> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.watx.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Conditional logic and steps

> Show a field only when an earlier answer matches, and split a long form into steps with a progress bar.

A form can ask different questions depending on what somebody has already answered, and a long form can be broken into steps. Both are set on the Build tab: rules in the field inspector, steps with the **Page break** field.

## Adding a rule

Select a field and open **Conditional logic** in the inspector, then **Add a rule**. A rule reads as one sentence:

> Show this field when **\<an earlier field>** **\<is / is not / contains …>** **\<value>**

| Operator            | Matches when the earlier answer   |
| ------------------- | --------------------------------- |
| **is**              | Is exactly the value              |
| **is not**          | Is anything other than the value  |
| **contains**        | Contains the value, ignoring case |
| **is empty**        | Was left blank                    |
| **is not empty**    | Was answered at all               |
| **is greater than** | Is a larger number                |
| **is less than**    | Is a smaller number               |

**is empty** and **is not empty** compare against nothing, so the value box disappears for them. **is greater than** and **is less than** compare numbers; if either side is not a number the rule simply does not match.

When the field you point at is a dropdown, radio group or checkbox list, its own options are offered as the value — so you pick a real answer rather than typing one that can never match.

A field with a rule on it is marked **conditional** on the canvas, so you can see at a glance which parts of the form are not always shown.

## Rules only point backwards

The picker offers the fields **above** the selected one, and only those. A rule naming a later field is refused when the form is saved.

That single restriction is what makes the feature predictable:

* A question cannot depend on an answer the visitor has not been asked for yet — decisively so once a page break sits between them.
* Loops are impossible. Two fields can never wait on each other.

Headings, paragraphs and page breaks cannot be a rule's source either: they carry no answer to test.

Rules chain. If "Other" hid **Please specify**, anything keyed off **Please specify** is hidden too, whatever was typed into it before the visitor changed their mind.

## A hidden field is not a blank one

When a rule hides a field:

* It is **not required**, even if **Required** is on. Nobody loses their enquiry to a question they were never asked.
* Its answer is **not stored**. Somebody who picks "Other", types a reason and then switches back to a standard option does not have that reason filed against them.

The page and the server work this out the same way, so what you see on screen is what is accepted. Only the answers that were actually visible are sent.

<Note>
  Deleting a field also clears any rule that pointed at it. Without that, saving the form would fail with an error on a field you never touched.
</Note>

## Splitting a form into steps

Drop a **Page break** wherever you want a new step to begin. Everything after the break belongs to the next step, and the canvas marks it **Step 2 of 3** so you can see the shape of the form while building it.

On the live form the visitor gets:

* a **Step n of N** counter and a progress bar,
* a **Next** button that checks the required fields on the current step before moving on,
* a **Back** button from the second step onwards, which never blocks — somebody returning to fix an answer must not be stopped by the one they were fixing.

Pressing Enter in a text box on any step but the last cannot submit the form.

When the last step is submitted, every step is re-checked — a rule can reveal a required field on a step already walked past — and the visitor is sent back to the first step that actually has a problem.

## Steps and rules together

The two interact in one useful way: **a step that a rule has emptied disappears**, rather than showing as a blank page with a Next button on it. The step count shrinks with it, so "Step 2 of 3" stays honest.

A practical shape:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Step 1 asks the branching question">
    A radio group: *"Are you buying for yourself or a business?"*
  </Step>

  <Step title="Step 2 holds the business-only questions">
    Company name, team size and VAT number, each with a rule of **is** *business* on that radio group.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Somebody buying for themselves never sees step 2">
    Every field on it is hidden, so the step is dropped and they go straight to step 3 — which now calls itself step 2.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Use the **Try it** switch above the canvas to walk the form as a visitor would, with the rules and the steps live, before you publish.