Not Just A Contact Form
Over the years, many WordPress.com features undergo multiple changes. As something evolves, we may forget to note some of the more significant options that have been added along the way. In that light, let’s take a look at a block that is useful on nearly every site — the Contact Form Block.
The Ubiquitous Contact Us Link
Contact forms are a staple on the web. Users are accustomed to looking for “Contact Us” or “Contact” links in a site’s main menu, which usually leads to a simple contact form.
As simple as the concept is, contact forms used to be one of the more complex items to create on a page. The Contact Form block aims to make the creation as simple as the concept. Let’s dive in to see how it all works.
Getting Started With the Contact Form Block
Like all blocks, just drag the Contact Form block into your page and drop it where you would like to display it on the page. Here’s a quick look to see what that looks like.
Once you’ve inserted the form, you can edit its Block Settings to customize it. Here, you can choose which email address(es) to send the form results to, add a subject line, and select what happens after submission. “On Submission” choices include showing a summary of the submitted fields, redirecting to another page, or displaying a custom message to the user.
More Customization
You can customize the form even further. Some things you can do include:
- Add new form fields, including text, checkbox, radio, date picker, and more.
- Add custom CSS to the form.
Contact Form Patterns
Don’t forget about Block Patterns! Although you can always create your own contact form blocks from scratch, you might prefer to use and customize an existing Contact Form Pattern. Several stylish patterns are included, enabling you to jump-start your design.
Simply drag and drop the pattern of your choice, and then edit the settings to fit your design preferences.
If you’ve been using the Contact Form block, we hope you’ve found it to be simple and easy to use. If you haven’t tried it yet, check it out. It’s a great way to connect with your audience.
View more details on how to use the Form block.
Quick Tip: Need a form that’s NOT a contact form? No problem. There are blocks for that as well. Simply drag and drop the type of form block you need into your page or post. Just like that, you’ll be ready to create registration forms, RSVP forms, appointment forms, feedback forms, and podcast contact forms.
“Grunion”? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunion
Hmm… the reference here may be too subtle for me.
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It’s just a name. Grunion is a fish that’s native to California, where several of the plugin’s original authors live. There’s no particular significance.
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Awesome. I just love the power of Open Source combined with WordPress. It really shines out.
I hope, that we can add custom texts like your WordPress Support Information displays. I came I saw and what should actually happened.
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Most helpful! Many sites make forms either costly or difficult to create.
This feature will most certainly prove to be a terrific addition to the
vast plethora of features already at our fingertips.
Also, as I use forms all the time for other purposes, this will most certainly
be a great asset to me personally,
Another great job WordPress!
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Does the form support multiple choice questions?
Or simply a field for text?
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It supports several different field types – https://wordpress.com/support/contact-form/
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Really a brilliant addition. Thanks for making things easier. Cheers.
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That’s too cool. So many WP Christmas presents I don’t know where to start!
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Brilliant christmas present!
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And the hits just keep coming! Way to end the year. Thanks.
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Thanks for the “juicy details!”
😉
Awesome upgrade — can’t wait to try it out.
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It works great if I try to add a new contact form on a brand-new page but I’m having trouble editing an existing default contact form. I sent a message to support, but I’m wondering if anyone else has that problem too.
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I think you hit a bug that was discovered just after it was launched. I’ve already made a fix for it, so give it a try again. If it still isn’t working correctly please contact support and we’ll help track it down.
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Great feature. Thanks.
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Zowie! Just re-routed a not-spam yesterday. Does that count? Katharine
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I tried to add it to an existing post . The shortcode appeared but the rest of the post in the editor and preview had evaporated so I aborted . I’m probably misunderstanding how to do it but will the post disappear if I click update ?
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Drop a note to support with the details and which blog it was on and we’ll be happy to track it down.
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Possible bug: I sent a test email, and it never came. It turned out that my own email was determined to be “Spam” and was never sent. I noticed it when I checked the “Feedback Page”. I was logged into my account, and used the same email that all my WordPress email goes to. X
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You can mark the feedback as not spam, which does two things:
1- lets Akismet learn from the mistake
2- sends the email out as if it wasn’t spam in the first place
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Yahoo!! I’m ready for this–gonna add it to a post right away! And pages too! Yay!! Thank you WordPress for the great holiday present!
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I’m having trouble with mine. I’ve tried adding a contact form to a page, but I don’t see any shortcode. Does it go into the page immediately or do I have to wait until after I publish to see it?
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I just made an update that should fix the problem you were seeing.
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This is great! But I have both WordPress.com and .org sites. Is this available for WordPress.org??
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Yes, as mentioned in the post this is available for WordPress.org powered sites via the Grunion Contact Form plugin – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/grunion-contact-form/
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It looks like a great feature, but it is not quite working for me in Chrome (version 8).
Anyone else having difficulties in Chrome?
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I’ve used it quite a bit with Chrome (version 9) and it has been ok. Please contact support with details on exactly what isn’t working correctly and we can take a look.
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What a wonderful improvement to a much-used feature! Thank you!
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Absolutely brilliant.
I’d been hoping for an improved contact form with just these sort of changes. This is like an early Christmas present. I’ve been able to remove my own email address from public visibility (and therefore lowered the potential to be spammed on an email address I prefer to keep clear of distractions), while retaining the ability for interested readers to contact me directly and in confidence about specific matters. This is a change I’ve wanted to be able to make since starting my blog.
I’ve just added the improved contact form to one of Pages on my site.
Well done WordPress! 🙂
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Joseph, Thank you for the info. X
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Re: Frank’s comment about the Contact Form “evaporating” anything already in pages. This happened to me in all my blogs. I ended up having to copy and paste to save my original content. X
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PS. I just noticed that it auto-fills the name & email details on the form for any registered WordPress user browsing to the site. Cute touch.
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Okay, I just added it to a post and it seems to work well. I don’t think I will be using it often, but it is a nice addition to our toolbox. Thanks, Jack
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Great !!! Thanks a lot for your information Joseph. I’ll try it in future.
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that is sooo sooo cool! thank you!
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Heya,
I am using Fjords04 @ http://sannekurz.com.
I love the contacts form – easy and intuitive to use as usually. thanks!
My PROBLEM however:
in my theme the e-mail and website boxes are not adjusting their width automatically to my column width – any idea how to fix this?
Message box is fine.
Thx!
Sanne.
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Contact support so that we can track this issue, we’ll make sure it gets resolved.
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Very cool! I’ll have to add it to my list of new WP things to explore!
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Awesome! What a great new tool! Thanks for the early Christmas present, WP…now I want a form, even though I don’t really need one… must…resist…too shiny…
😛
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Very nice note that you are always improve our interface and tools… I have some suggestions and claims… Sorry my English…
1 – From Painel I’m not able to see all text of a comment in order to answer. A bottom to expand all text will be very practical.
2 – Another day I try insert an image (from a URL that was tested from my browser) on a comment (an answer) on panel, it not worked, without any error message.
3 – I strongly suggest that you developed form tools to readers vote from a post… Something that I can setup to make a kind of pool in a specific post, something that readers can vote clinking on a button (yes/no), for instance, without need make any comment. The results must appear automatically… I know that it must send a cookie to reader to prevent more than one vote for each one… but it will be a great possibility to explore.
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Contact support and we’ll help track these issues down.
On the voting, sounds like Polldaddy would be a good option.
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Does this work on WordPress.ca? I cannot find the button
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For WordPress sites not hosted on WordPress.com you’ll need to use the plugin – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/grunion-contact-form/
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Awesome upgrade — can’t wait to try it out.
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@Joseph
Thanks so much for this long waited improvement to the contact form. I appreciate it and I’m sure many other members will too. 🙂
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I tried to add the form to my page. My name, email address, and website address are shown up in the form as default… is there any ways to hide those??
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For logged in users it pre-fills those fields.
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This is just what I needed for my posts. However, when I tried incorporating it into my existing post the article was erased and what remained was just the new contact form! Is this possible only in new posts henceforth? Thanks for your help.
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Sounds like a bug. Contact support with exact details and we’ll track it down.
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Special thanks for that plugin. We’re so confused with lots of different third-party contact form plugins out there. Just like the stats one, I was looking for contact form plugin by you guys.
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Great idea! I’ll have to consider adding this to my blog.
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Yet another great tool. Thank you!
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Wow, there you go again, giving me something I never asked for, but somehow really needed! 🙂
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Thanks wordpress for the great post. An awesome contact form like this has always been the requirement. Now we got it and we’ll adopt it. We believe wordpress is not just a wordpress but it’s a king wordpress.
Saif
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Simply fantastic!
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This is GREAT! I now have a feedback form on my blog!!
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Simple to use, clean interface and just fantastic! Keep up the great work WordPress!
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Great new tool
At first, the just-written article disappeared, like some other bloggers above have experienced as well, after adding the contact form.
For sure, there must be a better solution than mine, but for the moment, it works: add the contact form first, then put a dividing line above, and on top of it, the article itself. Wonder why, but both will stay and work.
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Thanks. Contact support about that issue so that we can track it, we’ll make sure it gets addressed.
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Thanks for this. Can’t wait to use it. But it seems that since you released this the standard ‘leave a comment’ form at the end of my posts has gone funny. The fields don’t appear aligned in Firefox 3.6.13. I’m using the ‘contempt’ theme. I wonder if this is related? The form appears fine in Opera.
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Sent a note to Support about this so that we can track the issue and we’ll make sure it gets addressed.
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This is great!
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Wouldn’t it make more sense for this “feedback” form to be a widget? I don’t see a widget with this functionality.
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I also lost my post from yesterday when I tried to add the contact form. I have sent support a note too.
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This issue should be fixed now.
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wordpress is so great! so glad that i came. the amount of improvements this year….keep up the good work you guys! 🙂
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Just what I needed to add to my blog. Easily explained and works fine. Thanks.
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Thanks for adding this feature!! I have now got a feedback tab on my blog so readers can give me feedback easily. Being able to choose which fields are required, I can let someone leave feedback while keeping their privacy, or they can add their email address and website. Plus I can choose how they give feedback – whether with drop-down boxes, text fields and more.
Thanks WordPress for being the best blogging experience out there! 🙂
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thanks!
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Hello,
I have about 30 fields I’d like to use. I discovered that there’s a limit on the number of fields that can be created. Is it possible to increase the field amount limitation?
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Not currently. If you are looking for lots of fields a Polldaddy survey may be more appropriate.
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Very cool! But guess what… I tried it out using my own account and my message was sent to spam! Either way I’m very excited to use it. Thanks for it!
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Make sure to mark yourself as not spam then 🙂
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Great feature!
However, it would make it a whole lot nicer if we could export the feedbacks into a common spreadsheet format for analysis purposes.
Is this possible?
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We haven’t done any work on exporting yet. That would be a useful feature though, so we’ll definitely be taking a look at that.
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Just wanted to say what a great job you guys do.
Merry Christmas to all from myself and my 3 hooligans.
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Well done WP team
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Can you use the contact form in a text widget?
If yes, is there additional settings to make it fit a particular width of widget, dependin on template?
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Yes you can use it in a widget. We’ve made a few tweaks so that it fits better there and have a few more coming in the next few days.
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I know this is pedantic and nitpicky, but “feedback” is both singular and plural. “Feedbacks” makes me cringe.
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Trying to find just the right word was something we went a few rounds on. I wouldn’t rule out changing it in the future 🙂
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So much for me to learn, so much for me to try. 2011, the year of the blog. 🙂
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Awesome! Thank you!
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Great! I just used the form builder to put a contact form in my blog!
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Hi. I have just started, and found this new contact form. well done. cheers. and to everybody all the best of success with blogging in the new year.
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Customization is a good thing.
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This is so helpful and a great new feature, thanks a lot! 🙂
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i have learned a lot here , thanks so much!
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great news! much better way to provide feedback..thanks!
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This is what I need. Thanks a lot!
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Fan-freakin’-tabulous! I was hoping for an easier way for my clients to contact me with the information that I NEED before I speak to them. You rock!
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Teh awesomeness!
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What a terrific way to connect with my readers! Thanks!
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That is so many different kids of awesome, I can’t take it. Deploying it on all my blogs! Fantastic!
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