Preview your form before making it available to respondents. Preview shows the respondent-facing experience without requiring you to publish the form.
Save, preview, and publish
These actions serve different purposes:
Save retains your changes. The form builder saves changes automatically.
Preview opens the respondent-facing form so you can inspect it.
Publish makes the form available for public access.
Publishing Forms requires an active subscription.
1. Check the form settings
Before previewing, confirm that:
Employee name is selected under Settings → Respondent → Name.
The intended signing method is selected.
The form language is correct.
The PDF title is appropriate.
The default "Thank you" screen or redirect URL is configured.
The builder indicates that your changes have been saved.
2. Preview the respondent experience
In the form builder, select the Preview icon (Eye icon).
Addo opens the form preview in a separate browser window.
Review the form from top to bottom.
For the Vacation request example, verify that the preview contains:
The introductory explanation
Employee name
Leave type
Additional comments
Start date
End date
The Submit request button
Use Preview to test the form from the respondent’s perspective and confirm that the fields and Submit button work as expected.
3. Test the form
Test the same actions a respondent will perform:
Try to continue without completing required fields.
Confirm that Please select an option messages appear.
Enter a sample employee name.
Select each leave type to confirm that the dropdown works.
Select start and end dates.
Enter and remove text in the optional comments field.
Check the form at both desktop and narrow browser widths if respondents may use mobile devices.
⚠️Important: Preview is intended for checking the experience. Do not use real personal or sensitive information in a test form.
Use the controls on the right side of Form Builder to open Settings, Preview Form, Preview PDF, Layout and View Table of Contents.
4. Return to Forms Overview
Return to Forms Overview when the form is ready.
An unpublished form can show:
Unpublished: The form is not available through a public link.
Pending changes: The form contains changes that have not been published.
Open the form details panel and resolve any message shown next to its status.
Select a form in Forms Overview to view its status, edit it or publish the current changes. Pending changes means that saved edits have not yet been published.
5. Publish the form
Open the form in Forms Overview.
Select Publish.
Review any confirmation displayed by Addo.
Confirm publication.
After publication, open Public details to manage the form's public access and obtain its public URL.
Editorial verification before release: Confirm the exact publication confirmation, public-link controls, and button labels in an environment with an active Forms subscription.
6. Test the public link
Before sharing the form broadly:
Copy the public URL from Public details.
Open a private or incognito browser window.
Paste the URL and open the form.
Confirm that the form loads without relying on your active Addo session.
Complete one internal test submission using non-sensitive test data.
Confirm that the submission reaches the expected destination in Addo.
Testing in a private window closely reflects what an external respondent will experience.
7. Share the form
Share the tested public URL through the channel appropriate to your process, such as:
Your intranet
A website
An email
A help center
A QR code or internal communication
Explain briefly what the form is for and what happens after submission. Avoid presenting the URL without context.
Update a published form
When you edit a published form, Forms Overview may show Pending changes. Preview the updated version and publish the changes when they are ready.
Editorial verification before release: Confirm whether all changes require republishing and what respondents see while pending changes exist.
Stop accepting responses
Use the form's public-access controls when the form should no longer accept submissions.
Editorial verification before release: Confirm the exact unpublish or close action, the status it produces, and what a respondent sees when opening the old public URL.
Troubleshooting
Publish is unavailable
Confirm that a respondent-name component is selected.
Confirm that the account has an active Forms subscription.
Check whether required configuration is missing.
Confirm that your user has publishing permission.
The preview contains the wrong language
Open Settings → Administration → Form language. Remember that Addo-generated text follows this setting, but text you entered yourself must be translated manually.
The form opens but a field is missing
Return to the builder and confirm that the component is in the intended section and row. Wait for the saved status, then open a new preview.
Next step
Continue with What happens after someone submits a form?.