Forms on your SiteWorks site

A form allows information to be captured in a more structured way than the SiteWorks contact form. For example registering for a coach trip. Bear in mind that if you capture personal information (email, phone) that is kept secure at all times.

Below is taken from the u3a WordPress forum https://u3awpdev.org.uk (you need to register).

There are (at least) three approaches that could be considered:

1. Using PDF forms
2. Using a third party form embedded on a page such as Google Forms
3. Using a WordPress forms plugin

PDF Forms
To create a PDF form you would use desktop software of which MS Office, LibreOffice or Acrobat are well known but there are many others. You would then upload this PDF to your website and provide a link to it. In this workflow, a visitor to the website opens the PDF form in their browser, completes the form and saves a copy which they then email to the membership secretary. You can see an example of this on the Llandrindod u3a website. (Form created with LibreOffice Writer.) This approach does not require any data to be stored on a server.

Embedded third party form
With this approach you sign up for a form service (many are free with limitations) and embed a link to the form on a page on your website. Here, the information is held by that third party and you would access completed forms via their service. Here is a guide to some of the commonly used services.

WordPress forms plugin
There are many to choose from, though most have modest costs. To use this you would install the plugin and then create the forms using the tools provided by the plugin. The data is stored on your website and usually you would have choices as to how to handle completed forms. There’s a summary of some of the most widely used plugins here.

There is no “best” solution as it depends on what meets the requirements, compliance with GDPR for personal data, and to some extent on your technical skills. Using a third party forms service is probably the simplest to set up unless you already have a working knowledge of the other approaches.