After over 17 years of community requests, I'm hoping the Zoho team can finally address the lack of native multi-page form support in Zoho Creator. This has been one of the longest-standing feature requests in the community, with threads spanning nearly two decades:
The Issue
Zoho Creator currently has no native support for multi-page forms (also known as wizard forms, step forms, or tabbed forms). When building applications with complex data entry requirements—employee onboarding, loan applications, patient intake, vendor registration—developers have no built-in way to break a single form into logical, digestible steps.
Meanwhile, Zoho Forms has had robust multi-page form support for years, including page breaks, progress indicators, conditional page navigation, and page rules. This creates an inconsistency within Zoho's own product ecosystem.
The Product Asymmetry
The disparity between Zoho Forms and Zoho Creator is striking:
| Capability |
Zoho Forms |
Zoho Creator |
| Page Break field type |
✓ Native support Drag-and-drop page breaks |
✗ Not available |
| Progress indicator / Step bar |
✓ Built-in Shows respondent progress |
✗ Not available |
| Page navigation (Next/Previous) |
✓ Automatic Customizable button labels |
✗ Not available |
| Conditional page skipping |
✓ Page Rules Skip pages based on answers |
✗ Not available |
| Page-level validation |
✓ Validates before advancing |
✗ Not available |
| Single form, single record |
✓ Yes |
✗ Requires multiple forms |
The irony: Zoho Forms—a standalone form builder—has more sophisticated form UX capabilities than Zoho Creator—a full application development platform. Developers building enterprise applications in Creator are stuck with inferior form experiences compared to a simple survey tool.
Example Use Case
Consider an Employee Onboarding Form with 40+ fields across these logical sections:
- Step 1: Personal Information (name, contact, emergency contacts)
- Step 2: Employment Details (position, department, start date, manager)
- Step 3: Payroll & Banking (bank account, tax forms, direct deposit)
- Step 4: Benefits Selection (health insurance, retirement plans)
- Step 5: IT & Equipment (laptop preference, software access, badge photo)
- Step 6: Policies & Acknowledgments (handbook, NDA, consent forms)
Desired behavior: User completes each step, sees their progress, and can navigate back to review previous sections—all within a single form that creates a single record.
Current reality: User is presented with a massive scrolling form with 40+ fields, or developers must implement complex workarounds using multiple forms, lookups, and Deluge scripts.
The Current Workarounds (All Suboptimal)
To achieve multi-page form behavior, developers are forced into one of these suboptimal approaches:
Workaround 1: Multiple Related Forms ("Form Chain")
Create separate forms for each "step" and link them via lookups. Use Deluge scripts to pass record IDs between forms and auto-populate fields.
// Step 1 form On Success:
step2_url = "#Form:Step_2_Employment?Employee_Lookup=" + input.ID;
openUrl(step2_url, "same window");
// Step 2 form On Load:
if(input.Employee_Lookup != null)
{
emp = Employee[ID == input.Employee_Lookup];
input.Name = emp.Name;
input.Email = emp.Email;
// ... populate all fields from Step 1
}
- Problem: Data is scattered across multiple tables
- Problem: Complex lookup relationships and Deluge scripting required
- Problem: No "go back" functionality—user must start over if they need to edit Step 1
- Problem: Reporting requires joining multiple forms
- Problem: Breaks the single-record-per-entity principle
Workaround 2: Stateless Form Daisy Chain
To avoid creating "junk" records when users abandon the form mid-process, advanced developers use Stateless Forms for intermediate steps, passing all field values via URL parameters, and only writing to the database on final submit.
// Step 1 Stateless Form - "Next" button:
step2_url = "#Form:Step_2_Stateless?"
+ "Name=" + encodeUrl(input.Name)
+ "&Email=" + encodeUrl(input.Email)
+ "&Phone=" + encodeUrl(input.Phone)
+ "&Address=" + encodeUrl(input.Address)
+ "&City=" + encodeUrl(input.City)
+ "&State=" + encodeUrl(input.State)
+ "&Zip=" + encodeUrl(input.Zip);
// ... repeat for EVERY field
openUrl(step2_url, "same window");
// Step 2 Stateless Form - "Next" button:
step3_url = "#Form:Step_3_Stateless?"
// Pass ALL fields from Step 1 again...
+ "Name=" + encodeUrl(input.Name)
+ "&Email=" + encodeUrl(input.Email)
// ... plus all Step 2 fields
+ "&Department=" + encodeUrl(input.Department)
+ "&Manager=" + encodeUrl(input.Manager);
openUrl(step3_url, "same window");
// Final Form - actually saves the record
- Problem: Stateless forms cannot use advanced field types including Subforms, File Upload, Signature, Image, and Audio—severely limiting data collection capabilities
- Problem: Every single field must be manually mapped in URL strings
- Problem: Adding one field to the schema requires updating scripts on every "Next" button
- Problem: URL length limits restrict how many fields can be passed
- Problem: No "go back" functionality—previous values are lost unless passed forward
- Problem: Extremely brittle—maintenance nightmare for forms with 30+ fields
Workaround 3: CSS Hacks ("Fake Tabs")
Use Notes fields with custom HTML/CSS to create tab-like visual navigation, combined with hide/show field rules triggered by a radio button "step selector." This can work with individual fields or Section fields (to hide/show groups at once).
// Radio field "Current_Step" with options: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3...
// On User Input of Current_Step:
if(input.Current_Step == "Step 1")
{
show Section_Personal_Info;
hide Section_Employment;
hide Section_Banking;
}
else if(input.Current_Step == "Step 2")
{
hide Section_Personal_Info;
show Section_Employment;
hide Section_Banking;
}
// ... repeat for each step
- Problem: Requires hiding/showing every field or section individually—maintenance overhead
- Problem: CSS styling is fragile and may break with Creator UI updates
- Problem: No native progress indicator—must build custom UI in Notes fields
- Problem: Validation doesn't prevent "next step" navigation if current step has errors
- Problem: All fields still load in DOM regardless of visibility, impacting performance
- Problem: Collapsible sections are all visible simultaneously—not a true wizard experience with enforced linear progression
Workaround 4: Zoho Forms Integration
Build the multi-step form in Zoho Forms (which has native support), then push data to Creator via webhooks or integrations.
- Problem: Requires additional Zoho Forms subscription
- Problem: For in-app forms, users must leave the Creator application entirely, complete the form in Zoho Forms, then return to Creator—a jarring, disconnected experience
- Problem: Data synchronization is not instantaneous—there can be delays before records appear in Creator
- Problem: Loses Creator-specific field types (lookups to existing data, formulas, subforms)
- Problem: Integration complexity and potential sync failures
- Problem: Cannot use Creator's built-in workflows on form submit—must rely on integrations
Workaround 5: Custom JavaScript Widget
Build a completely custom multi-step form interface using a JavaScript Widget that handles the UI, then submits data to Creator via API.
- Problem: Requires JavaScript development expertise—completely inaccessible to citizen developers and new users who chose Creator specifically for its low-code promise
- Problem: Must build and maintain custom form validation, navigation, progress indicators from scratch
- Problem: Loses all native Creator field types and behaviors—must recreate lookups, dropdowns, validations in JavaScript
- Problem: API authentication and connection management adds complexity
- Problem: Widget UI doesn't automatically match Creator's styling or theme changes
- Problem: Significant development time for what should be a basic platform feature
What Should Happen Instead
Proposed Solution 1: Page Break Field Type
Add a "Page Break" field type to the Form Builder (matching Zoho Forms functionality):
Form Builder → Field Types → Page Elements → Page Break
Drag the Page Break field between sections to create multi-page forms.
Each page displays with Next/Previous navigation buttons automatically.
Proposed Solution 2: Progress Indicator Configuration
Allow developers to configure a progress bar or step indicator:
Form Properties → Multi-Page Settings:
☑ Enable progress indicator
○ Progress bar style
○ Numbered steps style
○ Named steps style
Step Labels:
Page 1: "Personal Info"
Page 2: "Employment"
Page 3: "Payroll"
...
Proposed Solution 3: Page-Level Validation
Validate required fields on the current page before allowing navigation to the next page:
// Deluge: On Page Change (new event)
if(input.Current_Page == 1 && input.Email == null)
{
alert "Please enter your email address before continuing.";
cancel page change;
}
Proposed Solution 4: Conditional Page Navigation (Page Rules)
Allow pages to be skipped based on field values (matching Zoho Forms' Page Rules):
Page Rules:
IF Employment_Type == "Contractor" THEN skip "Benefits Selection" page
IF Country != "USA" THEN skip "US Tax Forms" page
Real-World Impact
This limitation affects any application requiring:
- Employee onboarding — HR systems with 30-50+ fields across multiple categories
- Customer applications — Loan applications, insurance quotes, account opening
- Patient intake — Medical history, insurance, consent forms, symptoms
- Vendor registration — Company info, compliance documents, banking details
- Event registration — Attendee info, session selection, dietary requirements, payment
- Grant applications — Project details, budget, team info, supporting documents
- Any complex data collection — Where form abandonment due to length is a concern
User Experience Impact: Research consistently shows that multi-step forms have significantly higher completion rates than single long forms. This is due to the "Goal Gradient Effect"—users are psychologically more motivated to complete a task as they see progress toward the finish line. A progress bar creates momentum; an endless scroll creates cognitive overload and abandonment.
Database Architecture Impact:
The workarounds described above force developers to fragment a single logical entity (e.g., "Employee") into multiple physical tables (Personal_Info, Employment_Details, Banking_Info, IT_Equipment) just to achieve visual pagination.
- Reporting nightmare: Every report requires complex joins across multiple forms
- Integration complexity: External systems expect a single record, not fragments across tables
- Data integrity risk: Orphaned records when users abandon mid-process
- API overhead: Multiple API calls required to fetch what should be one record
The desired state is simple: one logical entity = one database table, with the UI handling pagination visually—not structurally.
The Business Case for Zoho
Why this benefits Zoho:
- Product consistency: Aligns Creator with Forms and other Zoho products that already support multi-step data entry
- Competitive positioning: Platforms like Salesforce, Microsoft Power Apps, and OutSystems offer native wizard/multi-step form capabilities
- Reduced support burden: Eliminates community posts and support requests for workarounds for this basic functionality
- Enterprise readiness: Complex enterprise applications require sophisticated form UX—this is table stakes for enterprise adoption
- Developer productivity: Native wizard capabilities remove the overhead of building UI workarounds from scratch, cutting development cycles by hours. Instead of troubleshooting custom flow-control scripts, developers can focus on optimizing user experience and accelerating time-to-market for core business features.
Request to Zoho Team
Can this finally be addressed?
After over 17 years of community requests, the need is clear and well-documented. The current implementation forces developers to choose between:
1. Poor User Experience
Present users with overwhelming, scroll-heavy single-page forms that increase abandonment rates
|
2. Excessive Complexity
Spend days implementing fragile workarounds using multiple forms, CSS hacks, or external integrations
|
We shouldn't have to make this choice—especially when Zoho Forms already has this capability built-in.
Community Input Requested: What workaround have you used in the absence of native support? Please add your voice to this long-standing request.
📚 Documentation References:
🔗 Related Community Discussions (17+ years of requests):
Recent Topics
5名限定 課題解決型ワークショップイベント Zoho ワークアウト開催のお知らせ(8/21)
ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。Zoho ユーザーコミュニティチームの藤澤です。 8月開催のZoho ワークアウトについてお知らせします。 今回はZoomにてオンライン開催します。 ▷▷参加登録はこちら:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/eVOEnBsSQ2uvX4WN5Z5DeQ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは? Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目的とした「Zoho
New in Zoho Forms: Inline OTP Verification
Hello form builders, We are excited to announce the launch of Inline OTP Verification in Zoho Forms, a smarter way to ensure the authenticity of the contact details you collect. Until now, OTP Verification in Zoho Forms worked as a pre-access step: respondents
Zoho Mail : Associate emails with Meeting records and allow multiple emails to be assocaited at once
Is there a workaround that would allow either of these? I want to associate emails with Meeting records. I also would like to be able to select multiple emails at once for association with a record.
Create task from email
Is there a way on mobile to create a task from an email? I use this feature a lot and when traveling now I read email on mobile. By the time I get to my office I forget about them since I didn't add it to a task. Is this feature missing on moble?
Zoho Socials - Unable to view Channels and SmartQ
Hi, The channel Facebook has been added by the admin, however, it is not visible on the User level (employee). Other channels are visible. Also, we have the premium account, and SmartQ is not working. Can anyone help? Regards, Priyanka
Eliminating Manual Consolidation: Automating Currency Field Sync from Task to Project
Hello Everyone, A Custom function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:
We want to set the "Converted from Lead" value in Deals using a Workflow or via a Deluge script. How?
For use in Zoho Analytics, we need the field "Converted from Lead" filled in our deal records. This field is empty everywhere, because we do not create deals directly when converting a lead to a contact. We want to do that using the API or a workflow
Sales Orders: Quoted_Items + items in another subform -> into Ordered_Items ?
hello, When creating Sales Orders, is it posible to inherit/fill the Ordered_Items with all the items from Quoted_Items + all the items from a customized subform with similar fields? Since you can create a sales order in different ways (convert, new -
How to cancel the GSTR1 pushed to GSTN
How to cancel the GSTR1 Pushed to GSTN, some rectifications to be done in HSN & SAC code
Zoho Books API — Invalid Operation Type / Scope does not exist
Hello Team, We are unable to use the Zoho Books API from our registered application. We’ve already: Created a client in Zoho API Console using (Admin in Books) Generated the OAuth code and token successfully Used the correct scopes: ZohoBooks.fullaccess,ZohoOauth.userinfo.READ
Minimum order quantity
Is there a way to enforce a minimum order quantity - ie has to have a minimum of 250?
【Zoho CRM】ポータル機能のアップデート:UIとポータルの作成フローの変更
ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中から、ポータル機能のアップデートをご紹介します。 目次 概要 ユーザーグループの作成フローの変更 ユーザーグループ詳細画面内のタブについて 「タブと権限」タブについて 「設定」タブについて 概要 UIとポータルの作成フローが変更されました。ポータルの新機能に先立ち、UIを一部変更しました。タブやオプションの配置を見直し、機能へよりアクセスしやすくなっています。 また、「ポータルユーザーの種類」は今後、「ユーザーグループ」と呼称され、ページ上のボタンも「ユーザーグループを作成する」に変更されます。
Tax on Imported goods charged by Shipping Company
Hi Folks, I imported goods from outside Canada, for better understanding I will give an example data. imported goods value: 2000$ The shipping company sent me an invoice containing the following information: Custom duty on imported goods: 400$ Administration
Zoho Webinar via Social Media
Hello, is it possible to stream a Zoho Webinar via Social Media like Linkedin or Facebook?
OAUTH2 isn't working with Power Automate and N8N (Zoho Desk)
Hello, I am trying to set up an OAuth2 connection to the Zoho Desk API, but the authentication flow fails immediately. I am experiencing this issue in two separate platforms: Microsoft Power Automate (using a Custom Connector) and n8n. Instead of being
Kit Items Breaking Automations - "Provide mapped components for all kit items"
This has been brought up in other threads, but I believe this issue warrants its own topic. Whenever a sales document (Estimate, Sales Order, Invoice) is created or manipulated programmatically, trying to include a Kit as an Item throws this error: "Provide
Show item Cost value on Item screen
The Item screen shows Accounting Stock and Physical Stock. It would be very helpful if value information could be displayed here as well, for instance Cost Price. Currently, to find the Cost Price (as used for inventory valuations) from inside the item
Mark shipment as delivered via api
Hellloooo again Zoho guys !! More help required if you would be so kind, pleeeezz..... var options = { 'method' : 'post', 'contentType' : 'application/json', 'muteHttpExceptions' : true }; var myPackNo = encodeURIComponent('###################');
Setting Alternative units for an item.
Hello Team, How to create alternate units for an item. We are placing orders for stocks in boxes. One box contain 24 items. At the time of selling we have two categories of buyers wholesalers and retailers. So the sales will be in PCS and in boxes also.
Zoho Inventory search when adding items to SO/PO, etc.
I do not see that Zoho Inventory searches within the item name for an item lookup. We have many products with variants. So when I search for a product, say a lighting system, and it comes in different sizes and colors, I can only get those products where
Item Group Attributes
Hello, I would like to see more attributes under grouped items. We sell car parts, there are several suppliers for the same part but under different brands. We want to group them together but the attributes under groups are lacking. For example, the products
Remove HTML Format - Deluge
Hello @all if you want to delete the HTML format from the text please follow the script. Data = "Text"; info Data..replaceAll("<(.|\n)*?>" , "").replaceAll(" " , " "); Apart from this if you require anything please let me know Thanks & Regards Piyush
Using multiple languages in template
I wanted to add the company name in the template in arabic. I found a way through the header and footer option, except when i print the quotation the arabic disappears both in the top and bottom of the page. I have attached pictures of the before and
ADDING 5% VAT TO PURCHASE ORDERS GENERATED ON ZOHO BOOKS UAE
Please guide on how to add 5% VAT to Purchase Orders generated on ZOHO Books UAE edition.
Import from /csv file, some items fail with the error "Specify Tax Or Tax Exemption".
Hello! I am trying to import a csv file of all of my expenses for a complete financial year. I get errors for some items with the error message "Specifiy Tax or Tax Exemption". These errors only occur on lines where I have "Postage" as the expense account.
About maximum number of requests per minute
Hi, Our company has integrated Zoho inventory and we're using the shipping order creation and update functions and so on. Currently we're receiving "For security reasons you have been blocked for some time as you have exceeded the maximum number of requests
Approval - Report/Views
Hi, On Zoho Desk - Is there a way to report on pending approvals, or a view or similar?
"Zoho CRM Integration" option is missing in Zoho Social Settings
I am trying to integrate my Zoho Social account with my Zoho CRM account. I am on the Professional Trial plan and my user role is "Brand Admin". However, I cannot find the "Zoho CRM Integration" or "Lead Generation" option anywhere in my Zoho Social settings.
Error 553
Não estou conseguindo enviar ou receber e-mail, sempre dando o erro 553, sendo que há mais de um mês o domínio está pago e liberado. Preciso de um suporte urgente
Create PDFs with Text so that we can copy from a generated PDF
Currently, any information that a user enters into a field cannot be highlighted and copied from the PDF that Zoho Sign renders. For example, if someone were to provide a phone number in a Zoho Sign text field, you would not be able to copy the phone
How To Insert Data into Zoho Table using Api
Hi Community, I have created a table inside zoho tables. How do I insert data into table using API. Please tell the exact endpoint and payload , I just have to insert data into table columns. Also tell how to find tableid, viewid, baseid etc. which are
How do I delete a folder in Marketing Automation?
Folders are used across contact lists and segments, and email templates. How do I delete a folder once it's been created?
Portal Approval Process
Hi Zoho team and fellow users, I am seeking a method to establish a multi-step approval process between a Zoho user and a portal user (Custom Portal) to review and approve requests through the Custom Portal. For instance, within this setup, one of the
Narrative 8: Intelligent in-app support that's instantly available anytime and anywhere
Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system - BTS Series Narrative 8: Intelligent in-app support that's instantly available anytime and anywhere The App Support Across Platforms (ASAP) add-on for Zoho Desk is an independent application that integrates
Navigation issue — unable to return to Customer page after opening Receipt from Transactions
Steps to reproduce: Open a Customer record. Go to Transactions tab and open a Receipt by clicking its receipt number. After viewing the receipt, clicking browser Back or closing the receipt does not reliably return me to the original Customer record (I
Thermal Printer Option Needed for Delivery Challan Templates
Currently in Zoho Books, the Delivery Challan template only supports A4 and A5 page sizes. However, in many businesses (especially retail and hardware), we use thermal printers (like 3-inch or 4-inch rolls) to print delivery challans. It would be very
Separate Default Payment Modes for Receipts vs. Payments
Right now, when I set a default Payment Mode via a customer invoice or Payments Received screen, that same mode shows up for vendor payments (Purchases → Payments Made). 🔹 Request: We need different default modes for: Customer receipts (e.g., default
Update/Change GSTIN in GST Settings of zohobooks
We are trying to update our GSTIN under the GST settings section of our Zohobooks account Initially, we had entered a dummy GSTIN (123456789123456) to generate a sample invoice before obtaining our official GST registration. After receiving our actual
Link Payment Mode and Paid Through Accounts
For most users, it's very difficult for them to understand that the Payment Mode is totally independent of the Paid Through account when paying bills. It seems (and is) redundant for them to have to select what is basically the same thing twice. The current
Lets enable business to choose the default payment mode
Lets enable business to choose the default payment mode so that we do not have choose payment mode again and again for each and every transsctions
Next Page