Reader sees the form but cannot type in it

What you are seeing

A reader sees the form but cannot type in it.


#Why it happens

One of: they lack page edit permission; they are anonymous (they additionally see "Sign in to fill this in"); or they are looking at a version-history or diff view, which is always read-only with a historical-view notice. The version-history lock outranks edit permission.


#What to do

Grant page edit permission, or ask the reader to sign in and open the current version of the page. Anonymous submission is not supported anywhere in Forms.


#Limits that apply here

Limit

Value

What happens

Save retry ceiling

5 attempts, backing off 250 ms, 500 ms,

If the save cannot locate the macros in the page content it retries on that ladder and then gives up, surfacing as "Could not save form - try again".


#A few things that catch people out

  • Save gives up after five retries over about nine seconds if it cannot find the macros in the page content, surfacing only as "Could not save form - try again".

  • The seeded showcase page's own copy is wrong in two places: it says "each reader's answers are saved automatically" (inside a Form container they are not - Save is explicit and validated) and refers to "Submissions" (there is one record per page, overwritten). Its edition note also omits select and URL from the Advanced-only list. Do not echo that copy in documentation.



Found it? Good.