Forms: edit published forms

Overview

Form creators and managers can now make targeted edits to published forms without unpublishing or recreating them. Edits are scoped to safe areas, structure and labels, so existing submissions and in-progress responses remain valid. The form editor clearly distinguishes which post-publish edits are allowed and which are restricted.

This applies to form creators, form managers, and form participants.

What changed

You can now update specific parts of a published form without disrupting existing submissions. Previously, edits required unpublishing or recreating the form, which interrupted active collection and risked breaking historic data.

Supported post-publish updates

Structure and content:

• Add new blocks or options, such as a clarification block or a new answer choice

• Rename questions, options, and pages to correct typos, improve clarity, or update terminology

• Reorder questions and options to optimise flow and grouping

Settings:

• Required toggle: make a question required or optional going forward

• Multi-select toggle: allow multiple selections where appropriate

Tip: Batch your edits and publish once to minimize participant confusion and change churn.

How to edit a published form

1. Open the form in the Forms workspace.

2. Select Edit. A banner indicates the form is published and which edits are permitted.

3. Make your changes: add blocks or options, rename, reorder, or adjust Required and Multi-select toggles.

4. Review the preview to confirm the participant experience.

5. Select Publish updates. Changes apply to new and in-progress responses from this point forward.

Behavior and data integrity

• Existing submissions remain intact and reportable.

• In-progress submissions adopt the new structure where compatible. If a question becomes required, participants are prompted before submission.

• Analytics continue to aggregate across renamed items. Underlying identifiers ensure continuity.

How specific edits behave

Examples

• Improve clarity: Rename "Office" to "Primary work location" to reduce ambiguity.

• Add nuance: Add a "Not applicable" option to a satisfaction question.

• Optimize flow: Reorder demographic questions to the end of the form.

• Tighten validation: Mark "Manager approval number" as Required for new submissions.

Best practices

• Communicate visible changes to participants for ongoing programmes, such as long-running requests or intake forms.

• Avoid frequent reorder or rename churn during active collection windows to reduce cognitive load on participants.

• Document the rationale for edits in your team's changelog to support auditability and analytics interpretation.

• For substantial reorganization, test with a draft copy first, then mirror the vetted updates to the live form.

Limitations and safeguards

• Edits that would compromise historical data models, such as deleting questions with responses, may be restricted or require archival or duplication workflows.

• Changing a field's answer type to an incompatible type may be disallowed after publishing.

• If a Required setting is introduced post-publish, participants must satisfy it before submitting. Consider messaging in-progress users so they are aware.

Troubleshooting

A specific property cannot be edited on the published form

• What happened: Some high-impact edits, such as field type changes or question deletions, are locked after publishing to protect data integrity.

• What to do: If you need to make structural changes that are not permitted in place, duplicate the form and perform the overhaul on the duplicate. You can then archive or replace the original form once the new version is ready.

Participants are reporting new required field errors

• What happened: You enabled the Required toggle on a question after publishing. Existing in-progress participants must now satisfy this requirement before they can submit.

• What to do: Ask affected participants to revisit the page and provide the missing input. Where possible, communicate the change in advance to in-progress users so they are not caught by surprise.

Analytics appear inconsistent after a rename

• What happened: Renames preserve underlying identifiers, so reporting continuity is maintained. If a question was deleted and recreated instead of renamed, a new series will appear in analytics and aggregation may look broken.

• What to do: Confirm the change was made using the rename action rather than delete and recreate. If a question was deleted and recreated, you will need to interpret the two series separately or duplicate the form to start clean.

A question with responses needs to be removed but deletion is restricted

• What happened: Deleting questions that already have responses is restricted to protect historical data integrity.

• What to do: Hide the question from new submissions if hiding is supported, or create a new version of the form without that question. Archive the old version to retain its reporting history.

An answer type needs to change after publish

• What happened: Changing a field's answer type to an incompatible type is generally restricted after publishing to prevent data corruption.

• What to do: Create a new question with the correct type, deprecate the old one, and communicate the change to participants. For major changes, consider duplicating the form and starting a new collection cycle.

FAQs

Q: Will editing a published form invalidate existing responses?

Ans: No. Previously submitted responses are preserved. Edits apply to new responses and to compatible in-progress responses going forward.

Q: Can I change a question's answer type after publishing?

Ans: This is generally restricted to protect data integrity. If a type change is essential, create a new question with the correct type, deprecate the old one, and communicate the change to participants.

Q: What happens to in-progress drafts when I publish edits?

Ans: Drafts continue. Participants may need to supply additional information if you enabled Required, or they can select multiple choices where newly allowed by Multi-select.

Q: Can I delete a question that already has responses?

Ans: Generally no. Deletion is restricted to preserve historical reporting. If you need to remove a question, mark it as hidden for new submissions or create a new version of the form and archive the old one.

Q: Where do I get help for planning major changes to a live form?

Ans: Contact your platform admin or open a support ticket. Include the form URL and a short description of the desired edits so the support team can advise on the safest approach.