How to create reusable fields for WordPress forms

The Ninja Forms drag-and-drop form builder for WordPress comes with an extremely underrated reusable field feature called Favorite Fields. This feature allows you to create customized fields that can then be used over and over again across multiple forms, saving you hours of form customization. Read below to find out how you can integrate reusable fields into your form-building workflow. 

How to Create the Favorite Field

1. Create a new form by navigating to Ninja Forms > Dashboard > Add New > Blank Form.
2. Choose the field or fields you wish to make a favorite by clicking the blue plus icon at the bottom right.
3. Format the field(s) to your liking.  This could include replacing the hidden labels with placeholder text, adding an Input Mask, providing a custom class name, or styling the field.
   

   Make sure the field has been completely formatted to your liking before saving as a Favorite. New edits cannot be made once the field that has been saved.

4. To save the field as a favorite click the star icon next to the field name.  A popup with a text box will appear next to the field name.
   
   
5. Give the Favorite Field a name or leave the default name as is and click ADD.
6. Once the field has been added as a favorite, a red notification will appear at the bottom left called Saved Field Added. This is to let you know the field has been added to the field library.

Need a Favorite Field idea?

• Creating fields whose labels have been hidden and displayed as placeholders instead.
• Saving Repeatable Fieldsets as favorites and using them from one form to another without having to re-create them from scratch.
• Add restriction settings to your Single Line Text so you don’t have to set them from scratch every time you add them to a new form.

Adding the Favorite Field to your form

1.  Within the Ninja Forms, form builder, click the blue plus sign at the bottom-right to open the field categories.
2.  Doing so should reveal a new category of fields called Favorite Fields, which include the favorite you just created.
3. Next, drag-and-drop the newly created field to your form.
4. Save & Publish.

Deleting Favorite Fields

1. If you have too many favorite fields, and you need to get rid of them.  Navigate to the Ninja Form settings by going to Ninja Forms > Settings > Favorite Fields.
2.  This is where you will see the list of the Favorite Fields you have created.
3. To remove the field, click Delete.  Doing so removes the field completely making it unrecoverable. So only do this if you are absolutely sure you want to delete the field.

Troubleshooting

1. You cannot make global changes to your Favorite Fields. This means the field will need to be fully customized first before it is saved as a favorite. Otherwise, you will be updating all instances of that field MANUALLY 😬 🤪.
2. Make sure you are running the latest version of Ninja Forms WordPress form builder and WordPress.  You can do this by going to Ninja Forms > Get Help and reviewing System Report.
3. Please reach out to our customer support team for more help.

Final thoughts

Now that you know reusable fields exist as a feature in our WordPress form builder, I encourage you to start using them as a part of your form-building workflow. The Favorite Fields setting shines when combined with our Layout and Styles add-on. Instead of recreating the field from scratch every time you build a new form, make your styling customizations once, save the field as a favorite, and then use it repeatedly throughout your site.  This is extremely useful for those fields that vary from the website branding.