How to save progress on a WordPress form

How to Save Progress on a WordPress Form [Step by Step]

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Are you looking for a simple way to save progress on a WordPress form?

Adding the Save and Resume functionality allows your users to save their partial form submissions and resume submitting the form at a later time.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to let users save partially filled forms and resume filling later without losing data.

Create a Save and Resume WordPress Form Now

How to Save Progress on a WordPress Form

Let’s start our step-by-step process of adding Save and Resume functionality to WordPress forms.

What’s the Easiest Way to Save a Form and Continue Later?

The easiest and most flexible way to add a save-and-continue feature to your WordPress forms is by using the WPForms plugin.

WPForms is the best WordPress form builder plugin. It comes with the powerful Save and Resume addon that you can add to your contact forms without adding a single line of code.

save and resume addon to link to save progress on a wordpress form

Once this feature is added, your form users can save partial entries at any point and complete them later.

This feature is perfect for when you have a lot of fields in your form and want to make it easier for your users to fill them.

Now let’s look at how you make it happen.

Step 1: Install the WPForms Plugin

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugins. For this step, you can check the guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

WPForms Pricing Page 2023

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WPForms includes 4 paid packages: Basic, Plus, Pro, and Elite.

The Save and Resume addon comes with the Pro and higher plans, so make sure you’ve purchased the right version of the plugin on your site.

Step 2: Install and Activate the Save and Resume Addon

Now it’s time to activate the Save and Resume addon. To do that, go to your WordPress dashboard and click WPForms » Addons.

WPForms addons

This will open the addons page of WPForms. In the search bar, type Save and Resume and press the Install Addon button.

install the save and resume addon link to save wordpress form progress

Once you install the addon successfully, you’ll be able to let users save progress when filling out a form.

Step 3: Create a New Form in WordPress

For the sake of this tutorial, we’re going to use the pre-built job application upload form template.

WPForms comes with 1,500+ form templates. All form templates are completely customizable, so you can use them as-is or tweak them any way you want.

And if you want to start building your form from scratch, you can do that too using the simple drag-and-drop builder of WPForms.

Now to start with the pre-built form template, go to WPForms » Add New.

add new form

This will take you to the WPForms form template library. Here, you’ll find a bunch of ready-made form templates.

Search for the job application upload form, add a name to your form, and click on the Use Template button.

job application upload form template

As soon as you click on the button, your form template will open in the live editor.

Below, you can check the complete form builder setup of WPForms.

form dashboard of wpforms

You can see your live form on the right, and the left side includes the additional form field options.

Add additional form fields by dragging them from the left-hand panel to the right-hand panel. You can delete or edit the fields by clicking on them.

Once you customize your form, you can proceed to the next step, i.e., adding the functionality to save form progress.

Step 4: Enable the Save and Resume Feature

To enable the Save and Resume feature, go to Settings » Save and Resume in the form editor.

save & continue settings

Next, toggle on the Enable Save and Resume feature.

enable save and resume feature

This will open the additional options that come with the Save and Resume addon. You can configure each option as per your website preference.

Step 5: Configure Save and Resume Settings

Let’s see all the save and continue options you’ll get with the addon.

The first option here is the Link Text. This is the hyperlink text of the Save and Resume functionality. The form users need to click on this text to save their form progress mid-way.

It includes the “Save and Resume Later” pre-defined text, but you can customize the text as per your liking.

customize the link text for save and resume addon

And this is how the Save and Resume hypertext link will appear on the frontend of your site.

save and resume on frontend

Display Disclaimer Page

Next, you can display a customized disclaimer so your users know how their data will be stored. This disclaimer will appear before a user saves their partially filled form.

To display the disclaimer message, toggle on the Enable Disclaimer Page option.

This will open a box containing the pre-written disclaimer message. You can edit this text or leave it as it is.

toggle on disclaimer message of save and continue addon

Customize Save and Resume Confirmation Message

Just like the disclaimer page, you can also display a customized confirmation message to your users.

We’ve got a pre-written copy of this confirmation message with all the details on how a user reaccess their saved form. However, you can edit the message and add more details as per your preference.

But, make sure to include all the important instructions so your users understand how they can resume filling the form.

confirmation message

The Save and Resume addon of WPForms gives 2 options to resume the WordPress form. Your form users can either:

  • Use a Save and Resume link to reaccess the form later
  • Resume form via email
  • Or both.

enable resume link

Toggling on the Enable Resume Link option will display a continuation link on the confirmation page. In order to resume the form, your users need to copy this link and use it whenever they want to complete the form later.

Customize Save and Resume Email Notification

Next, toggle on the Enable Email Notification feature.

enable email notification

This feature sends an email notification to your users containing the Save and Resume link.

You can easily customize this email notification and make your own copy of the message. Just make sure to add {resume_link} Smart Tag in the email notification.

email settings

Sometimes, email notifications are filtered as spam and may not reach the user’s inbox. If you face this issue, you can use the WP Mail SMTP plugin to fix the WordPress contact form not sending email issue.

And lastly, you can display the final confirmation message, mentioning that the resume link has been sent to the email address provided. If you want, you can customize this message as well.

final display message to save and resume form

And that’s it! These are the setting options you’ll get to configure your Save and Resume addon.

Step 6: Add Your Form to Your WordPress Website

Now that your form is ready and you’ve configured the Save and Resume settings, it’s time to add your form to your site.

With WPForms, you can add your form in multiple locations, including pages, posts, and the sidebar widget.

Here’s how you can add your contact form to a WordPress page.

Click on the Embed button on the top of your page.

embed your save and resume form

Clicking the embed button will display a popup with 2 embedding options. You can either add the form to an existing page or create a new one.

Click on the Create New Page option.

embed wpforms on a new page

Add your page name and click the Let’s Go button.

add wpforms to a page

This will create a new page and add your form to it automatically.

Click on the Publish button to publish your form on the live page.

publish your form

Great! You’ve added your form to the live site. Let’s now check how the Save and Resume functionality works on the live form.

Step 7: Save Form in WordPress

Once you add your form to your site, you will find the Save and Resume link near the submit button at the bottom of your form.

save and resume link to save wordpress form progress

Your form users need to click on this link to save their form progress.

Now, if you’ve enabled the Disclaimer Page option previously, then on the next screen, your form respondents will see a disclaimer message with 2 options:

  1. Continue button: To save and resume the WordPress form.
  2. Go back: To go back and continue filling the form.

Your users need to click on the Continue button to save their partial entry.

continue button to save progress wordpress form

This will display a confirmation message with a resume link and an email box.

  • Copy link: This is a resume link to reaccess your WordPress form. Copy and save the link.

link to save progress on a wordpress form

  • Email: Your form users need to add the email address to receive the email notification and resume link via email.

Add the email address and click on the Send Link button.

send form resume link to email

Note: Don’t share this link with anyone, and make sure to complete the form within 30 days. The resume link will automatically expire after 30 days, and all your form entries will be deleted.

Step 8: View Saved Form Entries

WPForms comes with a powerful entry management feature. It stores all your forms data in your site’s database and automatically takes care of WordPress data collection, allowing you to manage all form entries inside your WordPress dashboard.

Like other form submissions, WPForms stores partially filled form entries in the WordPress database, and you can access, view, and manage them in the same way.

To view your users’ partial form entries, go to WPForms » Entries.

View partial save form entries in WPForms

On the entries page, click on the form that has the Save and Resume feature enabled.

In our case, it’s the job application form.

check partial form entries

This will open a page where all form submissions for a single form are stored. Under the status column, you can check that the incomplete entries are labeled as “Partial.”

partial save form entries

If you want to see more details, such as which form fields are filled and which are left unfilled/empty, click on the View option.

view partial form entries

This will open a new window, including all other additional information related to the partially filled form.

complete partially save form entries detail

And that’s it! This is how simple it is to save progress on a WordPress form.

Create Your WordPress Form Now

Note: For safety and security purposes, the Save and Resume addon doesn’t save your users’ credit card and payment details. So if you’ve enabled the Save and Resume functionality on your payment forms, your users need to add credit card details every time they resume filling out the forms on your site.

Next, Limit Form Entries in WPForms

We hope this tutorial helps you add the save and continue feature to your WordPress forms.

Next, if you want to limit your form submissions and prevent multiple form entries, check out our detailed article on how to limit form entries in WPForms.

Want to put your site’s tasks on autopilot mode? Do check out our list of the best WordPress automation tools and plugins.

So what are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today. WPForms Pro comes with powerful integrations and a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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Comments

  1. One issue that I’m seeing here is that what if the visitor lost their internet connection just before they were able to submit the form or accidentally closed the browser without clicking the SAVE button to save their form?

    How are they able to recover it so they no longer need to retype everything that they’ve already filled out?

    This is what I’m actually looking for because one of my visitors had this issue. He had to retype everything because he accidentally lost the page.

    How can they resume with the form if they were unable to click the SAVE button?

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