Editing Your Application Form

What is covered in this article?

• Approach to Editing your Application
• Video
• Application Overview
• Editing or Adding Steps
• Using the Form Field Download to Review Existing Fields
• Editing or Adding Fields
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Adding Translations to your Application
• Next Steps

Approach to Editing your Application

Prior to the start of each new enrollment season, we encourage you to review your application form  with an eye toward the following questions:

• Is your application streamlined and easy to navigate for families?
• Do you need to add questions for new lottery priorities?
• Do you need to change how you captured data last season? Would another format (dropdown, radio buttons, etc.) make reporting and exporting your data easier? 
• Do you need to update translations in your application (for new instructions or fields)?

Items to Note:

• Before making edits, confirm that you are in the proper school year. The school year dropdown is located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
• Making edits in the upcoming year's application will not impact the prior year's application.

Exception: Form fields saved to the Student table span across all enrollment years. Any changes to these fields would also impact prior years. This could result in data loss if you removed or edited answer options or removed the fields entirely. See the Pro Tip in the Editing Fields section of this article to identify which of your fields are saved to the Student table.

• Before making edits, confirm that your Application Dates are closed in the upcoming year: in Settings > Date & Time or if you use Program Specific Dates, navigate to Settings > Schools/Programs > and view dates on the Application Settings tab for each Program.

 

Video 

Application Overview

Begin your application editing process by clicking the pencil icon above your form name.

Review the settings options for this application:

• Total Choice Limit: the number of school/program choices a guardian can select, and Minimum Choice Limit, if desired.
• Allow Applications to Be Ranked
• Separate Category Rankings: Ranks selections from different program categories separately instead of ranking them all together.
• Disable Application Ranking Changes after Submission: Blocks guardians from updating their ranking once they have submitted their application.
• Enable Student Lookup: Optional or Required (requires guardians to lookup students using the information in the SIS. guardians cannot create a new student record if the Student Lookup is required.)
• Enable Zoned School Banner: This banner displays the student’s zoned school/program to families in the Selection Step. This setting requires that your school zone boundary files are uploaded in Enroll, and a zoned school field is added to your form. Here's how!
• Enable Appeals

Editing or Adding Steps

Your application form is made up of steps, and each step is made up of form fields. Families will move through each step of your application to provide information. Data is saved in each field when families click `Save & Continue` or `Save & Exit` after each step.

Navigate to Settings > Forms > Applications > click the Manage Steps button for the Application you wish to edit.

Steps can have their own settings, logic, and restrictions. To review or configure step settings and logic, click the pencil icon to the right of the step name.

To create a new step, click the Add Form Steps button within your form.

Steps can also be dragged and dropped to re-order how they appear to families.

Important Note: if Step 5 has questions that rely upon the data from Step 3, be aware of the required order. Examples: 1) the Student Information step is most commonly placed before the Program Selection step so the programs displaying as selections for families can use the grade data in the Student Information step, and 2) the Program Selection step may need to come before other steps that may be dependent on whether a guardian selects a specific program to apply to.

 

Review and select the desired settings for your step such as:

• Allow Changes After Submission
• Admin Only
• Allow Change when Window Closed

If you would like this step to appear only when certain conditions are met, use the Advanced Restrictions slider to configure the logic you need. In the Advanced Restrictions example below, this step will only appear if a family is applying to one of the 3 programs listed.

Note: Advanced Restrictions cannot be used on the first step of an application.

Using the Form Field Download to Review Existing Fields

To facilitate reviewing all existing form fields to identify those requiring edits, go to Settings > Forms > click the `Form Field Download` button to access your Form Field Report and Form Field Options Report as .csv files.

• This is a quick way to identify fields saved to the Student table that, if changed, will change the field across all enrollment years.
• This is also the best way to confirm that you do not have two different questions unintentionally saving data to the same location.  When two separate questions are storing different answer values in the same table.field location, only the last time the question is completed by a family  will be saved in the database, overwriting the answer from the first question asked.

Form Field Report

Form Field Options Report

Editing or Adding Fields

Once you've identified which fields require editing, navigate to Settings > Forms > Applications > click Manage Steps for the Application you wish to edit > then click Manage Fields for the step.

Form fields have their own settings, logic and restrictions.

To edit an existing field, click the pencil icon to the right of the field name to review and configure the field settings and logic. 

To create a new field, click the Add Form Field button within the step. Check out our custom field best practices here!

Like steps, fields can be dragged and dropped to re-order how they will appear to families.

Important Note: if fields are used in conditional logic (to show or hide based on a prior answer) be very careful when re-ordering fields or the conditional logic could break.  To view the conditional logic that determines which fields will be shown or hidden to families based on a prior answer, click the Conditional Logic button. Click here for details on building new conditional logic in your form.

Editing Fields FAQ 

1) How do I change the wording of a question?

• Replace the existing Field Label content with your new verbiage. #1 in screenshot below.

2) Can I change the field type of an existing field? Example: I want to capture data in a different format for my SIS and reporting in the coming year. 

• First, confirm that this field is not saved to the Student table, as changes would impact data across prior years.
• If this field is saved to the Student Annual table (most common) or Application table, select the desired field type from the menu. #2 in screenshot below.

3) Can I make an existing field required this year? Or vice versa?

• Yes, check or uncheck the Required checkbox. You may also make a field required for admins when they are completing an application on behalf of a family. #3 in screenshot below.

4) Can I change existing field answer options? Or can I only add new ones?

• First, confirm that this field is not saved to the Student table, as changes would impact data across prior years.
• If this field is saved to the Student Annual table (most common) or Application table, use the + icon to add a new answer option, then complete the field label for what should display to families. 
• Use the checkboxes to include a None or Other option to display as answer options. #4 in screenshot above.
• Use the delete icon to delete an existing answer option for this field. #4 in screenshot below.

5) How do I make a field hidden from parents on the form, but still viewable for admins?

• Use the Admin Only checkbox under the Restrictions section to make a field display only for your admins. #5 in screenshot below

6) How do I make a field display only for students applying to a certain grade(s)?

• Enable the Restrict to Selected Grades checkbox under the Restrictions section, and then select the grades that are permitted to see this field. #6 in screenshot below

7) How do I change the location where an existing field is saving data from one year to the next?

• First, confirm that the existing field is not saved to the Student table, as changing the database location from the Student table to another table would impact data across prior years.
• Then, select the field name or create a custom field name. Please read these important considerations when selecting where to save your custom field: Custom Field Best Practices
• To change a field that is saved to the Student table, one option is to use the `Restrict to Selected Grades` checkbox and select all of the grades for this application. This will hide the field from families in the upcoming year. Next, add a new field to your form to capture this same data in the new year. Be sure to select the Student Annual or Applications table for this new custom field. #7 in the screenshot below.

Adding Translations to your Application

Navigate to Settings > Forms > Applications > click the translation icon for each form that requires translation edits. 

Choose the tab for the language (listed as an abbreviation) to enter translations. Next, click on the step to view your newly added or edited content that requires translating.  Enter your translation and Save.

Next Steps

Once all Application changes are saved in your production site for the upcoming enrollment year:

1. Contact our Technical Support team to request a sandbox refresh.
2. TEST your application as a parent and as an admin in your sandbox site to confirm your changes are ready for your application launch: How to Test Your Application in Sandbox.