# A form your recipients fill in together, at their own pace > Up to 30 fields, one shared answer: each recipient fills in what they know, and each field keeps its author’s name. ## Questions asked once, answers that build up Framing a folder often takes more than one answer: a need, a deadline, a good time to reach the person. Asked in messages, these questions get lost in the exchange, and the answer arrives in pieces. A form gathers them in the thread, in one place, with a single answer that each recipient can write in turn. ## Fields, one shared answer - **The fields**: you write the list of fields directly, thirty at most. The message that carries the form is its introduction; the form has no title of its own. Each field has a name (255 characters at most) and is marked required or optional. - **Four types of answer**: short text (255 characters at most), long text (5,000 characters at most), single choice, multiple choice. A choice field offers at least two distinct options, twenty at most. - **One answer**: the form is addressed to one or several people, or to the other party in the folder, but there is only one answer for everyone. One person fills in two fields, another completes it the next day, a third corrects an answer. Each field shows “Filled in by” its author and the date, with “edited” if it was revised. - **A save that tramples no one**: the “Save” button only sends the fields you changed. Two recipients filling in different fields at the same moment do not erase each other, and a field you did not touch keeps its author. What you type stays in your browser until you save. - **A display sized to the form**: up to two fields, you fill it in right in the thread. Beyond that, the thread lists the fields with their answer (eight at most, then “+ 3 more fields”), and a button opens the full form in a panel, on the first field still empty. - **The status**: “To do” while nothing is filled in, “In progress” as soon as one field is, “Done” when all the required fields are. The header says it in words: “not filled in yet”, “1 of 3 fields filled in”, “filled in”. Emptying a required field brings the status back down. - **The deadline and reminders**: the deadline is optional, as for the other resources. It triggers the [automatic reminders](/en/features/automatic-reminders), which stop once it is done or cancelled. Until the form is done, it appears in its recipients’ [waiting view](/en/features/the-waiting-view), with the “Fill in” action. - **Your notification**: whoever asked the form is told when someone fills it in, unless they filled it in themselves. A form can also be kept in a publication template: field names and option labels can carry the folder’s variables. It is available in an internal note, addressed to team members only. ## In practice **Framing a folder, whatever the trade.** The template catalogue offers a “Questionnaire de démarrage”, due in seven days: “Votre besoin, en quelques mots” (long text, required), “Une échéance à respecter ?” and “Le meilleur moment pour vous joindre” (short texts, optional). The client only has to write the need for the form to move to “Done”. **Consulting and firms.** The “Questionnaire de découverte” prepares the first meeting: “Activité principale” (required), “Nombre de salariés”, “Date de clôture de l’exercice” and “Vos attentes”. Two people in the company can share the answers, one the activity, the other the closing date; you read back one answer, not four messages. ## What it does not do - **There is no field for attaching a file.** The four types are texts and choices. To gather documents, use the [document request](/en/features/document-requests). - **Nothing stops an incomplete form from being saved.** The form warns (“Form saved. 2 required fields still to fill in.”) without refusing: information rarely arrives all at once. - **One answer, not one per person.** To know what each person thinks, ask each one their own question; to settle a choice, use the [choice decision](/en/features/choice-decisions). - **Only the recipients fill it in.** Whoever asked the form reads the answers; a client the form does not name cannot write in it. A cancelled form or a closed folder can no longer be filled in. ## See also The form is published from the thread: [writing a request](/en/features/writing-a-request) explains how, and [the folder thread](/en/features/the-folder-thread) how everything is found there. To publish the same questionnaire faster from one folder to the next, see [folder templates](/en/features/folder-templates), and for those who have to fill it in, [participants and team](/en/features/participants-and-team).