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How do I create a registration form for multiple time zones?

Topic Labels: Dates & Timezones
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Courtney_Roy
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Context: I have a series of trainings that is being accessed by those in multiple time zones. Previously, I have marked everything in GMT, yet it continues to confuse respondents who are only thinking in their current time. Therefore, I’m trying to create a registration form that converts the training options to the registrant’s time zone. I have managed to create a grid that adjusts the Date/Time format (see image below)
DateTime Transfer to Form

Unfortunately, this doesn’t configure over to a form. Is there a specific field type that can be used?

3 Replies 3

Welcome to the community, @Courtney_Roy! :slightly_smiling_face:

As far as I know, you can’t do this with a form if the primary field in your Trainings table is a formula field.

As far as I know, in your trainings table, the primary field would need to be a normal date & time field. You would also need to DISABLE GMT for that date field, meaning that you would need to enter in the date & time there based on YOUR OWN LOCAL TIME ZONE, so Airtable can automatically update this field for other people based on their time zone.

After that, you probably already have your form setup this way, but you would need to create your form in ANOTHER table that has a “linked record” field that links to this trainings table.

Then, whenever people go to your form, the form will automatically update the values of the linked record field to match their own time zone.

I could be wrong, but I think that this is the only way to do it using Airtable’s native forms. I’d love to know if anyone else knows of any better ways to handle this.

I also cover several other time zone tricks in my training video & sample base here, but I don’t think that any of my tricks will help you in this particular situation:

You might end up needing to use more advanced form software like JotForm, which has an automatic Time Zone Picker:

And you can pair JotForm with On2Air Forms to dynamically pull in information from Airtable:

After the user submits the JotForm form, you would probably need to use something like Integromat to parse your information into the proper tables in Airtable.

p.s. A lot of this can be very challenging to setup. If you have a budget for this project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant & Registered Integromat Partner to help you create this, please feel free to contact me through my website at ScottWorld.com. (Also, some of the links above contain my referral codes.)

Thank you for the warm welcome, and the guidance! After testing multiple options, I have found using the “Appointment” element in JotForm was the solution while permitting AirTable integration. It includes a drop-down list of time zones, which adjusts the training dates/times, with the submissions displaying as the selected default. If anyone else in the community needs this for a similar situation, I would highly recommend this option.

Kathy_Lewis
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi Courtney,

Does this still work for you? 

Scott's answer is how we used to do the forms as well, however this no longer works as the timezone is not automatically updated for the user anymore.

I can't work out how to get around this.

Any ideas?