Your first form

This guide builds a three-field contact form and puts it on a page. It takes a few minutes and needs no code beyond pasting a short piece of JSON.

Create the form

1. Go to Form Entries → Forms and select Add New.

2. Type a Form Title, such as Contact Us. The Form ID fills in from the title (contact-us). You can change the ID now, but not after the form is saved.

3. Paste this into Configuration (JSON):

   {
     "title": "Contact Us",
     "fields": [
       {"key": "name", "type": "text", "label": "Name", "required": true},
       {"key": "email", "type": "email", "label": "Email", "required": true},
       {"key": "message", "type": "textarea", "label": "Message", "required": true}
     ],
     "settings": {
       "submit_button_text": "Send Message",
       "success_message": "Thanks. We will reply within one working day.",
       "notification": {
         "subject": "New message from the website",
         "reply_to": "{field:email}"
       }
     }
   }

4. Select Save Form. If the JSON has a mistake, a message above the form says what is wrong and nothing is saved.

The form is now listed on Form Entries → Forms, with its shortcode in the Shortcode column and a button to copy it.

With these settings, each submission is stored as an entry and emailed to the site’s admin email address. Replying to that email goes to the visitor, because reply_to is set to their email field.

Place it on a page

The shortcode is the form’s ID in [pforms_form id="…"]:

[pforms_form id="contact-us"]

[promptless_form id="contact-us"] does the same. Where you put it:

• In a Promptless WP section. In a Hero (or any section with a media option), set Media Type to Shortcode and paste the shortcode into Shortcode Content. See Hero sections.
• In a popup. Paste it into the Body of a Promptless WP modal and open the modal from a button. See Modals.
• In the block editor. Add a Shortcode block and paste it.

Test it

1. Open the page while logged out, or in a private window.
2. Wait a few seconds, then fill in and send the form. A submission sent less than three seconds after the page loads is refused as likely spam.
3. Check Form Entries: the submission is at the top, marked unread.
4. Check the inbox of the site admin email. If nothing arrives, see Email notifications.

If the form does not appear

• The page shows [pforms_form id="…"] as text. The shortcode name is misspelled, or Promptless Forms is not active. Older examples use [fre_form], which no longer exists.
• Nothing shows at all. The ID does not match a saved form. Logged in as an administrator, you see Form not found: followed by the ID; visitors see nothing.

Next steps

• Add more field types: Field types.
• Put fields side by side or split the form into steps: Layout and steps.
• Choose who is emailed: Email notifications.

Related pages

• Creating and editing forms — The Forms screen, form ID rules, the parts of a form's JSON and every form-level setting.
• Field types — All 13 field types, the properties each one takes, and the options every field shares.
• Email notifications — Who receives the email for each submission, what it contains, the sender and reply-to rules, and how to make sure it is delivered.
• Hero Sections — The banner at the top of a page — its content fields, the five layout modes, media, backgrounds, logo row and boxed layout.
• Modals (Popups) — Build a popup once and open it from any button, or automatically after a delay, on scroll or on exit intent, with limits on how often a visitor sees it.