Building Multi-Step Forms and Partial Saves

Overview

Long forms lose people. StretchForms solves this two ways: multi-step forms break a form into digestible pages, and partial saves let a respondent stop partway and pick up exactly where they left off. Both are enabled in your workspace today.

When to use steps

Use a multi-step form when a single form would be intimidating in one scroll — applications, onboarding, detailed briefs, or anything over ~8 fields. Steps improve completion by showing progress and reducing the sense of a wall of questions.

Build a multi-step form

1. Open your form in the builder.
2. Add your fields as usual, then group them into steps — for example Step 1: About you, Step 2: Your project, Step 3: Confirm.
3. Keep each step focused on one theme. Aim for a handful of fields per step.
4. Put the lightest, most motivating questions first (name, email) and the heavier ones (long descriptions, uploads) later.
5. Save and test the full sequence as a respondent, advancing step by step to the final submit.

How partial saves work

When a respondent starts a multi-step form, StretchForms can store their progress as a partial save:

• Each partial save has a resume token — a unique key that lets that exact respondent return.
• It records the current step, the answers so far, which fields are currently visible (important when conditional logic is in play), and where the respondent came from.
• A partial save is active until it's submitted or expires. When the form is finally submitted, the matching partial save is marked submitted and linked to the resulting submission.

You can review active partial saves from the dashboard and analytics — they tell you how many people are mid-way through a form.

Let respondents resume

1. Enable partial saves on your multi-step form.
2. When a respondent pauses, StretchForms issues a resume token and (typically) a resume link.
3. Returning with that token restores their step and answers.
4. Optionally set an expiry so stale, abandoned drafts don't linger indefinitely.

Example

A consultancy runs a four-step Discovery form. A prospect completes steps 1 and 2 at work, closes the tab, and opens their resume link at home that evening — their answers are still there, and they finish steps 3 and 4. In analytics, the team sees the partial-save was active while the prospect was away and flipped to submitted on completion.

Reading partial-save signals

• A high number of active partial saves on one form means people start but stall — often a sign that a later step asks for too much.
• Watch step completions in analytics against submits: a big gap at a particular step points to exactly where to simplify.

Tips

• Front-load easy questions. Getting a respondent to complete step 1 dramatically raises the odds they finish.
• Name your steps. Clear step titles set expectations and reduce abandonment.
• Set an expiry that matches your use case — short for time-sensitive intake, longer for considered applications.
• Combine steps with conditional logic so respondents only see the steps and fields relevant to them.

Troubleshooting

A resume link doesn't restore answers. The resume token may have expired or the partial save was already submitted. Ask the respondent to start again.

Progress isn't being saved. Confirm partial saves are enabled on the form and that the form has a valid form key — a partial save requires both a form key and a resume token.

FAQ

Do single-page forms support partial saves? Partial saves shine on multi-step forms; a one-page form is submitted in a single action.

Does a partial save count as a submission? No. It becomes a submission only when the respondent completes and submits the form.