Some deals require collecting important information from your customers such as billing addresses, dates, and names. You don’t have to chase them down in emails or document comments, you can use fields.

Your customers will fill out fields right before they sign your document. You will have all the required information in one place - in your document!

Note:

For the smoothest experience, we suggest adding no more than 300 fields per document. While the maximum number of fields on a document is 900, performance and stability may become compromised if a document contains over 300 fields.

Working with fields

To add a field, open your document/template first, then go to the Content panel on the right, select a role/recipient who will fill out this field later, or add a new one under "Fillable fields for". After that, click on the field or drag and drop it to the place you need.

The field placement logic works as follows:

Fields are connected to blocks, allowing them to move together with the block. Placing fields outside a block links them to the page.
When you place a field within a block, it automatically links to either the top or bottom side of the block, determined by the block’s midpoint. This approach is used to maintain the field’s position when you modify the text. This feature is particularly handy when working with large text blocks, as changes made at the top won’t impact the fields at the bottom.

To deactivate auto-snapping, press and hold the CMND on Mac and CTRL on Windows while dragging the field. Auto-snapping will resume automatically once the CMND/CTRL keys are released.

Note:

If you are using Safari, press the command key before dragging the field, not while dragging.

Assign a field to a recipient

Note:

The field colors are automatically assigned to roles/recipients in the order they appear in the document, with a total of eight available colors. If there are more than eight recipients or roles, assignments will restart from the beginning.

First, select a recipient who needs to sign the document or fill or fill out some fields, then click on the field. A recipient will become a signer once a field is assigned to them.

On a template, form, or content library item you can assign fields to the roles, on the document level - to the recipients.

Learn more here.

Note:

You won’t be able to send the document until you assign all fields.

Make a field required

If "Required" is unchecked in field properties, the recipient can complete the document without filling out the field. And vice versa, if the "Required" option is checked, the client will be unable to finalize the document without filling it out.

Signature field is set to "Required" by default but you can easily uncheck this option in field properties. We recommend keeping it required - your client won’t be able to complete the document without putting their signature in.

Click on a field, select Properties on the floating panel, and select/unselect "Required".

Allow multiple lines in a text field

A text field is multiline by default. You can switch off this setting in field properties. Make sure to adjust the field width and leave enough space for the multiline text before you send the document. The multiline field will automatically expand to the bottom of the page as the recipient enters more text.

If the field is not set to multiline text, it will expand to the right margin of the page automatically.

Mask data in a field

You can mask field data in a textfield, date, and dropdown in case your recipients will be providing sensitive information.

Anybody inside your PandaDoc account who has access to the document will be able to view masked field data. Anybody on the recipients' list who is NOT assigned to this field, won’t be able to view masked field data.

A PDF won’t show masked field data regardless of who downloads it.

Set a default date field format

Learn more about all date field options here.

You can set a default data field format in workspace settings so that all new date fields have the same format.

Go to Settings > Workspace defaults, scroll down to Default date field format, select the format you need, and click Save changes. All new fields you add to your templates/documents will have this format.

Duplicate a field

To copy a field, click on a field and select the Duplicate icon.

The duplicated field will be assigned to the same recipient/role and have the same size as the original one.

How to copy, cut, and paste fields

You can easily copy, cut, and paste fields within your documents, templates, forms, and content library items.

Note:

When you copy and paste fields all field properties of the original fields except Field ID are preserved.

Copying fields

Select the field you want to copy and select Copy on the floating pane or press Ctrl + C / Command + C.

Cutting fields

Select the field you want to cut and select Cut on the floating pane or press Ctrl + X/Command + X to cut the field.

Pasting copied or cut fields

Use keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + V/ Command + V to paste the copied or cut field.

Placement rules:

The pasted field will appear on the current visible page.
When pasting to a different page, the field will maintain its original coordinates.
If pasting to the same page, the field will be placed just below the original field.
For cut fields pasted to the same page, they will retain their original coordinates.

Notes:

Fields are pasted without any values (similar to the duplicate action).
If you select a field's value (either entirely or partially) and use the copy or cut action, only the value will be copied or cut, not the field itself.
After pasting, fields will be automatically assigned to the appropriate role or recipient, just as they are when you add a new field by clicking or duplicating a field.

Resize a field

Drag your field by the dots at the corners to resize it. Once you resize a field, the next field you add will be of the same size.

Conditional fields

If you are on a Business or Enterprise plan, you will see an option to set up a Conditional rule. Click here to learn more about this feature.

Select and move multiple fields

You can easily select multiple fields in your template, document, contact library item, or form to delete, assign, or move them. To select multiple fields:

Press Command (on Mac) or Shift (on Windows) on your keyboard
Select several fields (once you do, they'll become framed in blue)

To reassign selected fields to another recipient, select the recipient's name (you'll see a role name if you're using a template, content library item, or form) on the floating panel, then assign a new recipient to these fields.

Press Delete on your keyboard or select the Trash bin on the floating panel to delete the fields.

To move multiple fields at once, simply select and drag them to the desired place.

Link fields

Note:

You can link only Text, Date, Checkbox, Dropdown, and Stamp fields.

Linked fields make it easier for your recipients to fill in required fields with repeated data. Once they enter the required information, they won’t need to re-enter it elsewhere — it will be replicated in all linked fields.

Note:

Linked fields can be utilized in documents included in a document bundle.

To link a field, start by selecting it, then select Copy and link field on the floating panel or in Properties on the right panel. The copied field will have the same size, settings, and field assignment. You can drag and drop the copied field wherever you’d like.

Note:

Changing a field ID within a copied field will unlink it.

Alternatively, you can link fields by copy-pasting or entering a field ID value from one field to another.

Note:

You can link only the same field types.

You can use linked fields arrows within field properties to quickly jump between them.

Types of fields

Text field

Text fields can help you to collect recipients' names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and other information you may need.

Note:

Emojies are not supported.

In addition, there is an option to use text field validation in case you need to make sure that your recipients add information in the correct format.

Click here to find out more.

Signature

The signature field is used to collect recipients’ signatures. When there is a signature field on a document, a signature certificate will be added to the PDF copy once all recipients complete the document.

You can choose available signature types for your recipients in Settings > Workspace defaults.

Initials

The initials field includes the first letters of the first and last name of the signer. A signature certificate won't be generated after document completion if there is no signature field.

You can choose available initials types for your recipients in Settings > Workspace defaults.

Follow this guide if you need to quickly add Initials field on every page in your template/document.

Date

The date field allows you to collect different dates such as signing date, birth date, etc.

You can set up the date format in workspace settings. Once you select new format and save changes, all new fields you add in your templates/documents will have this format.

Additionally, you can select available dates and date format for your recipients in field properties. By default, Any dates are selected.

Checkbox

You can add multiple checkbox fields to allow your recipients to choose several options out of many.

Radio buttons

The radio buttons field allows a recipient to choose one option from the list

Note:

The radio buttons field is not available for the Free eSign users.

Under Properties you can also hide or show values by toggling Show values.

Dropdown

You can use the Dropdown field as an alternative to radio buttons. The recipient can choose one option from the dropdown menu.

Note:

The dropdown field is not available for the Free eSign users.

Card details

The card details field allows securely saving customers' card details so you can charge them later or set up recurring payments. This field works only with Stripe integration.

Collect files

The collect files field allows your recipients to upload files to your document.

Note:

Any user in the account with permission to access documents except Collaborators can view uploaded files.

This function supports the following file types: .jpg, .png, .gif, .mp4, zip, .docx, .pdf, .xlsx, .csv, .pptx. The maximum file size is 50MB. Learn more here.