Attach and view documents on a form

Attachments

The plainest option, and the one that maps to what SharePoint already does. A list item can carry attachments, and the attachments control puts that on the form so somebody can add a file while they fill it in. Reach for this when the file has no life of its own and only matters as part of that record.

A file upload field

Where you want the upload to be an actual field on the form rather than an afterthought bolted to the item, use a file upload. It sits in the layout where you put it, so it can be required, or shown only when an earlier answer calls for it. A form that asks for an insurance certificate only when someone says they are a contractor reads much better than one that always shows the box.

Document library controls

Sometimes the document should not live inside the list item at all. The document library control ties the form to a library instead, so the file stays where your team already manages it, under that library's own permissions and version history, rather than as a copy buried in a record.

A viewer, for reading in place

A document viewer renders a PDF on the form itself, which is not something most people expect a form to do. So the procedure or the terms sit right above the field asking whether they have been read. It turns an instruction nobody follows into something in front of them. Pair it with a signature field and the acknowledgement and the document it refers to end up on one record.

Choosing between them

• Attach or upload it when the file belongs to the record and has no life of its own.
• Point at the library when the file belongs to the organisation and the record merely refers to it.
• Add a viewer when somebody has to read the thing before they can answer honestly.

Nothing stops a form using two of them. An induction that shows the policy in a viewer and takes a signed acknowledgement as an upload is a perfectly ordinary shape.

This walkthrough covers the internal list form, where the person filling it in is signed in to your tenant. Attachments in particular are a Workspace control. Collecting documents from people outside your organisation is a different job with a different answer.