Bootstrap 5 Forms

Create responsive and consistently styled forms using Bootstrap 5 form classes

Bootstrap 5 provides a default style that is applied across most form controls. It also provides classes for specific purposes.

Basic Form

Here's an example of a basic form in Bootstrap 5. You can use Bootstrap's .form-control class against textual <input>, <textarea>, and <select> elements to apply width: 100% by default.

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Inline Form

Use Bootstrap's .row-cols-* classes to create responsive horizontal layouts. Using .col-12 helps stack the form controls on narrow viewports.

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If the above form is not displaying inline, open the preview in a new window. If it still isn't displaying inline, you might need to view the example on a bigger screen.

Help Text

Bootstrap 5 provides the .form-text class that can be used to indicate help text. You can combine this class with utility classes such as .text-muted.

You should also use the .aria-describedby attribute to associate the help text with the form control. This will ensure that screen readers can announce the help text when the user focuses on the form control.

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Static Control

You can use Bootstrap's .form-control-plaintext on a <p> element to present plain text next to a label (eg. instead of using an input field).

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Checkboxes & Radio Buttons

Bootstrap 5 provides classes such as .form-check, .form-check-label, .form-check-input, and .form-check-inline for displaying checkboxes and radio buttons.

To display the checkboxes or radio buttons stacked, nest each one inside a <div> with the .form-check class.

Also, add the .form-check-label to the <label> tag, and .form-check-input to the <input> tag.

Inline

With Bootstrap 5, checkboxes and radio buttons are stacked by default (they appear above one another). You can display them inline by adding .form-check-inline to the surrounding <div>. Keep the .form-check-input on the <input> tag.

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There's a lot more to Bootstrap forms than I can outline here. See the Bootstrap 5 documentation for a more comprehensive breakdown.