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Changing Field Order for a Step in the Submission Portal

  • Updated

This article is considered appropriate for administrators or workspace users with an intermediate level of knowledge about submission portals. If you are a beginner, we recommend reading the following article first:

For more information about suggested learning paths, see Introduction to Submission Portals: START HERE.

 

Contents

 

Overview

The process to change the order in which fields appear on forms in a submission portal can be done in two places: on the form itself, or within the Submission Portal Settings.  This article will walk through how to change the order of the fields on a form used in a Step from the Submission Portal Settings.

 

The Purpose of Changing the Field Order

The Submission Portal is designed to collect information from portal users through Steps, which are associated with forms that exist in a workspace. At times, there may be a need to change the order in which the fields and questions appear to portal users. The standard way of doing this is to edit the form directly in the Form Editor (see Form Builder Overview.)

However, the Submission Portal Settings allow administrators to change the order in which the form fields appear without changing the form itself. This can be useful if, for example, the form is used in two different submission portals, and the order needs to be changed in one but not the other. It can also be useful if an administrator is not comfortable with making changes on a form using the Form Editor.

 

Where to Find the Setting

In the Submission Portal Settings, the option to change the order in which fields appear for a Step in the Submission Portal can be found on the Details tab of the Step Settings page for the specific Step to be edited. 

To find the setting:

  1. Logged into a program as an administrator, navigate to the Settings & Tools section by selecting the cog wheel icon in the top navigation bar.
  2. Select the Submission Portal tile from the Plugin Settings section.
  3. Select the Edit button to the appropriate submission portal.

  1. To change the order of the form fields, navigate to the Step needing changes by selecting the appropriate link for the Step in the Portal Sections panel on the left side of the screen.  Multiple steps are highlighted in the screenshot below to show there may be more than one.

  1. Selecting a Step in the Portal Sections panel will change the contents of the right panel and display the Step Settings, as shown below. 

  1. Select the Details tab to show a table-like view of the fields on the form associated with this Step. Each row represents a field on the associated form.

 

Changing the Order in Which Fields Appear

After navigating to the appropriate step’s settings and Details tab:

  1. Select the Default Order column label to reveal a dropdown menu.  Please note that if the order has already been customized for the Step, the column label will read Custom Order; if that’s the case, skip to step 4 below.

  1. Select Custom Order from the dropdown menu.

  1. The column header now reads Custom Order and the black arrow crosshairs in each row within that column are now active and selectable.
  2. Select the black arrow crosshairs of the field to be moved, and while actively selecting, drag-and-drop the field to its new location on the form.

  1. After all fields are arranged as needed, select the blue Save all settings button in the lower right corner of the screen.