How to create Content Collection templates

The Content Collection feature of Touch Stay is an advanced feature to support property managers obtain information about the homes they manage, directly from the property owners. If you would like to use this feature in your account, then please reach out to support, who will activate it for you (free of charge).

This article explains how to create form templates as part of the Content Collection tool.

Creating New Templates

Templates are the basis of the forms that your owners will complete when providing the information you need from them about their property. Each form starts with an introduction, and then you can add sections for each custom field or topic you need the owner to complete.

To create new Templates, head to the Content Collection page from the main side menu and the Templates tab. Click the "+ Add template" button and give your template a name - this name is for your internal use only, it won't show on the form to your owners.

The form approvals setting

This setting allows you to determine if the answers provided by your owners will update the guide as soon as the form is completed, or if they should be held for your review and final approval. If you select "Yes", then completed forms will not update the guide until they have been reviewed and approved. During the review process, you can make changes to the content to make any minor corrections, such as for grammar or tone. Your owners could also make changes to the content by clicking on their form link and updating their answers.

As soon as the form is approved (either automatically or manually) then the guide will be updated, the content for that version locked and a new version of the form will be generated the next time the form link is accessed. The new version will display the current guide content to the owner, so they would only need to make changes to their current guide content.

The Introductory text

The introductory text is a text box that should be used to briefly explain to your owners why you need them to complete the form, what they need to do and who to contact in case they have any questions. This section can include field codes within the text for things such as their name, by using {{owner_first_name}}, or a link to their guide using {{quick_share_link}} - you'll find the full list of field codes in the usual toolbar option. This section can be easily edited once the form is live, if you find that you need to adjust the explanation or instructions to your owners.

The introduction is shown to the owner when they first click the link to the form and sits above the list of sections for them to complete.

Adding Sections

You now need to add the sections to your forms that you need your owners to complete. These are either custom fields or topic customisations, and the relevant custom field or topic must have been created already to be available for selection here.

After making your selection, you can choose whether it is mandatory for this information to be completed by all of your owners, or if this section is optional. If it is optional (not mandatory), then you add a qualifying question to the section - if the owner answers "Yes", then they will be required to enter information about the section, if they answer "No" then they can skip it.

If chosen, the question label is the text that will be presented to the owner for this section asking them to confirm if they need to complete that section. It will default to a value based on your custom field or topic name but depending on that name, this label may need a slight adjustment to make it clearer to your owners what you are asking them.

The instruction label is the text that will sit above the content entry box and should be used to describe what you need them to do for this section. It will also default to a value based on your custom field or topic name, but once again, depending on that name, this label may need a slight adjustment to make it clearer to your owners what you need from them in this section.

Custom fields

Custom fields are perfect for small and essential pieces of information, such as Wi-Fi passwords, gate codes or rubbish/trash collection days. On the final form, the text entry box for the owner will be a simple text box where they enter their information.

Topic customisations

Topics are most suitable for information about appliances and amenities around the home and which are not always present at every property. Topic visibility can be set for each guide, meaning you can hide sections from a guide if that particular amenity is not present in that home. See the paragraph below for a more detailed explanation about topic visibility.

On the final form, the text entry box for the owner will be a rich text box, with a toolbar of icons for formatting and the ability to add images or videos to the text.

There is also a preview to indicate how their written content will look in the guide when viewed from a mobile device.

The starting content in the text entry box will be any content already on the guide for that topic, if this is the first time it will be completed, then that will be the content in the Content Hub version for the topic. If a customisation for the topic already exists on this guide, then that version will be the starting content instead.

Optional sections and topic visibility

For optional sections, the answer your owners give to the qualifying question can have an effect on the visibility of that topic on the guide the form is for. This allows you to ensure that topics that would not be relevant for a particular property do not show on guides when there is no content to show. For example, you may have a topic for "Hot tub" but not all of your owners have one at their property. In your template, you would want to make this section optional and with a qualifying question such as "Does your place have a hot tub?". If an owner answers "Yes", then when this form is approved, this will change the visibility setting on the "Hot tub" topic for this guide to "Always Show". If an owner answers "No", then this will change the visibility setting to "Follow the Tag". If you have given the "Hot tub" topic in Content Hub no active tags, then this topic will not show on guides where the owner answers "No" to the qualifying question.

Template Branding

The logo and colours of the form will come from the default colours and logo for your account (or the specific template if you have more than 1 template). The company name is the name of your organisation, which is set on the Profile tab.

What to do next

Now your template is complete, you are ready to create a form by applying this template to a guide. You can also choose to send the form link to your owners by email.

See this article for how to create email prompts.

See this article for how to create forms.