WPMonks Custom Themes For Gravity Forms

A saved theme does not travel to your forms on its own

You carefully design the contact form, save it as a theme and apply it to the quote, support and job forms. Everything matches and the work comes down to a few clicks. Later on, the company changes its main color. You open the theme, adjust the button and save. The forms that were already designed stay exactly as they were.

Applying a theme saves repeating a design, but it does not turn it into a central stylesheet that governs all your forms. Editing a saved theme leaves already styled forms untouched. That has a clear advantage, because refining a theme does not disturb what is published. And it has a cost worth knowing before you build many forms: a brand change does not reach those forms on its own.

Custom Themes, by WPMonks, is an add-on that lets you save your own Gravity Forms designs as themes and use them on other forms.

What it adds to the way you design

• Unlimited themes: create and save as many as you need.
• Unlimited forms: each theme applies to as many as you like.
• Changes after applying: you can alter a form's design once it already has a theme.
• Editing of saved themes: change them whenever you want, without affecting already styled forms.
• Deletion of themes you no longer use.

It helps when several forms should look the same. With a single form, there is no design to reuse.

How to keep your forms from drifting apart

Since the theme and the form follow separate paths, a few habits prevent surprises:

• Finish the design before handing it out. The more forms carry a provisional version, the more going over you will have later.
• Give each theme a name with a date or version. That way you know which design matches the current brand.
• Keep a list of which form uses which theme. The day a color changes, that list is your work order.

The two pieces it depends on

Custom Themes designs nothing on its own. It is an add-on for Styles & Layouts for Gravity Forms, now called Gravity Booster, which in turn needs Gravity Forms.

The design options come from that base plugin, with more than 150 settings:

• Form parts: wrapper, header, title, description, fields, labels, submit button, error and confirmation messages.
• Properties: background color, font size and family, borders, width, alignment and line height.
• Screens: settings for desktop, tablet and mobile.
• A different style per form, plus custom CSS in the settings.

Saving and sharing out your first theme

With Gravity Forms running, the route is short:

1. Install Styles & Layouts for Gravity Forms and then this add-on.
2. Design a complete form, with every field type you use.
3. Save that design as a theme.
4. Apply it to a second form and check it on desktop and mobile.
5. If the result is right, apply it to the rest.

Its features do not include prebuilt themes: it starts from a design of your own. The effect of deleting a theme on the forms that received it is worth testing on a copy of the site.

Styling for those who need another starting point

If you would rather begin with ready designs, or move styles between sites, Gravity Forms Styles Pro includes 9 built-in themes, lets you duplicate them and make your own, and imports and exports styles. If your site is built with Divi, you can consider Gravity Forms Styler for Divi. And if you still lack the base, Gravity Forms is the forms plugin all these add-ons need.

Saved themes in practice

If I edit a theme, do the forms already using it change?

No. Edits to a saved theme do not affect already styled forms.

How many themes can I create?

As many as you need. Both the themes and the forms you apply them to are unlimited.

Does it work with Gravity Forms alone?

It also needs Styles & Layouts for Gravity Forms, because it is an add-on for that plugin.

Can I customize a form after applying a theme?

Yes. That form's design can be changed afterwards.

Can I take my themes to another site?

Its features do not include theme export. If that matters to you, compare it with Gravity Forms Styles Pro.

Is it worth it for a single form?

Its job is to reuse a design, so it needs at least a second form to apply it to.