Form Owners and Form Admins have the ability to pause new or all submissions for published forms. This can be helpful in processes with a deadline or if you are making significant changes to your form and need to prevent new requests temporarily. 

This article will cover the following actions:

• How to pause your form
• How to activate your form
• How to archive your form
• How to utilize your Paused status to redirect initiators to the new link

How to pause your form

1. Navigate to your Form's Settings page
2. Under the Form Management section, locate the Activate, Pause, and Archive option, and click the Edit button
   
   
3. There are two options to pause your form:
   • New submissions are not accepted- This option will only prevent new requests, but pending submissions can still be approved and completed. 
   • All pending and new submissions are on hold- This option will prevent new and pending submissions from moving forward.
     
4. Once you select your pause option, you will have the option to customize the Paused Status Message. 
   
   If you are sunsetting an older form, you can link the initiator link to your new form by clicking on the hyperlink option from the toolbar. This will allow those who attempt to fill out the form to be directed to the correct link. See the last section of this article, "How to utilize your Paused status to redirect initiators to the new link" for more information.

5. Click the Update button to pause your form. 

   • Staff with access to the form will see a banner on the folder and responses page indicating the form is paused. 
     
   • Initiators attempting to submit a form will see the Paused Status Message. You can preview this message by clicking the Preview Initiator Page link
     

How to Activate your form

1. For forms that have been Paused or Archived, navigate to the Settings page
2. Under the Form Management section, locate the Activate, Pause, and Archive option, and click the Edit button
3. Choose the Active option and click the Update button
   
   

Your form is now active to receive new requests and continue the approval process. 

 

How to Archive your form

1. Navigate to your Form Settings page
2. Under the Form Management section, locate the Activate, Pause, and Archive option, and click the Edit button
3. Choose the Archived option and click the Update button. Once your form is archived initiators and approvers will no longer be able to submit forms.
   
   • Staff users who have access to this form can find the form under their Archived folders section on their manage forms page. 
     
   • Initiators attempting to submit a new form will see an error message. This message can't be customized at this time. 
     
     

Note: The archived form status can also be updated from the folder's dropdown options. Staff users will see these updates If you are a Form Owner or Forms Admin and archive a folder from this menu. 

 

How to utilize your Paused status to redirect initiators to the new link

When you create a new version of an older form, you'll want to make sure initiators have access to the new version so they submit the correct form. This is especially true if users have typically saved the old link to submit their form. If the form link is accessible on a district website or your public Informed K12 directory, you can simply contact your IT department and/or your district IK 12 form admin to request that the old link be removed and the new link added. If you do not know who the district IK 12 form admin is, you can always reach out to us via the Support Widget to find out this information.

For situations where there are still pending forms that need to complete, you can utilize your Paused status to redirect initiators to the new link. Here's how:

1. Follow the steps for "How to pause your form," above to navigate to the Pause feature's page.

2. Select the "Paused: New submissions are not accepted" option.

3. In the Paused Status Message text box that appears, you can remove the default message and include one similar to the following, "This form is no longer in use. Please use the new version found here."

4. Select the word "here" or whatever text you add that should be hyperlinked, and click on the hyperlink option in the tool bar.

5. Paste the link to the new version of your form. You will now see the word highlighted blue.

6. Use the bold option to make it even clearer to users. You will now see a message similar to what's shown here:

7. Click Update.

8. This is what users will now see when they attempt to access the old form:

9. Once all the pending submissions on your form have completed, you can then click on Archived from the same Settings page to remove the folder from view from all users.