Working with Choicelists

Gewijzigd op Ma, 21 Jul om 3:01 PM

With a choicelist, you can let authors of a document choose from predefined options. This is useful when you want certain answers to be entered in a consistent way, so you don’t get free-form or inconsistent responses. In this guide, we explain what choicelists are, what types exist (such as single choice or multiple choice), how to add them, and how to set whether they are required, optional, or editable.

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Types of choicelists

In Docfield, you can choose between two types of choicelists: single choice, where the user can select only one option, and multiple choice, where several options can be checked at the same time. You can also set whether the choicelist is required or optional. With an optional list, the user has the ability to select ‘Not applicable’.

Properties of choicelists

Choicelists can be customized in various ways. For example, you can set whether the options are fixed (not editable in the document), or whether the document author is allowed to modify or add an option themselves.

You can also use Smartfields in a choicelist. These work the way you're used to. The difference is that a Smartfield will only be visible in the document when the corresponding option is actually selected. If the option is not selected, no value will be filled in.

Adding a choicelist

To add a choicelist:

Click the plus icon (+) below the text block where you want to place the list.
Select ‘Choicelist’.
Enter the options.

In the top right corner of the block, you can set whether it’s a single choice or a multiple choice.

Single choice and multiple choice

When setting up a choicelist, you can choose between single choice and multiple choice.

Single choice means that the user can select only one option in the document. You’ll recognize this by the round radio buttons to the left of the options.
With multiple choice, the user is allowed to check several options at once. These appear as square checkboxes on the left side of each option.

Optional or required

By default, a choicelist is required. If you want the user to be able to skip the selection, set the list to optional. In that case, the option ‘Not applicable’ will automatically appear. When this option is selected in the document, the PDF remains empty and nothing will be displayed.

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Making options editable

Sometimes you may want a user to modify or add to an option. You can do this by making the option editable:

Click the pencil icon next to the option.
The left border of the option turns blue, this means the option can be edited in the document.
Want to disable this again? Click the pencil icon once more.

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Example in the document

In the document, a choicelist might look like this: this is a single choice, where the first option is editable. You can recognize this by the grey border around the text. Because the choicelist is optional, the user can also choose ‘Not applicable’. If that option is selected, nothing will appear in the PDF and the field will remain empty.

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