Sintel Forms Best Practices

Whether you’re creating a simple form or a full-featured solution using Sintel Forms, following these best practices will help ensure a smooth experience for both creators and users.

🔧 Before You Start: Planning is Key

🖼️ Think About Your Layout

Before diving in, consider the structure and layout of your form. Are you starting from scratch or converting an existing form (paper or electronic)? If you’re working with an old format, remember it likely wasn’t built to be responsive—that is, mobile-friendly.

Sintel Forms are responsive by default, so take the opportunity to lay things out in a way that works well across all screen sizes.

🧠 Use Auto-Fill Where Possible

Once you know which fields your form needs, think about how you can streamline data entry. For example, you can:

• Auto-set the submitter

• Pre-fill the date

• Create cascading dropdowns

• Automatically assign approvers

Faster form filling boosts user adoption and makes life easier for everyone.

✅ Use the Right Field Types

Avoid overusing single-line text fields. This can lead to inconsistent data and poor reporting. Instead:

• Use date fields for dates

• Use number fields for numerical input

• Use choice fields or lookups for dropdowns

🔄 Choice Fields vs Lookup Fields

If your dropdown options are unlikely to change, choice fields are quick and easy.
If you expect changes or need to control the order of items, lookup fields are more flexible (though they require you to create a separate list). At Sintel, we typically prefer lookup fields.

Tip: SharePoint only allows up to 12 lookup columns to be displayed in a list view.

🔗 Linked Lists for Complex Data

Linked Lists allow you to create parent-child relationships, similar to repeating tables in InfoPath. For example: listing individual expenses on a form.

Tip: This saves you from cluttering your main list with too many columns. Consider moving related fields into linked lists.

🔄 Don’t Skip Workflow – You Probably Need It!

Whether simple or complex, most forms benefit from automation. Sintel Forms includes a built-in workflow engine, and it also integrates with other solutions like Power Automate.

Plan your workflow before designing the form. You might need to hide or disable fields at certain stages: this is much easier to manage early in the design process.

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🎨 Design Tips & Recommendations

1️⃣ One Form per Site

Create a separate SharePoint site (site collection or subsite) for each form. This gives you better control over permissions and configuration.

🚫 Avoid Spaces in List & Column Names

Use camel case: DateItemReturned instead of Date Item Returned.

💡 If you create columns using the Sintel Forms Designer, we’ll handle this for you automatically.

❌ Don’t Make Fields Mandatory in SharePoint

Instead, make them mandatory via the Sintel Forms Designer, where you can apply conditional logic (e.g. only required if a certain section is visible).

🔍 Prefix Lookup Lists

Name lookup lists clearly:
e.g. LookupCountries, LookupDepartments, LookupStatuses.

🗂️ Use Clear List & Column Names

• Use short, meaningful names for your main lists: Ideas, Timesheets, InspectionReports.

• Keep column names short and descriptive.

• For question fields, use: Question01, Question02 (not Q1, Q2—this improves compatibility with reporting tools).

📁 File Uploads & Large Files

Avoid uploading many large files at once through document or image libraries, as this can slow down form saving.

🔐 Relationship Behaviour & Permissions

• Always enable “Enforce relationship behaviour – Cascade delete” when creating lookup columns.

• Avoid item-level permissions unless essential. If you must use them, ensure all necessary users have the “Cancel Checkout” permission (included in roles like Full Control, Design, or Approve).

• More info

⚠️ Item-level permissions can complicate your design and increase support needs.

🔁 Keeping Things in Sync

When changes are made to a SharePoint list where Sintel Forms is enabled, open the Sintel Forms Designer and click Save to ensure updates are captured.

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🛠️ Development Tips

🔒 Protect Sensitive Data

Put sensitive fields in sections that are hidden by default, then use rules to display them conditionally.

⚙️ Use Rules, Not Code

• Avoid JavaScript—use rules to handle actions like hiding buttons or showing messages.

• Use the “Run Once” flag in rules to improve performance where appropriate.

• Avoid temporary CSS classes, root-level styling overrides, or Microsoft-specific CSS—they can break during updates.

💡 Need a pop-up? Use hidden sections and trigger them with rules.

🎨 Use Themes for Styling

Use built-in theming features rather than JavaScript for adjusting layout or styles.

⚠️ Avoid Custom Message Boxes

Stick to built-in controls and rules to ensure compatibility across versions.

📬 Email Subject Lines

When configuring email notifications, include the app name in square brackets:
Example: [Expenses App] Approval Request.

✅ Design for the Best User Experience versus Form Load Speed

🧠 UX vs Load Speed

There’s a balance between user experience (UX) and form load speed.

Using autocomplete allows text fields to dynamically suggest values from a SharePoint list, making data entry easier while maintaining fast load times.

📣 Need Help or Have a Custom Request?

Get in touch! If there’s something you think can’t be done with Sintel Forms—just ask. Many features in our platform are the result of customer feedback.

Sintel Forms is powerful and flexible, and following these best practices ensures your forms are easy to use, efficient to maintain, and fit for purpose.

Need advice or want to share feedback? Contact Us—we’re always happy to help.

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