One of the most highly anticipated features in Gravity Forms v1.9 is the Save and Continue. This allows users to begin filling out a form, save their progress, and return at a later date to complete the form.

Save and Continue form functionality is very handy for situations where you have a very long multi-page form which may result in the user not having enough time available when they begin filling out the form to complete it all at once.

We put a lot of thought into how the Save and Continue feature would work in order to ensure it provided a good experience for the end user and made it easy for them to begin, save, and continue the form. The end result will be more form submissions for you.

How Does It Work?

Once enabled it’s an extremely simple feature for your users to leverage.

• A Save and Continue link is included next to the submit button.
• A user chooses to Save and Continue by clicking the link.
• The user is presented with a unique URL to return to continue the form.
• The user can enter their email address so that this unique URL can also be emailed to them.
• They return to the form via the unique URL to complete and submit the form.

Enable Save and Continue

Because not every form demands Save and Continue functionality the feature must be enabled on a form via the Form Settings.

It’s as easy as going to the Form Settings for the form you’d like to enable it on and simply check the Enable Save and Continue checkbox, save your Form Settings change and that’s it.

When enabling the Save and Continue feature you’ll also have an opportunity to customize the prompt that is displayed to the user next to the form submit button for them to opt to Save and Continue their progress.

Done.

We designed the Save and Continue functionality so that for most Gravity Forms users enabling Save and Continue via the Form Settings is all they will ever need to do. However, you do have the option of customization a few more advanced options…

Save and Continue Confirmations

When you enable Save and Continue and save the Form Settings after doing so, Gravity Forms will create 2 new Confirmations for the form. They are:

• Save and Continue Confirmation
• Save and Continue Email Sent Confirmation

The Save and Continue Confirmation is the Confirmation message that is displayed to the user when they opt to Save and Continue. This is the first thing they see when they save their progress.

The Save and Continue Email Sent Confirmation is the Confirmation message that is displayed to the user when they opt to enter their email address in order to have their unique Save and Continue URL sent to them via email. When they enter their email address and click send, this is the confirmation that is then displayed to them.

Both of the Save and Continue confirmation messages are pre-populated with content that should work for most users. But you can certainly customize them if you choose to do so.

Save and Continue Notification

Save and Continue introduces a new Notification. The Save and Continue Email notification will automatically appear within the Notifications for the form when Save and Continue is enabled.

As with Confirmations we have pre-populated the Save and Continue Notification with default content that should work for most users but it can certainly be customized.

When customizing the confirmations or notification make sure you do not omit the {save_link} shortcode which is vital for providing the user with their unique URL so that they may return and complete the form.

That’s It!

It really is that easy. By simply enabling the Save and Continue setting users can now choose to save their progress and return at a later date to complete and submit the form. They simply return to the form via their unique URL that identifies them and automatically pre-populates their form with their saved data so that they may continue.

What It Doesn’t Do

The Save and Continue feature is strictly geared towards allowing a user to save their progress and continue filling out a form at a later date. It is not designed to allow a site admin to view and edit the unsubmitted saved form data. The form entry is not actually created until the user returns via the unique URL and completes the form.

We do plan on tackling more advanced features and functionality that would allow saved data to be treated as partially completed entries. It is a feature that is very useful in situations where you need to monitor a users progress when they are providing you requested information, etc. and we do plan on providing a solution to this use case in the future.