### [How to Auto-Populate Fields in WordPress Forms](https://wpforms.com/how-to-use-dynamic-field-choices/)

**Published:** January 15, 2021
**Author:** Claire Broadley

**Content:**

Do you want to auto-populate fields in your WordPress forms? You can automatically use information like post types or products to create the options in form fields.

This makes forms easier to fill out, and it can also save a lot of time when you’re building them.

WPForms makes it easy to auto-fill form fields using dynamic field choices. We’ll show you how to set it up in this article.

[Build Your WordPress Form Now](https://wpforms.com/pricing/)

- [How to Auto-Populate Fields in WordPress Forms](#aioseo-how-to-auto-populate-fields-in-wordpress-forms)
    - [Step 1: Install the WPForms Plugin](#aioseo-step-1-install-the-wpforms-plugin)
    - [Step 2: Set Up Your Auto-Populated Field](#aioseo-step-2-set-up-your-auto-populated-field)
    - [Step 3: Publish Your Form](#aioseo-step-3-publish-your-form)
    - [FAQs on Auto-Populated Form Fields](#aioseo-faqs-on-auto-populated-form-fields)
    - [Next, Make Smart Forms Quickly With WPForms](#aioseo-next-make-smart-forms-quickly-with-wpforms)

## How to Auto-Populate Fields in WordPress Forms

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to auto-populate WooCommerce products in a contact form.

### Step 1: Install the WPForms Plugin

First, install and activate the [WPForms](https://wpforms.com/) plugin. Here’s a step-by-step guide on [how to install a WordPress plugin](http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/step-by-step-guide-to-install-a-wordpress-plugin-for-beginners/) if you need help.

Now you’re going to add a new form. First, go to **WPForms » Add New**.

![Add new form with auto-populated fields](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/add-new-user-submitted-wordpress-post-form.png)Next, click the simple contact form template to start.

![Use simple contact form template](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Use-simple-contact-form-template-1024x913.png)You’ll see the form builder open up in a fullscreen window. The simple contact form already has fields for:

- Name
- Email
- Comment or message

Go ahead and drag a dropdown field and then add auto-populated answer choices.

Click on the dropdown field and drag it over to the form preview on the right.

![Add a dynamic field choice with a dropdown](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/dynamic-field-choices.gif)Next, click once on your dropdown to open up the settings on the left. Edit the label here to describe the contents of the dropdown.

![Change the dropdown label on the dynamic choices field](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/auto-populate-fields-dropdown-label.png)Now scroll down a little bit and expand **Advanced Options**. You’re going to choose 2 settings here to make the form easier to fill out:

- **Style** – I’m going to pick the **Modern** dropdown because it lets visitors search the list. This is a great way to make a really long dropdown a lot easier to use. If you want, you can easily create a [multi-select dropdown](https://wpforms.com/how-to-multi-select-dropdown/) so your visitors can pick more than 1 answer.
- **Placeholder** – It’s always a good idea to set a placeholder for a field. A placeholder looks like a default choice, but the visitor can’t select it. This is a great way to make sure the selection doesn’t default to the first answer in the list.

![Auto-populated field style and placeholder setting](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/auto-populate-fields-label-placeholder.png)Now you’re ready to add a dynamic field choice to our new dropdown,

### Step 2: Set Up Your Auto-Populated Field

Now you’re going to set up the options that will appear in the dropdown list.

With dynamic field choices, you don’t have to worry about typing all the answers in. WPForms will grab all of the options for you.

When you expand **Advanced Options** on your dropdown, you’ll see 2 choices:

- **Post Type**
- **Taxonomy**

![Dynamic choices on auto populated field](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/auto-populate-fields-dynamic-choices.png)**Post Type** lets you auto-populate the field from a **Dynamic Post Type Source**. On a WooCommerce store, the choices in the second dropdown here might look like this:

- **Post** – A list of all of the blog posts on your site.
- **Page** – Lists all of the pages on your site.
- **Products** – A list of all of the products in your store.

These are all post types. You can use custom post types if you have any set up.

For example, you have a couple of other options to choose from here because we have 2 additional custom post types set up:

![Auto-populate fields with post type choices](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/auto-populate-fields-dynamic-post-type-source.png)Let’s look at the other choice you can use to auto populate your form fields.

If you select the second option in the dropdown, **Taxonomies**, you’ll see a second dropdown called **Dynamic Taxonomy Source**.

The choices in the second dropdown will include options like:

- **Tags** – All of the tags associated with your blog posts.
- **Categories** – The categories associated with your blog posts.
- **Product categories** – Categories associated with your eCommerce products.
- **Product tags** – Tags you’ve added to your products.
- **Product type** – Product types or variants.

Again, your store will almost certainly have more options to choose from.

In this example, the store owner added a plugin to group products by brand, so that’s why we also have a Brands taxonomy to use to auto populate our field.

![Auto populate fields with dynamic taxonomy choices](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/auto-populate-fields-dynamic-taxonomy-choice.png)For this tutorial, I’m going to select **Post Type** and then **Products**. This will list all products in our store.

Sometimes auto-populated fields can have a lot of choices. If you want to exclude items from the dropdown, check out our guide to [excluding items from auto-populated fields](https://wpforms.com/developers/how-to-exclude-posts-pages-or-categories-from-dynamic-choices/).

Finally, you’ll want to check your form’s general settings. Check out our guides on:

- [Setting up email notifications in WPForms](https://wpforms.com/docs/setup-form-notification-wpforms/)
- [Setting up your form confirmation message](https://wpforms.com/how-to-send-confirmation-emails-to-users-after-form-submission/)

Click **Save** to save your form.

### Step 3: Publish Your Form

You can publish your form in different ways: in a post, in a page, or in the sidebar. You can use a shortcode for this, but I recommend using the embed option instead.

Start by clicking **Embed** at the top of the form builder.

![Embed your form with dynamic choices](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/auto-populate-fields-embed.png)And then click **Create New Page**.

![Create new page for form with auto-populated fields](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/user-submitted-wordpress-post-form-new-page.png)Type in a name for your page and click **Let’s Go**.

![Create a page for your form with auto-populated fields](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/auto-populate-fields-lets-go.png)If everything looks OK here, just click **Publish** to go live.

![Publish form with dynamic field choices](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/auto-populate-fields-publish.png)That’s it! Your form is ready for submissions.

![Published form with auto-populated field](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/auto-populate-fields-published.png)Now’s a great time to test out your dynamic field so you can start getting inquiries.

[Create Your WordPress Form Now](https://wpforms.com/pricing/)

### FAQs on Auto-Populated Form Fields

We often receive questions about dynamic field choices and auto-populated fields. Here are a few we’re asked regularly.

#### What Is a Dynamic Field Choice?

A dynamic field choice is form response that’s automatically filled in for your visitor.

Instead of manually typing in each answer, you can have WPForms pull in all of the options automatically from custom post types or taxonomies on your site.

Dynamic choices are also known as auto-populated fields.

#### Why Add Auto-Populated Fields to a Form?

Auto-populated fields can help to:

- [Reduce form abandonment](https://wpforms.com/how-to-combat-order-form-abandonment-and-increase-your-sales/) – by pre-filling fields, you can make forms easier to fill in
- Improve accuracy – your visitor doesn’t have to type in the answers themselves
- Keep forms up to date – WPForms always shows the most recent items in the form field.

Maintaining your forms is easy because WPForms automatically pulls the list of options from your post types or taxonomies.

#### Which Fields Can Be Auto Populated?

In [WPForms](https://wpforms.com/pricing/), you can use dynamic field choices to auto-populate 3 field types:

- Dropdowns
- Multiple choice fields
- Checkboxes

You can use the easy drag-and-drop builder to add them to your forms.

#### Why Are Auto-Populated Fields Useful?

Auto-populated form fields are perfect for:

- [WooCommerce](https://wpforms.com/refer/woocommerce-3/ "WooCommerce") products on a [customer support form](https://wpforms.com/how-to-create-a-support-ticket-form-template-best-practices/)
- Properties on a real estate inquiry form
- Job postings on a [job application form](https://wpforms.com/how-to-create-a-job-application-form-in-wordpress/)
- Pets or specific breeds on a [veterinarian intake form](https://wpforms.com/how-to-make-a-veterinarian-patient-intake-form/)
- Services on a business contact form.

### Next, Make Smart Forms Quickly With WPForms

Auto-populating fields is a smart way to build complex forms quickly. If you’re looking to do more with your forms, here are some other ideas to try:

- [Automatically fill in fields using query strings (Prefill by URL)](https://wpforms.com/docs/how-to-use-query-strings-to-auto-fill-a-text-field/)
- [Automatically fill in a coupon code from a link](https://wpforms.com/how-to-automatically-apply-a-coupon-on-your-payment-forms/)
- Use [smart tags](https://wpforms.com/docs/how-to-use-smart-tags-in-wpforms/) to automatically populate fields, make dynamic descriptions, and add pre-filled default choices.

Ready to build your form? Get started today with the easiest WordPress form builder plugin. [WPForms Pro](https://wpforms.com/pricing) includes lots of free templates and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

If this article helped you out, please follow us on [Facebook](https://facebook.com/wpforms) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/easywpforms) for more free WordPress tutorials and guides.

**Categories:** WordPress Tutorials

**Tags:** dynamic field, dynamic form, dynamic option, smart tags

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