🎛️ Display variants (buttons, cards, icons, images, sliders, ratings)

Many field types can be displayed in different ways in the form — a selection dropdown turns into large icon tiles, a yes/no toggle into two buttons, a number field into a slider or a star rating.

The key point: only the look changes. The stored value, the onOffice connection, rules, submissions and PDF output stay exactly the same in every display variant. So you can safely switch the display at any time — even for forms that are already in use.

Choosing a display style

  1. In the form editor, open the settings of a field.
  2. Below the basic settings you will find the “Display style” section — it appears automatically for all field types that offer variants.
  3. Click a tile and save the field. “Standard” is always the previous display.

When creating a new field, the field type palette also asks you directly for the display style as soon as the selected field type offers variants — you can set it right there or start with “Standard”.

Available variants

Single-select fields (singleselect)

Display Description
Standard The familiar dropdown
Radio buttons All options listed one below the other, classically clickable
Button group Options as buttons side by side — ideal for 2–5 options (e.g. buy/rent)
Card selection Large tiles, optionally with a description text per option
Icon selection Tiles with icon + label per option (e.g. property type: house, apartment, plot …)
Image selection Image tiles — images from your media library
Likert scale All options as equal-width scale buttons in a single row (e.g. “applies … does not apply”)

The selected option is highlighted in the accent color of your form.

Dependent fields: Object type (depends on the property type) and action type (depends on the action category) can also use all single-select displays. The tiles filter automatically: as long as no parent value is selected, the hint “Please select the … first” appears; once a value is chosen, only the matching options are shown. The parent field itself can use any display variant. If the parent field is not in the form at all, all options are shown.

Multi-select fields (multiselect)

Display Description
Standard The familiar selection dropdown
Checkbox list All options as visible checkboxes
Chips Buttons that can be selected and deselected — compact when there are many options (e.g. amenities). The corners follow your form design (square/rounded/pill). If no hint text is set, propform automatically shows “Multiple selection possible” or the configured minimum/maximum number below the field (applies to all multi-select displays)
Icon selection Icon tiles, multiple selection possible
Image selection Image tiles, multiple selection possible

Note on parent/child values: The automatic selection/deselection of related values (e.g. picking a federal state also picks its regions) only exists in the standard dropdown. In the other displays, all values can be clicked freely — child values are indented or marked with ▸. The multiselect mode is therefore automatically set to “onOffice” (freely clickable) when a display variant is saved.

In addition, for all multi-select displays you can set a minimum and maximum number of selectable options (“choose up to 3”): the minimum applies as soon as something is selected (or always for required fields); once the maximum is reached, further options are locked.

Yes/no fields

Display Description
Standard The familiar toggle switch
Checkbox Classic single checkbox, e.g. for consents
Yes/No buttons Two large buttons — great on mobile and on site. As a required field, this display enforces an active decision. The labels can be changed freely (e.g. “Ja/Nein” for a German form), optionally with check/cross icons

Number fields

Display Description
Standard The familiar input field
Slider Slider with a live value display (including unit) and automatic min/max labels. Minimum value, maximum value and step come from the field’s number settings. You enter custom labels below the slider (e.g. cheap;medium;expensive) directly in the display section. Optionally, the value can also be typed in (input field below the slider). An untouched slider — just like an empty field — does not send a value
Rating 1–N symbols (N = maximum value, default 5) — perfect for feedback forms. Stars, hearts, smileys (mood scale, 2–5 steps) or a custom icon from the icon library are available as the symbol. A normal integer is stored
Scale (0-10) Number buttons in a row — the classic recommendation question. The range follows the minimum/maximum value (default 0–10)

For rating, scale and Likert scale you can additionally label the endpoints (e.g. “very unlikely” on the left, “very likely” on the right), so visitors immediately know what each end means.

Slider, rating and scale are available for integer and decimal number fields.

From/to search criteria

Display Description
Standard Two input fields “from” and “to”
From/to slider One slider with two handles and a live display of the selected range (e.g. “€200,000 – €600,000”) — ideal for price, area or rooms in a search profile. The unit comes from the onOffice field or your unit setting. Untouched handles — just like empty fields — do not send a value. Optional: values can additionally be typed in, plus a preset range as the starting position

Date fields

Display Description
Standard The browser’s native date picker
Inline calendar An always-visible calendar in your form language — exactly the same date format is stored as with the standard field. Selectable days can be restricted: future only (e.g. viewing appointments), past only, a fixed earliest/latest date, block weekends

Customizing options (descriptions, icons, images)

For the card, icon selection and image selection displays, the “Customize options” area appears below the display switcher: one row per onOffice key value of the field.

  • Description — optional text shown below the option title (on cards, icon and image tiles).
  • Icon — opens the icon picker with more than 5,000 icons (Tabler Icons). The “Real estate & common” category shows the most important icons with German labels; the search understands German and English terms (e.g. “heating”, “key”, “euro”).
  • Image — opens the media library picker (upload, library or external URL).

Options without an assigned icon/image simply show their label (or a neutral placeholder in the image selection). Empty entries are ignored.

More settings per display style

Depending on the chosen display, matching additional settings appear in the “Display style” section:

  • Tile size (cards, icon and image selection): Compact / Normal / Large.
  • Icon color (icon selection, Yes/No buttons, button group): a custom color for the icons — empty = your form’s text color.
  • Icons in the button group and on the Likert scale: icons assigned via “Customize options” also appear in front of the option label in the button group and above the Likert buttons.
  • Custom Yes/No icons: instead of check/cross, any icons from the library can be chosen (e.g. thumbs up/down).
  • Separate from/to prefill: for from/to search criteria, From and To can be prefilled individually — also in the standard display (the classic default value still fills both sides equally; the separate prefill takes precedence).
  • Image format & cropping (image selection): square, 4:3 or 16:9; “Fill” crops the image to fit, “Fit” shows the whole image — great for logos.
  • Columns (radio buttons, checkbox list): distribute long lists across 2 or 3 columns (always single-column on mobile).
  • Display centered: buttons, tiles, chips, rating, scale and inline calendar can be centered instead of left-aligned — for sliders, the optional type-in field is centered.

Good to know

  • Custom labels from the selection settings (“Change key labels”) apply in all displays.
  • Required field, rules, prefilling, read-only — everything works as usual in every display.
  • Undoing a selection: Clicking the already selected option deselects it again (tiles, buttons, radio, Likert, Yes/No, rating, scale). For the slider, from/to slider and inline calendar, a small "clear" link appears as soon as a value is set. This way visitors can — just like with the standard field — deliberately submit "no answer".
  • Browser back: Entries are preserved in all display variants when visitors navigate back in the browser — including the slider, from/to slider and inline calendar.
  • Existing range slider: If you are using the previous range slider (via “Turn into a special field”), it keeps working unchanged — you can create as many more of them as you like, so your forms stay consistent. The new slider via “Display style” is the more modern alternative with a live value display.
  • Via the API, the displays can be controlled through the field properties display_variant and select_option_meta — details in the API reference.