We ran our first Paubox Forms office hours this week. If you missed it, we have two more sessions this month, on August 20 and August 27. Save your seat.

Here's what office hours are and what we covered this week.

What office hours are

Office hours are a 30-minute open session with no set agenda. You can drop in to watch, bring a specific question, or share your screen and build a Paubox Forms form live with our help. It's a chance to get one-on-one time with us, whether you want to troubleshoot something, build a form from scratch, or share feedback on the product.

We started with a quick tour

A few people wanted to see what Forms could do, so we opened with a short overview.

If you're new to Forms, the easiest way to start is with a template. Forms comes with 13 templates grouped by use case, from intake and onboarding to consent and clinical. Everything in a template is fully editable, so you can open one, see the kinds of questions it includes, and make it your own.

We also walked through the field types you can add to any question:

  • Input fields for single pieces of data like first name, last name, email, or date of birth
  • Dropdown, multiple choice, and single choice for set answers
  • File uploads, with optional restrictions on file type
  • Signatures, which patients can either draw or type

Then we built a form, live

One attendee asked whether her two-page patient history form would fit in Forms, so we built a version of it on screen. A few things worth repeating:

  • No cap on choices. She had more than 30 items in one past-history question. We tested it live and kept adding options past 30 without hitting a limit.
  • Conditional fields. With a single choice or dropdown question, you can show a follow-up question only when someone picks a certain answer.
  • Signatures on file. Add your own email as a form recipient and you get a PDF copy of each completed form, signature included. You can also export submissions as a CSV, but keep the PDF if you're collecting signatures. It's the complete record.
  • Field names matter. Each field's name becomes the column header when you review submissions, so rename "input field 1" to "first name" and your data stays readable.

Once a form is published, it has its own URL you can drop into an email or put on your website. Every form is HIPAA compliant and covered under your Paubox business associate agreement, the same protection the HHS Privacy Rule expects when you handle protected health information (PHI).

The questions that came up

Because there's no agenda, we go wherever the room takes us. A few of this week's questions:

  • Is there a limit on how many forms I can create? No. Forms is included with your Paubox service at no extra cost, with no cap on the number of forms.
  • How do I add my logo? Your form logo comes from the logo on your account under Settings. It needs to be at least 400 pixels wide and have a logo URL attached.
  • What if I get stuck later? Our support team is available by email and chat, and you can always come back to office hours.

We're putting real engineering effort into Forms right now, so hearing what's working and what's confusing helps shape what we build next.

Two more sessions this month

If any of this sounds useful, join us. The next two office hours are August 20 and August 27, both free and open to any Paubox customer. Register here. Bring a form you want to build, a question you're stuck on, or just come watch.

One more option if you want to go further. On August 21, we're hosting a webinar on embedding a form directly into your website, which takes a bit more setup than sending a link. You can register for the webinar separately.