# Build and submit forms

Design a form template — blank, copied, or on top of a PDF — place its fields, then get it filled two ways: a public link anyone can open, or shares to named people. Every submission arrives as a document in the project.

Product: nucleus-one · Audience: catalog-administrator · Time: 30 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/nucleus-one/using-nucleus-one/build-and-submit-forms

**At the end of this guide a form of your design is out in the world — as a public link or shared to named people — and every submission lands in your project as a document, with field values you can search and route.**

One naming distinction up front, because the two screens sit near each other: **Form Templates** (under the project's **Settings**, admins only) is where forms are *designed*; **Forms** (at the project's top level, for every member) is where they're *filled in*.

## Create the template

1. In the project, open **Settings** > **Form Templates** and click **+**. Three starting points:
   
   | Card | When |
   |---|---|
   | **Create Blank** | "Create a template from the ground up." |
   | **Copy Existing** | Start from another template in the organization |
   | **Upload PDF** | "Use a PDF form as the source" — your existing paper form becomes the background, and your fields land on top of it |

2. Name it (or pick the source), click **CREATE**, and you're in the designer.

The PDF path deserves the highlight: the W-9, the credit application, the intake form you already print — upload it and the form *is* that form. A template-level **Render type** choice decides whether submissions **Fill source** (write into a copy of your PDF) or **Render new** (produce a fresh, flattened PDF — the only mode where submitted signatures appear).

## Place the fields

The designer's **Toolbox** drags onto the page:

- **Text Box**, **List Box**, **Check Box**, **Radio Group** — the classic inputs
- **Sign & Date** — a signature capture
- **Upload** — lets the person filling attach a file
- **Project Field** — the important one: it binds the input to one of your project's fields, so what's typed becomes *data on the document*, not just ink on a page
- **Label** and **Image** — static dressing

Select any placed field to set its properties — **Required** chief among them. **PREVIEW** (top bar) opens the form as a filler will see it.

*[Screenshot: The form template designer with a PDF source page and fields placed on it, the Toolbox on the left]*

Bind everything you'll ever search or route by to a **Project Field**. A plain Text Box holds the answer; a Project Field makes the answer *findable* — and usable by workflow.

## Get it filled

Two mechanisms, different audiences:

- **Public** — tick the **Public** checkbox in the designer's properties pane ("A public form can be accessed by anyone having the URL"). Ticking it also copies the form's URL to your clipboard, ready to paste into an email or website. No Nucleus One account needed to fill it.
- **SHARE** — the designer's **SHARE** button (or the Share action on the template's card) sends the form to named people: enter them under **Share with people**, optionally set **Tags for form submission**, and **SHARE**. Recipients' shares appear under the project's **Shared Forms**.

Members of the project can also just open **Forms** and fill any template there directly.

## Where submissions go

**Every submission becomes a document in the project.** The submitted values live on it as field values (open such a document and its viewer offers a **Form viewer** mode showing the filled form; edits there save with "Form updated successfully"), its history records **Form submitted**, and any tags from the share or template come along.

There's no per-form destination folder to pick — routing is workflow's job: a process triggered by **Form submit** can file the document with the **Folder change** action, email someone, start an approval. That composability is the point: the form is the front door; what happens next is up to your process design.

**Success check:** make a two-field test form with one **Project Field**, submit it through its public link, and find the resulting document by searching that field's value — the full loop, proven.

## What's next

- [Find anything with advanced search](https://help.ademero.com/nucleus-one/using-nucleus-one/find-anything-with-advanced-search)
- [Run accounts payable in Nucleus One](https://help.ademero.com/nucleus-one/using-nucleus-one/run-accounts-payable-in-nucleus-one)