When setting up a property, you register both the label name and the internal name.
If the label name is set to “Interested” and the internal name to “True,” and a contact selects “Interested” in a form using that property, will the contact’s property field also record “Interested”?
When is the value registered under the internal name used, and in what situations?
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For properties that require options, such as dropdowns or radio buttons, if you continue to use the same property and keep adding new options, all previously registered options will appear when creating a form.
Is the only option to delete any unneeded ones each time?
Also, I’d love to put you in touch with our Top Experts: Hi @danmoyle, @EugeneAtKiwi and @HFisher7 do you have any insights to share with @moya2, please?
Hi @moya2. As a user, here’s how I understand HubSpot’s technical build and how I’ve seen it used.
The label is the human-friendly field name shown on records, forms, lists, workflows, and reports. It would look like: Interested.
The property internal name is the stable API/integration identifier for the property itself. In your scenario, it would look like: interested (unless you change it to ‘true’ before you save it).
If it were me, and I had to change the internal value for some business reason from “interested” to “true,” here’s how I’d think of it and lay it out.
Configuration item
Value
Property label
Interested Status
Property internal name
interest_status
Dropdown/radio option label
Interested
Dropdown/radio option internal value
true
Note: You generally cannot edit an already-saved option’s internal value in place. HubSpot treats it as immutable after the option is created.
For properties that require options, such as dropdowns or radio buttons, if you continue to use the same property and keep adding new options, all previously registered options will appear when creating a form.
Is the only option to delete any unneeded ones each time?
No, you don’t have to delete unneeded options from the property each time you build a form. Keep the complete set of valid options on the property, then remove or include options at the individual form-field level. Those form-specific changes do not alter the property or other forms.
July: I want to add i, j, k, l to Property A and create a form with those four choices. However, when I add Property A, options a through h appear in the form editing screen. Do I have to delete options a through h from the form editing screen when editing?
*Assuming the forms from May and June are currently published.
Certain option should not visible in all forms, but still preserved in HubSpot
Go to Settings → Properties and edit your property. On the Field Type tab where you see all the options for this property you’ll notice a column “In Form” with checkboxes that you can toggle on/off (read more about it here). So if you have “option a” that you don’t want visible in forms → untick the “In Form” checkbox here.
Certain option should be hidden only on a particular form
In that case, go to your form editor and edit the field there, removing any options you don’t want to see on that particular form.
The label is the human-readable wording; the internal value identifies the selected option behind the scenes. So, if “Interested” is the option label and “True” is that option’s internal value, the contact record displays “Interested,” while the underlying value is “True.”
The internal value is used most often for:
APIs or integrations read or write data: they use technical identifiers rather than relying on display wording. HubSpot’s API guide explains this distinction.
Workflows copy values between dropdown or checkbox fields: the option’s internal value must match exactly in both fields, including capitalisation. Matching labels alone is not enough.
A workflow copies a dropdown or checkbox answer into a text field: this is an important exception - the label, such as “Interested,” is copied, not the internal value “True.”
You don’t have to delete old options to keep them off a form. You can keep the options in the property and show only the relevant subset on each form. Both the current and legacy editors support form-specific option selection.
To adjust the property or property options on a form, go to the edit the form, select the dropdown or radio field, and adjust its Field options - removing unwanted choices from that form, then updating it.
For options you no longer want offered more broadly, you also have alternatives in Properties:
Turn off “In forms” for an option to prevent its use in forms.
Archive an obsolete option to prevent future selection while preserving existing records that already contain it.