Online Forms

Using Online Forms Online Forms allow you to collect information from your website visitors. A common use of forms is for visitors to contact you with a question. You can also use forms to collect survey information, offer feedback, submit articles, or other uses. Once a viewer completes your form and submits it, the form contents will be emailed to you.

Creating Your Form:

Add A Page

1. To create a form, open up your control panel and open Online Forms.
2. A form has two parts. At the top of the page is the text that describes the form, whether it's a contact page or a survey page, or whatever. To edit this text on an existing form, you would click Edit Page.
3. The second part of the form is the actual entry fields. To edit this text in an existing form, you would click on Edit Form
4. In this example, we'll show how to create a new Online Form. To begin, click Add A Page.

Create Title and Introduction Text

1. A Standard Page Editor Appears. First title your form
2. Then type in the text that will introduce your new form.
3. When you're finished scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update Page.

Open Form Editor.

1. Your new page now appears in your list of forms. Click on Edit Form to create the contents of your form.

Set Email Instructions.

The top half of the form lets you set the email instructions for your form. We'll complete this first and then move on to completing the actual form fields for your form.

1. When a form is completed it will be emailed to whatever address you enter in the To Address field. This will usually be your address.
2. The from address is also usually your own address. This is the email address that want to display as the sender.
3. If you want to cc a submitted form, add one or more emails in this field, separated by commas.
4. If you want to blind cc a submitted form to other recipients, enter those emails here.
5. Give your form a title. This will appear in the subject line of the email you receive.
6. Write up to 255 characters of Thank You Text. When a visitor submits their form, a thank you page will appear and display this text.
7. An autoresponder is an email that can be sent automatically after a visitor submits their form. The autoresponders email will only be mailed if you enter text in this field. You can use autoresponders to confirm that the form was received, or to give additional information about your website or your work,

Create Personal Identification Form Fields.

You can select any combination of fields for your form. Just remember that the simpler you make your form, the better chance you have that a visitor will complete your form and submit it to you.

1. To Use a field in your form, click in the square Use checkbox. A green bar appears in front of the field you have chosen
2. To Require a field in your form, click in both the Use and the Req checkboxes. A red bar now appears in front of the field you have chosen
3. Choose an Order for your menu item. As with Site Menu, lower numbers will appear higher in the form.
4. Note that you can Rename Any Field with your own choice. For example you could change Phone 1 to Cell Phone.

Create Subject Response Form Fields.

Once you've decided what personal information you want from your visitor you can use checkboxes, dropdown boxes, radio buttons and comment boxes to help your visitors share information with you.

Checkboxes.

Checkboxes allow respondents to choose one or more items from a list

1. Choose whether to Use and/or Require the Checkbox field. Give this field a sorting order.
2. Give the Checkbox Field a title.
3. Enter your first choice. Then press Enter and add your second choice. Continue until you've created your full list.

Here's what a finished checkbox form looks like. Visitors can choose as many items from the list as they want.

Drop Down Fields.

Drop Down fields are created in the same manner as Checkboxes. They allow a visitor to click on the drop down and choose from one item on a list. Drop Down fields are useful for displaying long lists without taking up much room. They're often used on forms when visitors need to choose what state or country they are from. Here's an example of a finished drop down form:

Radio Buttons.

Radio Buttons fields are created the same way as Checkbox and Drop Down fields. Like Drop Down fields they allow a visitor to choose one item from a list. Using Radio Buttons, the entire list is displayed on the form and the visitor clicks in the circle in front of their choice. Here's an example of a finished drop down form:

Comment Boxes.

Comment Boxes allow visitors to type or paste in their own comment. You can use this for everything from feedback to collecting poety or writing samples from visitors. Your form allows for up to three comment boxes to be used on a single form. To use a form, choose Use, give your form a sort order, and give your comment box a name. He'res what a finished comment box looks like.

When you've added all your fields, hit Update Page to view your completed form. If you’ve forgotten a sort order or need to change a form field you can always go back and edit your form. Online forms are a great way to gather information and emails from website visitors. As you visit other websites, see how forms are used. Perhaps you’ll discover new ideas that you can use.