There is no free WordPress form plugin as powerful as Formidable Pro which was my favorite WordPress plugin for developing customized forms just got more AWESOME with new features that will make creating functional and attractive forms even easier. Here are some of the new features in Formidable Pro v1.6.3 and how to leverage them.
Separate Label and Value
Previously in Formidable Pro you can create Radio, Checkbox or Dropdown fields with ease but the label (name) of the field had to be the same value. There was no way to present a more user friendly label but a more machine and automatic script friendly value. Example, if someone was to select gender you had to put “Male/Female” and the value in your email would be the same.
But now in Formidable Pro v1.6.3 you can checkmark “Use Separate Values” and when you do you have the ability to set a different value than the label.
Now suddenly you can have the user see “Male/Female” but when your email comes in the value can be just “m/f” to make it easier to read into a script. This is especially helpful if you want multiple word labels to read in a single abbreviated values.
Default Column CSS Classes
One thing that required a lot of complexity with Formidable Pro previously was if you wanted to have multiple form fields in columns, you had to use manual html to accomplish this and do editing. Now Formidable Pro v1.6.3 allows you to enter some very simple class names to easily set your form fields to two, three or four columns.
All you have to do is edit the Field Options and set the CSS Layout Class you want to use, the map above shows which class to use based on the 2, 3 or 4 column layout.
Particularly cool is the grid for radial dails or check boxes now which makes it very easy to create questionnaires or surveys in Formidable Pro now!
Google Charts Added
Formidable Pro now supports Google Charts so you can display results in high quality presentation style and have complete mobile compatibility support.
All you have to do is add google=1 to your frm-graph shortcode to display your graph as a Google Chart instead.
Summary
These are only some of the great new features added into Formidable Pro version 1.6.3, if you want a complete list of all new features you can see them here: http://formidablepro.com/formidable-v1-6-3/
If you aren’t using Formidable Pro to create powerful forms on your WordPress blog, then you are missing a phenomenal plugin. It is an advanced plugin that requires some time to learn it but with it you can create professional and useful forms, surveys, and even link them to payment systems (paypal) or create customized mailing list signup (MailChimp).
I know many WordPress users have told me why I don’t recommend Gravity forms and the simple fact is that Formidable Pro gives you a ton of flexibility and power for much less than Gravity Forms if you compare the unlimited site license. Also, Formidable Pro team provides top notch support and this plugin is constantly adding new features and functionality, overall the price and response times from me asking questions to both companies caused me to chose Formidable Pro.
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