Styling your forms using Themes
Themes are a bundle of styles that you can apply to your form with a single click -- they are the polar opposite of your forms: forms provide the structure of elements, whereas themes provide instructions on how they should be displayed on your form.
Themes give you the ability to convey a particular emotion on your forms and surveys and to put your company and your brand in the best light possible. With that said, it's very helpful to know the ins and outs of how to get started creating a theme!
In this article, we'll be going over how to add styles to your forms and surveys using Themes, how to create your own, and giving you some tips and tricks on how to make your forms and surveys on-brand.
Enabling stock themes on your form
If you would like to apply one of our stock themes (which are created in-house by the QuestionScout team), simply open up one of the forms you've created and head over to the "Themes" tab on your form.
In the column on the left-hand side, you can find a list of all of our stock themes. Clicking the theme allows you to preview it on the form you have opened at this moment, and clicking the "Apply" button will actually apply it to your live form.
You can also opt to "Duplicate" one of our stock themes, which allows you to customize that particular theme completely. This essentially gives you a starting point!
Creating your own, custom theme
An introduction to custom themes
Let's dive into the bread and butter of customizing your QuestionScout forms. When you sign in to QuestionScout, you'll find a "Themes" button placed in the navigation on the left-hand side of your screen. Opening the themes page will present you with a list of stock themes, which are created in-house by the QuestionScout team. These are themes you can enable on your forms with a single click, without having to customize anything.
Stock themes are useful for more than just a quick and easy way to add some colors to your forms and surveys. They also act as a starting point for themes you'd like to create from scratch. Find a theme you would particularly like to use as a starting point, and select the "Duplicate" option on the theme preview.
You will be prompted to give your new theme a name, so make sure to label it in a way that you can remember in the future (in case you end up making dozens of custom themes, you never know!)
The theme customizer
After you've duplicated your theme you will be greeted with a demo form, accompanied with the theme you've just duplicated. Great job, we're about to get started! It's not a bad idea to familiarize yourself with this interface, as you'll be playing around with quite a few settings. We'll break down a couple of things for you now!
At the top of the navigation column on the left-hand side, you'll find a couple of controls that will be particularly helpful when creating your custom theme.
The icons of devices on the top-left allow you to switch between previews of what it would look like on a particular device (mobile, tablet, and monitors). To the right of the device icons, you'll find a dropdown saying "Demo form" by default. Clicking this dropdown shows you a list of all of your forms, so you can preview it on any form you've created so far! Keep in mind that previewing it does not automatically apply the theme to your form. You'll have to do this on the "Themes" tab on your form.
Below the top controls, you'll find a bunch of different settings. On these settings pages, you'll find all of the accompanied settings that belong to the property you've selected. Below you can find an example for the "Display settings" on this particular form:
We won't dive into more detail for each and every option, as this would likely cause information overload, and we certainly don't want that to happen. We suggest simply diving into each setting page on your own time to figure out what you need, and have fun being creative and creating the perfect style for your business!
Happy styling!