Forms

Creating form

With Actual Drawing, you can create one or more forms in your Web Page.

For example, one form might perform a site search, while another emails visitor's comments what they think of your Web site.

To create a form

1. Click Form or Form Object from the Insert menu and select Form.
2. Draw a rectangle in the page window to specify form position and size.

Set the Form properties in the Form tab of the Layer Properties panel:

Action determines the path to the URL where the processing script or application that will process the form information. For example: http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/myform.cgi

The Method box defines the method in which the form data will be handled:

1. Select Post to hide the script information in the URL.
2. Select Get to display the script information in the URL.

Adding form elements

After you've added a Form to your web page you can start adding form elements. The form elements are the areas of the form where your visitors type their response, or select their choices.

To determine to which form an element belongs, put the element inside the form rectangle. Change the form position, width or height to be sure all the form elements are inside the form. If you have added form elements into a paragraph text layer, make sure that the layer is inside the form.

Push Button

A push button submits a form to its form handler or resets a form to its initial state.

To create Push Button

Click Form or Form Object from the Insert menu and select Push Button.
Click any point in the page window to specify a position where the object will be placed.

A Push Button has the following properties:

1. Caption determines the text that appears on the button.
2. Action determines what happens when the button is clicked.
3. Selecting the Submit Form button sets the action to submit the contents of the form.
4. Selecting the Reset Form button sets the action to clear the contents of the form.
5. If None is selected, that neither a submit nor reset action will occur when the button is clicked.
6. Use the Form tab of the Layer Properties panel to set the object properties.

Check Box

Check boxes allow to make one or more selections from a group of options, or to turn a single option on or off. Unlike radio buttons, any number of boxes in a group can be selected at the same time.

To create a Check box

1. Click Form or Form Object from the Insert menu and select Check Box.
2. Click any point in the page window to specify a position where the object will be placed.

A Check Box has the following properties:

1. The Value field defines a value for the check box.
2. The Initial State defines the check box is selected or not when the form loads in a browser.
3. The Name of check box is defined in the Main tab. Each check box you add to a form must have a unique name.

Use the Form tab of the Layer Properties panel to set the object properties.

Radio Button

Radio buttons allow user to make only one choice from a set of options. Radio buttons are typically used in groups. All radio buttons in a group must have the same name and must contain different values.

To create a Radio Button

1. Click Form or Form Object from the Insert menu and select Radio Button.
2. Click any point in the page window to specify a position where the object will be placed.

A Radio Button has the following properties:

1. The Value field defines a value for the radio button.
2. The Initial State defines the radio button is selected or not when the form loads in a browser.
3. The name of radio button is defined in the Main tab. If you create multiple radio button interactions in a form, be sure each set of radio buttons has a unique name.

Use the Form tab of the Layer Properties panel to set the object properties.

List or Menu

List or Menu let visitors select an option from lots of choices.

Use List if you want site visitors to be able to select more than one option, which is a space-saving alternative to a group of check boxes.

Use a Menu when space is very limited. A menu displays a single-line entry, and includes a down arrow that a user clicks to see other menu choices. Menu allows to select only one option.

To create a List or Menu

1. Click Form or Form Object from the Insert menu and select List or Drop-Down Menu.
2. Click any point in the page window to specify a position where the object will be placed.

A List or Menu has the following properties:

1. The Type box allows to select that the form element is a pop-up menu or a scrolling list.
2. The Height box defines the number of items displayed at once in the scrolling list.
3. If the Allow Multi selection button is checked, user can select multiple items from the list.
4. The List Values table stores the list's or menu's items. Each item in the list has a label (the text that appears in the list) and a value (the value that's sent to the processing application if the item is selected). If no value is specified, the label is sent to the processing application instead.

Use the Form tab of the Layer Properties panel to set the object properties.

One-Line Text Field

One-line field is a form object in which visitors type a text. Use the one-line text box to accept one line of information, such as a name or phone number.

To create an One Line Text Field

1. Click Form or Form Object from the Insert menu and select One Line Text Field.
2. Click any point in the page window to specify a position where the object will be placed.

An One Line Text Field has the following properties:

1. The Init Value assigns the value displayed in the field when the form loads to a browser.
2. The Type box defines the field as a text field, password field or file name.
3. Use the password type if the visitor will be entering secure or confidential information. Depending on the browser, visitors see asterisks, bullets, or nothing at all as they type.
4. Use file name type to allow visitors to locate a file. A Browse button will be placed beside the field when the page will be displayed in a browser. Visitors can type the path to the file or use the Browse button to locate and select the document they're sending.
5. To use a file field, the form Method must be set to POST. Visitors post a file to the address you set up in the form's Action field.
6. The Width box sets the maximum number of characters that can be displayed in the field. This number can be less than Max. characters.
7. The Max. characters box sets the maximum number of characters that can be entered in the field. Use Max. characters to limit the phone number to 10 digits or to limit description to 200 characters, etc.

Use the Form tab of the Layer Properties panel to set the object properties.

Multi Line Text Field

Multiple-line text field provides visitors with a larger area in which they can type long comments or descriptions.

To create an Multi Line Text Field

1. Click Form or Form Object from the Insert menu and select Multi Line Text Field.
2. Click any point in the page window to specify a position where the object will be placed.

A Multi Line Text Field has the following properties:

1. The Init Value assigns the value displayed in the field when the form loads to a browser.
2. The Numb. of Columns box sets the number of characters in a row.
3. The Numb. of Rows box sets the height of the field.
4. Use the Form tab of the Layer Properties panel to set the object properties.

Hidden Value

Hidden fields are not visible to the user but supplies data to the form handler. Each hidden field is implemented as a name-value pair. When the form is submitted, all of its hidden fields are passed to the form handler along with name-value pairs from each field in the form. Use hidden fields to pass additional information to the form handler, such as which fields must be filled out to display the success page or where to return data once it’s processed.

To create a Hidden Value

1. Click Form or Form Object from the Insert menu and select Hidden Value.
2. Click any point in the page window to specify a position where the object will be placed.

A Hidden Value has the following properties:

1. The Value field defines a value for the item.
2. The name of the Hidden Item is defined in the Main tab.
3. Use the Form tab of the Layer Properties panel to set the object properties.