You can make changes to a published form without needing to create a new form or share a new link. This makes it easier to manage forms that are updated regularly or whose links have already been shared widely.
To make changes, select the three dots in the upper-right corner of your published form and choose *Edit published form.* Your current version will remain live and continue accepting responses while you work. When your changes are ready, you can republish the form under the same link.
You can update your form’s content, structure and branding
However, you cannot change its data classification after it has been published.
What happens when you republish
Each time you republish your form, GC Forms creates a new version.
Form fillers will see the updated version, while those who already have the previous version open can continue to complete and submit it unless they reload the page.
If someone resumes their progress by uploading saved answers after the form has been updated, compatible answers will be retained. GC Forms will let them know that some questions have changed and ask them to review their answers.
Managing responses from different versions
On the Responses page, you can see which version of the form each response is associated with.
Responses must be downloaded separately for each version. For example, you can download all responses submitted through version 1 and then download all responses submitted through version 2.
You can also download a copy of each version of your form from *Settings.* This allows you to review the structure of the form associated with each set of responses.
Before you republish
Review and test your changes carefully. Updating the questions or structure of your form may affect how you process its responses.
You may need to:
- Adjust related workflows
- Revise lists or spreadsheets used to organize responses
- Update and test your API integration
When you republish, you will be asked to confirm that you understand these responsibilities.
If your form uses the API
Changes to the structure of your form may also change the structure of the response data sent through the API. This includes:
- Adding, removing or reordering questions
- Changing branching paths
Important
If you make these types of changes, review and update your API field mappings or downstream processing logic as needed. Before republishing, use the preview function to submit test responses through your integration. Confirm that each answer is reaching the correct field in your system and that responses are being processed as expected.
API responses now identify the version of the form through which they were submitted. You can also retrieve a specific version of the form template to match responses with the appropriate structure. Learn more by visiting our updated API documentation.
