How to Provide a Detailed Summary to Your Respondents Using Form Fields

A confirmation message is an important part of the form experience—especially for order forms. Showing a clear review or summary of what was submitted or ordered, whether before or after submission, reassures users that their information was received correctly and helps set clear expectations for what happens next.

Jotform offers several ways to make this happen:

• Use a Text Field to reiterate the order details directly on the form.
• Add the Preview Before Submit widget so respondents can review their selections before submitting.
• Use the Thank You Page to display a detailed summary after the form is submitted.
• Send an Autoresponder email to provide a confirmation and a copy of the submission.

To achieve this, let’s focus on adding form fields that display a quick summary of the information respondents have entered.

Using the Paragraph Element to Display a Summary

The Paragraph element is a rich text editor that lets you add and format text with ease. You can include styled text, insert images, add links, and even create tables, making it ideal for displaying instructions or descriptions on your form. You can also use it to display a summary of what users submit by inserting form fields into the content.

Whether you’re creating a new form or updating an existing one, you can add and set up the Paragraph element to display summaries in a few easy steps. Here’s how:

1. In Form Builder, click on Add Element on the left side of the page.

2. Then, in the Form Elements menu, under the Basic Elements section of the Basic tab, click on Paragraph. Or just drag and drop it to where you want it on your form.

3. On the right side of the Paragraph element, click on the Pencil icon.

4. Then, in the Text Editor, click on the Form Fields dropdown menu at the top toolbar, and select the Form field that you want to insert and be in the summary.

5. Now, on the right side of the Paragraph element, click on the Encircled Checkmark icon to save your summary. Or, you can also click outside the Paragraph element to do the same.

You’ll also find all the steps in our guide on How to Display Field Values in a Paragraph Element.

Displaying the Summary on the Thank You Page

You can also display the summary on your form’s Thank You Page. This is useful for displaying information only when the form is submitted. You can set it up like this:

1. In Form Builder, in the orange navigation bar at the top of the page, click on Settings.
2. In the menu on the left side of the page, click on Thank You Page.
3. Then, under the Show a Thank You Page After Submission tab, place your cursor in the section where you want the field to be inserted.
4. Next, in the top toolbar, click on Add Field.

5. Now, on the Thank You Page Settings menu on the right, under the Fields tab, click the Plus icon next to the field to add it.

That’s it for displaying a summary on the Thank You Page settings of your form.

Sending the Summary Through Email Templates

Instead of displaying the summary on the form or the Thank You Page, you can send it to respondents after submission through an Autoresponder email. This method is beneficial because it allows them to receive a copy in their inbox for future reference. The setup works similarly to inserting form fields into the Thank You Page. Here’s how to set it up:

1. In Form Builder, in the orange navigation bar at the top of the page, click on Settings.
2. Then, in the menu on the left side of the page, click on Emails.
3. Next, hover your mouse over the Autoresponder Email template, and click on Edit.

4. In the Email Content section, place your cursor on the cell where you want the field to be inserted.
5. Then, in the top toolbar, click on Form Fields.
6. Now, in the Dropdown menu that opens, click on the field to add it.

7. Finally, scroll down and click on Save Email to complete the setup.

That’s about it for providing a detailed summary to your form respondents using form fields. Which method you choose is entirely up to you—and you can even combine multiple approaches at once to give respondents better visibility and a smoother experience.