Creating a Form with Time-Saving Shortcuts


Web page forms are commonly used to register visitors for services, or to give them a chance to voice their opinions . Common Web page forms include a guest book, where visitors can post their names and comments on a Web page, and feedback forms, where visitors can submit their comments to the Web site owner. FrontPage 2003 gives you templates, which enable you to create both types of forms instantly, without having to create each data entry element from scratch. Your job is to customize the form s contents according to your own requirements.

Jump-Start Your Form by Choosing a Template

FrontPage includes three Web page templates that are intended for soliciting specific kinds of information from visitors.

  • The User Registration form enables a business to register users, so that they can access restricted pages, or so that they can simply keep track of who visits the site.

  • The Guest Book (see Figure 14-1) is perfect for a business that wants to hear from its customers about how well its Web site is operating, but does not need to identify those individuals by name . Other customers can view previous visitors comments, and respond with their own opinions.

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    Figure 14-1: Templates help you create interactive forms quickly.

  • The Feedback Form invites comments from the site s visitors, while giving them a place to identify themselves by name. Use the Feedback Form when you want to gather contact information from your visitors or customers, so that you can get in touch with them later on.

Choose one of FrontPage s templates when you want to include a standard feedback element on your Web site, and you don t need to customize the form extensively. (If you want more flexibility, use the Form Page Wizard, as described in the next section.) To quickly create a form from a template, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Web that you want to contain the form.

  2. Choose File, New.

  3. Click More page templates in the New page section of the Task Pane.

  4. Click one of the form templates in the Page Templates dialog box, and click OK.

  5. When the page appears, read the instructions that appear in purple. Click the placeholder text (which appears in black) and replace it with your own content.

Caution  

Unless you use a custom script (a computer program written in a language such as Perl or C++) to process the information submitted from a Web page form when it is sent to your Web server, you need to have the FrontPage Server Extensions or Microsoft SharePoint running on the server that hosts your site. Otherwise, you won t be able to use one of FrontPage s form handlers to process the information that comes to you from a Web page form. Ask your ISP or network administrator whether SharePoint or the server extensions are available. Once your Web form has been published to a Web server running SharePoint or the FrontPage Server Extensions, you can test the form yourself by clicking Preview In Browser.

Tailor Your Form with the Form Page Wizard

Any business Web site needs a variety of forms that elicit more than feedback comments from customers or other visitors. Forms that invite users to submit their names, addresses, and other contact information have great value as marketing tools. FrontPage s Form Page Wizard will help you design a form for any purpose. Let it lead you step-by-step through the process of creating a registration, purchase, or service request form. The Wizard enables you to tailor the form to your own needs, while including your name and contact information, and also attaching the proper form handler. Just follow these steps to start using the Form Page Wizard:

  1. Open the Web that you want to contain the form.

  2. Choose File, New.

  3. Click More page templates in the New page section of the Task Pane.

  4. Double-click Form Page Wizard to open it.

  5. Read the first page of the Wizard, and then click Next.

The subsequent screens of the Wizard lead you through the process of designing a Web page form, without having to create each of the input boxes and buttons laboriously, one at a time.

Specify the Information You Want

First, the Form Page Wizard helps you identify the information you want visitors to submit when they fill out the form.

  1. Click Add to add a question or prompt that invites users to fill out your form.

  2. Specify the type of information you want the form to gather (see Figure 14-2 on the following page).

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    Figure 14-2: The Form Page Wizard helps you gather many types of business information.

  3. Review the prompt for the desired information, then click Next.

  4. Specify the kinds of data you want to collect for the type of information you specified (see Figure 14-3), and click Next.

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    Figure 14-3: The wizard lets you identify specific kinds of data to collect.

  5. Repeat Steps 1-4 for each field you want to add, and click Next.

The final screens of the Wizard let you control what s usually the most technical and difficult part of creating a Web page form: specifying the way you want to receive information, so that you can work with it easily when it arrives.

Caution  

Limit the personal information you want the user to submit to a minimum. Many Web surfers are put off by forms that ask them to reveal a lot about their personal lives. Some may skip filling out your form altogether if they feel their privacy is being invaded.

Configure How You ll Receive Information

Whether you d rather receive a text file that you can open in a word processing document, or a Web page you can view in your browser, the Wizard lets you specify how the form information is processed by the server. Just follow these steps:

  1. Specify how you want the form information to be formatted when it is presented to the user, and click Next.

  2. Specify whether you want the results to be sent you in the form of a Web page, or a text file, or whether you have a custom script available to process the information (see Figure 14-4).

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    Figure 14-4: This simple-looking screen lets you control some complex form processing.

  3. Click Next. (This is the last screen that asks you for information. In the last screen, click Finish.) The finished form appears in the FrontPage window (see Figure 14-5 on the following page).

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    Figure 14-5: The Form Page Wizard enables you to painlessly assemble a form with multiple data-entry fields such as this.

Lingo  

The term CGI script , which appears on one of the Wizard screens, refers to a program that uses the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), a way for Web servers and client programs to communicate with one another.

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The Parts of a Form

Every form has two parts: the data-entry elements (shown in Figure 14-6), and the script, which processes the data that the user submits. The part you create (either from scratch, or with the help of FrontPage s Form Page Wizard or templates), are the text boxes and buttons the user fills out. Some of the data-entry elements are shown below.

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Figure 14-6: FrontPage makes it easy to design a variety of data entry form elements.

Help Your Co-workers Share Information with List Forms

A list form is a form that you place in a document library or interactive list on your Web page. It differs from traditional Web page forms in that it enables members of a workgroup to share ideas and submit information that they can then access and view. List forms are part of Microsoft SharePoint Team Services ”they require that the page which contains the form be published on a server that is running SharePoint Team Services. To add a list form, follow these steps:

  1. Open the page where you want the list form to appear.

  2. Choose Insert, Form, List Form.

  3. Select the kind of form you want to add from the drop-down list at the top of the List or Document Library Form dialog box (see Figure 14-7 on the following page).

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    Figure 14-7: You can identify a list or document library to use for a list form.

  4. Choose the type of form you want to create:

    • Click New Item Form if you want visitors to add items to the list form.

    • Click Edit Item Form if you want visitors to be able to edit items in the list, or change their own responses.

    • Click Display Item Form if you want visitors to be able to view responses to a survey.

  5. Click OK, and click Save to name and save your page on the SharePoint server (see Figure 14-8).

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    Figure 14-8: List forms give colleagues a way to submit and share ideas.

You can create the following kinds of list forms: Announcements, Contacts, Document Library, Data Sources, Events, General Discussion, Links, Shared Documents, and Tasks. However, each Web page can contain only one list form.

See Also  

For more information about creating interactive lists and document libraries, see Chapter 18, Working Collaboratively.

A list form, like other Web page forms, contains one or more fields. A field is a data entry element that gives the user a place to enter information. A text field, for instance, might include a first name or last name. Once you create a SharePoint list form, it s easy to modify the form, so that you and your colleagues can enter exactly the information you want to share. Here s how to add a list field:

  1. Right-click the list form, and choose Customize SharePoint List Form from the shortcut menu.

  2. Once the form has changed to layout customization view, right-click anywhere in the form and choose Insert List Field from the shortcut menu.

  3. Choose the field you want to display from the Field To Display drop down list (Figure 14-9).

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    Figure 14-9: This dialog box makes it easy to add list fields to a list form.

  4. Specify whether you want to show only the name of the field, or the field data ”in other words, the field itself. Click OK.

  5. Right-click the form and choose Revert SharePoint List Form to view the form with the new field.

Caution  

If you want to add a new field to your list form, don t right-click on an existing field when you choose Insert List Field. If you do, you ll replace the existing field with a new one. Right-click a part of the form that doesn t yet contain a field.




Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
ISBN: 0735619727
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 179

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