Smart Lists Overview

Utilize Smart Lists to manage a go-to list of field options within your account for Team Plan and higher. When a change is made within the Smart List, this change is automatically reflected across your account to save you time and manual updating. 

Let's get started! Check out our video or detailed instructions below

Set up your Smart List

Step 1: Navigate to Smart Lists. Select your avatar (Profile) and choose Smart List from the dropdown options.



Step 2: Click Create Smart List. 
 

Step 3: Customize Smart List. From the "Edit Smart List" page, complete the following:

• Name your Smart List
• Use Separate values: Users can display a label with a different value associated with it.
• Use Images: Images will take place of the label.
  • Note: Images can be uploaded and used with radio buttons and checkboxes only.

Step 4: Add options to the Smart List. This can be done by:

• Manually Upload: Input data into the table. In this section, you can upload images (if applicable) and add, delete, reorder, and export as needed. 

• Bulk Upload: Drag and drop a .CSV file (maximum 128 KB file size for upload) and choose to keep or skip the first row. Skipping the first row of data allows you to pick whether or not the headers on the CSV will be used as a row of information. 
  • Note: Uploading a .CSV will replace any existing options in the current Smart List. Export the current data to not lose information. More on this can be found here. 

Important note: There’s a limit of 10,000 options that can be used in conjunction with a short answer text field or a searchable dropdown field. 1000 options is the limit for radio buttons, checkboxes, and non searchable dropdown fields. There's a warning that will be displayed if you try and upload a list that exceeds this minimum number. For more information on creating a searchable field with a dropdown list, check out this article. 

Step 5: Customize who has access to the Smart List. Toggle to the User Access tab and add or revoke access as needed. Account admins have access to edit all Smart Lists, while standard users can be given permission to edit a Smart List. All users can view all Lists.

Step 6: Review Smart Lists in forms. Once a Smart List has been added to a form, the Linked Forms tab will populate to those with access. Here you may view and unlink. Unlinking the form will copy the Smart List data to capture the field options.

Add Smart Lists to a form

Once your smart list has been created, begin to capture lists of field options across your standard forms! 

Step 1: From the Form Builder, choose a compatible field (dropdown, short answer, radio buttons, or checkboxes). 


Step 2: With the field element selected, choose from Create Custom List or Link to Smart List from the Field Options panel. 



 

Creating a custom list will only copy the list. Users can still add, delete, and reorder options without affecting the original Smart List. 

However, if you choose Link to Smart List, the field will automatically update with the selected Smart List. Options are disabled and can’t be added to, deleted, or reordered. Utilize the Open Smart List Editor to manage direct edits to the Smart List.

If the Smart list has more than 10 options, the first 10 options are displayed and this message is shown: “There are {number} other options not currently being displayed. To view all the options, visit the Advanced Options Editor.” From the Advanced Options Editor, you have the same functionalities (Create Custom List and Link to Smart List).

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it possible to create a searchable database using smart lists? 
 

Utilizing the short answer field for your smart list will give you the option to search for any of the options you have on your smart list. For example, let's say you created a smart list for your internal team to select their employee ID. Once you've selected your short answer field and connected the smart list with all of the ID's, the short answer field will suggest related ID numbers as you type them in. 
 

I'd like to create a list that includes the name and email for each manager we'd like to include in a workflow. The form taker would select the name of the manager the form submission is meant to be routed or emailed to and would ensure the email is never misspelt. 
 

The best way to go about this is utilizing the "Use separate values" feature while configuring and customizing your smart list as described above in the "Set up your smart list" section. The label can be the name of the manager and the value can be the email. 

I'd like to use a smart list that has 10,000 options, but what happens if I use a non-searchable field with that list?

If you use a non-searchable field(i.e: radio button, checkbox), only the first 1000 options will be used from that smart list. If you'd like to use all 10,000 options, we'd recommend using a short answer field or dropdown list with the searchable option enabled.