Bring in a form you already use

You don't have to start again. Open a form you already use, and its questions, its rules and its Word layout come in. Then tidy the page, give it a new look, and import it again.

The questions keep their names, so their field codes stay the same.

1. Export the form from ServiceM8

In ServiceM8, go to Settings, then Forms.
Press Open Form on the form you want.
In the Modify Form box, press Export Form at the bottom left, and save the file on your computer.
Press Close. Don't press Save: nothing in ServiceM8 needs to change.

The ServiceM8 Modify Form box for a Photo Report: form details at the top, the list of questions, and the buttons Export Form, Save and Close at the bottom. — The Modify Form box in ServiceM8. Export Form is at the bottom left.

A form from the ServiceM8 Form Store can't be opened in Form Designer. See the end of this guide.

2. Open it in Form Designer

Press Open in the top bar. The My forms box shows the forms you saved, and an Open… button for a file on your computer.

The My forms box: two saved forms with Open, Versions and Delete, and the buttons Open…, Deleted forms and Close. — My forms, with the Open… button.

Press Open… and pick the .sm8f file.

If a form is on the page already, Form Designer asks first. Press Save before, if you want to keep the form on the page.

The box Replace the current form? Opening a file replaces what is on the page now. Use Save first if you want to keep it. Buttons Cancel and Open it. — Replace the current form?

Press Open it.

3. Read what came in

The Form opened box says what came in, and what to check.

The Form opened box: 10 questions, their rules and the Word layout came in. The page was rebuilt from the old Word file as well as it could be. Below it, a Please check list. — Form opened: 10 questions, their rules and the Word layout came in.

A form made in Form Designer comes back complete: the layout, the questions, the rules and the pictures.
Any other form: the questions and their rules come in, and the page is rebuilt from the old Word file as well as it could be.
The Please check list names anything that needs a look. In this example, the old Word file had field codes that no question fills. They always printed empty, so they were left out.

4. Compare it in Preview

Look at the page in Layout, then click Preview in the dock. Put the old PDF beside it and compare them.

The form as it came in, in Layout.

The opened form in Preview, with sample answers on the left. — The same form in Preview, with sample answers.

5. Tidy the page

On the right, under Form settings, press Tidy a converted form….

The Tidy a converted form box: Job details table is ticked, and Questions into tables, Yes / No into ticks and Section title bars say Nothing to change. Buttons Cancel and Tidy. — Tidy a converted form.

It offers up to five changes. Each one says how many items it would change:

Job details table: job detail lines become one tidy table.
Add a job details table: when the form has none, it adds Client, Site address, Job number, Completed by and Date under the title.
Questions into tables: labels and answers become table rows.
Yes / No into ticks: Yes/No and Pass/Fail answers print as a tick, a cross or a dash.
Section title bars: groups of questions become sections with a coloured title bar.

A change with Nothing to change is greyed out. Only the printed page changes: the questions, their order and their rules stay as they are. Undo takes it all back.

Press Tidy.

The opened form in Layout after Tidy, with the job details in one table. — The page after Tidy.

6. Give it a look

Press Apply a look… and pick one of the eight starter looks. Form Designer asks what to copy: Colours and table style, Font, text size and margins, and Header and footer.

The Apply a look box with eight looks: Job Completion, Inspection Checklist, Job Safety Analysis, Photo Report, Incident Report, Authority to Proceed, Variation and Vehicle Pre-start Check. — Apply a look: the eight starter looks.

The questions, the rules and the body of the page stay as they are. Use the same look on all your forms, and they all match.

7. Save, download and import it

As in Build your first form, steps 10 and 11:

Press Save to keep the design in My forms.
Press Download, then Download in the box.
In ServiceM8, go to Settings, then Forms, press Import Form and pick the file.
Fill in the new form on a test job and check the PDF before you use it for real.

Forms that can't be opened

Some forms are locked so that only the business that made them can change them. Form Designer can't open those.

The box That did not work: This form is protected. Only the business that made it can open it in Form Designer. — A locked form.

A form locked outside Form Designer, for example a form from the ServiceM8 Form Store.
A form that another business made in Form Designer.
A file over 4 MB.

If a form you need won't open, ask the business that made it for a copy you can change.