF layout issues
• Prevent errors when sending to systems with field size restrictions (e.g. Zapier, Docusign)

🔢 Numerical Input Only

• Toggle: Is Numerical Input
• Restricts input to numbers only
• User can:
  • Type numbers
  • Use up/down arrows to increment values
• Field size shrinks to match number format

🧠 Use Cases:

• Entering counts, costs, or reference IDs
• Any field requiring numeric-only values

🔗 Hyperlink Mode

• Toggle: Is Hyperlink
• Converts pasted URLs into clickable links in the form
• Works on web and mobile
• Opens the link in a new tab or mobile app

Without this setting, links are plain text (not clickable)

🧠 Use Cases:

• Add links to shared folders (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive)
• Reference specs or documents stored elsewhere

🧠 Use Case Examples

🧾 Tip: Combine with Conditional Logic

Just like other field types, Text Input fields can be shown conditionally using prior responses. This keeps your forms lean and targeted.

📌 Edge Cases & Gotchas

• ⚠️ Character limits are recommended if you use custom PDFs to avoid layout breaks
• ⚠️ Make sure hyperlink mode is enabled for any link fields—otherwise users can’t click them