---
title: Creating alternative forms for page types
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/creating-alternative-forms.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/managing-website-content/forms/creating-alternative-forms-for-on-line-forms.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/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).

Alternative forms allow you to create additional versions of editing forms for page types, which you can then use in different situations. See [Creating alternative forms](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/creating-alternative-forms.md) for more information.

In [Code names of automatically used alternative forms](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/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, the system uses the form automatically for a specific purpose.

## Example - Creating a custom Page type insert form

The following example demonstrates how to create an alternative form for the **News** page type and use it to customize the editing form displayed when creating news articles in the Pages application.

> **Tip:** See [Extending the page type listing filter](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/defining-website-content-structure/creating-and-configuring-page-types/configuring-page-types/extending-the-page-type-listing-filter.md) for another practical example of using alternative forms with page types.

### Adding an alternative form

Create an alternative form for the **News** page type:

1. Open the **Page types** application.
2. **Edit** () the **News** page type.
3. Switch to the **Alternative forms** tab.
4. Click **Create new form**.
5. Set the names of the form to the following:
   - **Display name**: _News creation_
   - **Code name**: _insert_ (this is the [automatic alternative form code name](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/creating-alternative-forms/code-names-of-automatically-used-alternative-forms.md) used for creating new items)
6. Click **Save**.

The system creates a new alternative form.

### Configuring the alternative form

After you create an alternative form, you can change its fields using the [field editor](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/custom-development/developing-form-controls/reference-field-editor.md).

1. Switch to the **Fields** tab.
2. Modify the fields as you desire. For example:
   1. Select the **NewsTitle** field.
   2. Type _The title of the news article..._ into the field's **Editing control settings -> Watermark -> Text** setting.
   3. Click **Save**.
   4. Select the **NewsReleaseDate** field.
   5. Click **Edit value** () next to the field's **Default value**.
   6. Enter the _{% DateTime.Now %}_ [macro](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/macro-expressions.md) into the dialog and click **OK**.
   7. Click **Save**.
   8. Select the **NewsTeaser** field.
   9. Clear the **Display field in the editing form** check box.
   10. Click **Save**.

       ![Modifying the fields of an alternative form](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/creating-alternative-forms-for-page-types/modifying_alternative_form_fields.png "Modifying the fields of an alternative form")

The alternative form is ready to be used. If you open the **Pages** application and create a new **News** page, you can see the modifications made in the alternative form:

- The **News title** field displays the entered watermark text
- The **Release Date** field automatically contains the current date and time
- The **Teaser** field is no longer visible (it is only available when editing existing News pages)

![Creating a News page with a custom Insert alternative form](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/creating-alternative-forms-for-page-types/page_type_alternative_form_result.png "Creating a News page with a custom Insert alternative form")

If you edit an existing News page on the **Form** or **Content** tab, the original default editing form is used.