How can users add a new option in the dropdown list?

I want this to be implemented in a form. I looked for a resource https://www.jotform.com/answers/140936-how-do-we-add-an-other-field-to-this-where-someone-can-fill-in-their this didn't help.

TIA

Hi Dubey,

Thanks for reaching out to Jotform Support. Adding new items to your dropdown list is easy, let me show you how:

• In Form Builder, click on the Dropdown Field that you want to edit.
• Click on Edit Options and type in your option. (You can add multiple options by writing one option, hitting the Enter button, and writing another one.)
• Once you add all the needed options click on Save Changes to add your options.

However, if you want to add a field to your question, where users can type in their own options, we need to use the Multiple Choice field to achieve that. Let me show you how to set that up:

• In Form Builder, click on the Add Form Elements+ button.
• Choose the Multiple Choice field and drag and drop it into your form.
• Click on the Gear Icon, choose the Options tab, and type in your desired options.
• Scroll to the bottom and toggle Display Other Option on.

Once you set the question as shown above, your users will be able to put in their own choice by clicking on the Other option.

Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Thanks, but this doesn't answer my question I want to add new item in the dropdown as show in the screenshot and select one option as it is not a multiple option question.

Hi Dubey,

Thanks for getting back to us with the additional information. There are two ways to achieve what you're aiming for. You can either use our User Contributed Dropdown and let the customers be able to add their own options to your field, or you can add a Short Text Field below the dropdown and show it conditionally if Other option is selected, which asks them to manually enter their option. The second option doesn't save the option as the first one does. Let me show you how to use both:

• Open your form in Form Builder, click on your Dropdown field, and add an Other option.
• Click on the Add Form Element + menu on the left side of the page, and under the Basic tab, add a Short Text field to your form.

Now, we'll need to set up the condition that will show the Short Text field if the Other option is selected:

• In the orange navigation bar at the top of the screen, click on Settings.
• In the list that opens on the left side of the page, click on Conditions, and Show/Hide Field.

Create a condition that looks like the example below:

IF: (Name of your dropdown field)

STATE: Is Equal To

VALUE: Other

DO: Show

FIELD: (Name of your short text field)

After following these steps, here's my result:

As an alternative, let me show you how you can add the User Contributed Dropdown to your form:

• In Form Builder, click on the Add Form Element + menu on the left side of the page.
• Under the Widgets tab, search for User Contributed Dropdown, and click on it to add it to your form.
• You can customize this dropdown just like the standard one, but users will be able to add their own options if they don't see it in the dropdown.

That's it. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Hi Mubashir,

Thanks for getting back to us. You can use the Single-Choice field to allow your user to choose only one option. When they select one option and then try to select another, the first option is automatically deselected, as opposed to the Multiple-Choice field, which allows them to select more than one option. You can use my colleague's workaround of adding a Short Text field to allow the user to add another option if they choose to add a new item. Check out the screencast below for a sample demo:

Let us know if there’s anything else we can help you with.

By doing that now I have two columns one with drop down that I had created earlier which I have hided because it would delete my entries, and a new one that you suggested above Single-Choice field column it wouldn't populate the data in the same column as it is expecting unique column name in the advanced settings of the field.

How can I merge the data of both the columns?

Hi Dubey,

Thanks for getting back to us. Unfortunately, it is not possible to combine two fields in one column in the Jotform Table. You can, however, download form submissions as Excel because it has a feature to merge data that you might want to look into.

Let us know if you need any more help.