Every form has two layers: the draft, which is what you edit, and the published version, which is what people opening the link see. Changing the draft never changes the live form; only the Publish button does. Understanding this avoids the most common surprise: "I changed the question and clients still see the old one". In the example, ClÃnica Vitta, an aesthetics clinic in Miami, adjusts the medical history form that is already receiving responses.
Autosave
In Forms › (form) › Edit, the editor saves the draft on its own about 2 seconds after your last change. Next to the buttons at the top of the page, a badge shows the status:
- Saving… and then Saved at 14:32 — the draft is stored.
- Unsaved changes — an edit is waiting for the next save.
- Fix the fields to save — something in the draft is incomplete, such as a question without a title. Until it is fixed, nothing is saved. Click Save draft to see the problem fields highlighted.
- Could not save — the save failed; click Save draft to try again.
- Changed in another tab — see "Two tabs or two people" below.
If you leave the screen, whatever has not been saved yet is sent on the way out. If you close the tab with a pending change, the browser asks before closing.
The Save draft button is still there for when you want to save right now. It is only active when there is a change.
Publishing
Publish (at the top and at the bottom of the Edit tab) asks for confirmation and puts the draft live for everyone who opens the link. If there were unsaved changes, they are saved first. The form needs at least one field, and fields with errors must be fixed first.
The form header shows the status (Draft or Published), Updated at and Published at. The Public link only shows up after the first publication.
Each publication becomes a version in Version history.
The unpublished changes notice
When the form is already published and the draft has changes, this appears at the top: "There are unpublished changes. People opening the link still see the last published version."
At ClÃnica Vitta, Paula added the question "Do you take blood thinners?" on Monday morning and went off to see patients. Until she clicked Publish, patients kept getting the form without the new question. The notice is there so this does not go unnoticed.
What takes effect on publishing and what takes effect right away
Only the cards that make up the form itself depend on publishing:
- On publishing: Settings, Fields (including conditions), After submission and Appearance.
- Right away, with their own save button: Accepting responses, Response alerts, Tracking and partial responses, Response PDF and Response retention. The logo and invites, in the Share tab, also take effect right away.
In other words: changing the email that gets the new response alert does not require publishing; changing the text of a question does.
What happens to responses when you change and republish
- No response is lost or changed. Each response stays tied to the version that was live when it was submitted.
- In the panel, the response is shown with the form's current questions. A question you removed still shows up in older responses as Removed field, with what the person answered.
- In the response PDF, the questions come out exactly as they were in the version answered, in that version's order.
- Anyone who had the form open while you published submits to the new version: the response is checked and stored against the version live at the moment of submission. An answer to a question removed in that version is discarded.
That is why big changes to a busy form are better done outside peak hours.
Two tabs or two people editing
If the same form is changed in another tab or by someone else after you opened it, your next save is refused and this appears: "This form was changed in another tab or by someone else. What you typed here is still on screen but was not saved." Autosave stops until you reload.
Click Reload current version. Before that, copy anything you typed and do not want to lose: after reloading, the screen shows the draft that was saved last. The same rule applies to Publish: a draft different from the one on your screen never goes live.
Who can edit and publish
Owner and Editor edit, save and publish. The Viewer opens the form and sees every card, with the controls disabled and the read access notice; the save, publish and history buttons do not show up for them.
Where to go next
- Version history (Editing and publishing collection) — go back to a version published earlier.
- Folders, duplicating, deactivating and deleting forms (Editing and publishing collection) — test changes on a copy without touching the live form.
- Form link and custom alias (Share collection) — the public link, which shows up after the first publication.
In short: the editor saves the draft on its own, but respondents only see what you published; Settings, Fields, After submission and Appearance wait for Publish, the other cards take effect right away, older responses stay tied to the version they were given in, and an edit made in another tab blocks saving until you reload.