---
title: Creating alternative editing forms for custom tables
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k11/configuring-kentico/creating-alternative-forms.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k11/managing-website-content/forms/creating-alternative-forms-for-on-line-forms.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/defining-website-content-structure/page-types/configuring-page-types/creating-alternative-forms-for-page-types.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k11/configuring-kentico/creating-alternative-forms/code-names-of-automatically-used-alternative-forms.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

The alternative forms allow you to create alternative representations of existing forms, which you can then use in different situations. You can find more information in [Creating alternative forms](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/configuring-kentico/creating-alternative-forms.md). In [Code names of automatically used alternative forms](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/configuring-kentico/creating-alternative-forms/code-names-of-automatically-used-alternative-forms.md), you can learn about special code names of alternative forms. If you create an alternative form with one of these names, it will be used automatically in the given situation.

The following example demonstrates how to create an alternative form for the **People** custom table created according to the instructions in [Creating custom tables](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/defining-website-content-structure/custom-tables/creating-custom-tables.md). You can apply the same procedure to any other custom table.

## Adding the alternative form

Imagine, you want to collect data from the site visitors into this custom table, but you do not need their date of birth. For this purpose, you can create an alternative form, where you will disable the _DateOfBirth_ field.

1. Open the **Custom tables** application.
2. Edit () the **People** custom table.
3. Switch to the **Alternative forms** tab.
4. Click **Create new form**.
5. Type a **Display name** for the form.

   ![Creating an alternative form for a custom table](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k11/creating-alternative-editing-forms-for-custom-tables/creating_custom_table_alternative_form.png "Creating an alternative form for a custom table")
6. Click **Save**.

The system creates a new alternative form for the custom table.

## Configuring the alternative form fields

After you create an alternative form, you can change its fields using the [field editor](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/custom-development/developing-form-controls/reference-field-editor.md).

1. Switch to the **Fields** tab.
2. Select the **DateOfBirth** field.
3. Disable the **Display field in the editing form** option.

   > **Tip:** Instead of hiding the field, you can experiment with different settings of the field. Try changing the Form control type or the Field caption, or try changing the Editing control settings. This way, you can configure the alternative form as you wish.

   ![Disabling a field in an alternative form](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k11/creating-alternative-editing-forms-for-custom-tables/disabling_field_in_editing_form.png "Disabling a field in an alternative form")
4. Click **Save**.

You have configured the fields of the alternative form.

## Displaying the alternative form on the live site

Now you can display this custom table on the website using the alternative form. You can use the **Custom table form** web part.

1. Open the **Pages** application.
2. Switch to the **Design** tab.
3. [Place](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/developing-websites-using-the-portal-engine/using-and-configuring-web-parts.md) the **Custom table form** web part on a page.
4. **Configure** the web part.
5. Click **Select** next to the **Alternative form name** property.
   - The alternative form takes precedence over the selected custom table.
6. Choose the class and alternative form in the displayed dialog and click **Select**.

   ![Selecting an alternative form](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k11/creating-alternative-editing-forms-for-custom-tables/selecting_alternative_form.png "Selecting an alternative form")
7. Click **Save & Close**.

The alternative form appears on the page (without the _DateOfBirth_ field). Users can submit the form to add new records to the custom table.

![Custom table form displayed with applied alternative form](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k11/creating-alternative-editing-forms-for-custom-tables/custom_table_form_displayed_with_applied_alternative_form.png)