Build your request form and write plain-language intake

The request form is what a citizen fills in. Every field, its label, its help text and whether it is required is yours to set, and the wording does more to determine the quality of what arrives than any process downstream.

How to edit the form

1. Go to Settings, then Channels, then Request Form.
2. Use the Request page tab for the surrounding copy: hero title and subtitle, trust badges, the sidebar steps, help text, and the note shown just above Submit.
3. Use the Fields tab for the form itself.
4. Drag the handle on any field to reorder it.
5. Edit the label, add help text, and set the group it belongs to.
6. Toggle Req to make a field required.
7. Use Add custom field for anything your agency needs that is not there.

The screen saves as you go. Preview opens the live form in a new tab.

Every field maps somewhere

Each field carries a badge showing where its answer lands: Request, Attachment, or Requester profile.

That mapping is why the form is not just a questionnaire. A field mapped to the requester profile builds the contact record. A field mapped to the request becomes part of the record you are answering. Custom fields you add appear on the request's Custom Fields panel.

Some fields are marked Required and locked. Those are the ones the product cannot function without, such as the request title and the requester's email.

Rename your groups before go-live

Fields are organized into groups, and the group name is free text. Out of the box they are called Group 1 and Group 2, and those names appear on the public form exactly as written.

Rename them to something a citizen understands: "What records do you want" and "How we contact you". This is a two-minute change and it is the most visible default on the whole portal.

Write help text for anything that gets asked badly

Help text sits under a field and is where you prevent a problem rather than fix it later.

The date range is the field worth the most attention. A request with no period is the commonest cause of a scope negotiation that costs a fortnight. A line of help text asking for the narrowest useful period saves that conversation on most requests.

Ask for less than you think

Every field is a reason to abandon the form, and most public records statutes do not permit you to require identification or to ask why the records are wanted.

Required should mean the request cannot be worked without it. Everything else is optional.

The verify-first note

Under Request page, the Verify-first note appears just above Submit and only once the citizen has solved the captcha. It is the last thing they read before filing.

Use it for the one thing you most want them to check. A narrow date range, or a reminder that they will be emailed a tracking link.