How to Use Merge Tags in Field Labels with Gravity Forms

GP Preview Submission is mostly commonly used to provide a preview of the data which has been entered on the form before the form has been submitted.

Did you know it can also be used to replace merge tags in field labels?

In this article, we’ll demonstrate how to create Drop Down field on the first page of a form and how to populate the selected value of that Drop Down into the label of a Product field. This functionality can be applied to any field type.

Steps

1. Create the Form
2. Add Merge Tag to Field Label
3. Add Support for Merge Tags in Field Labels
4. View Form and Confirm

1. Create the Form

Let’s start by creating our form. For this article, we’ll be creating a simple three-page donation form.

On page one, we add a Name field and a Drop Down field with a list of non-profit organizations. On page two, we add a Product field and set it to “User Defined Price.” The final page is optional but demonstrates how GP Preview Submission can be used to give a full preview of the entry before it is submitted.

2. Add Merge Tag to Field Label

We want to display the selected value from the organizations drop down on the first page in the label of the User Defined Product field on the second page.

Since merge tags are not supported in field labels by default, we won’t have access to the handy merge tag button that appears next to merge-tag-supported settings.

Don’t worry. It’s easy to write merge tags by hand. All you need is the field or input ID. If you want to include the label as well for easier identification, you can, but it is optional.

Here’s what our field label looks like with the merge tag in place:

Add Merge Tag to Label Field

Remember, the merge tag in the screenshot is specific to our demo form. You will need to write your own merge tag based on the Drop Down field you created on the first page.

3. Add support for merge tags in labels

By default, GP Preview Submission will not replace merge tags in field labels. To enable this feature, just copy and paste this snippet into your theme’s functions.php file.

This will replace merge tags in field labels wherever they are displayed. This includes subsequent form pages, confirmation pages, notification emails and even the entry detail page once the form is submitted!

4. View Form and Confirm

Let’s make sure everything is working as expected.

Open your form in Preview (or Live Preview). Select an organization from our drop down and submit the first page.

Select an Organization

On the second page, you should see that our merge tag has been replaced in the Product field label.

View Donation Recipient in Label

On the last page, we can confirm the donation recipient and amount are correct before submitting the form.

Confirm Donation Recipient and Amount

What questions do you still have?

Do you still have any questions about this process? We’d love to know what they are.