FormSmarts Web Form Blog

FormSmarts Soon in More Languages

We’ve started to translate FormSmarts’ form handler into other languages. When the international version is released, form users will see instructions, error messages, and confirmation messages in their preferred language.

International form owners will welcome this move, but not only them.

• FormSmarts users with international websites will be able to create forms in English, while making them available to an international audience without any extra efforts;
• a U.S. user with a preferred language set to Spanish in his browser will see messages in that language.

Note that the internationalization in progress only applies to the form processor at this time. At the rate we introduce new features to the form builder, we wouldn’t be able to keep translations in sync.

We’ve already emailed international users to ask anyone able and willing to translate FormSmarts into their own language to sign up. If you would like to contribute but didn’t get the email, please register here.

Update: We would like to thank all the users who have already volunteered to translate FormSmarts into their language. Our most wanted languages are currently:

• Chinese (Simplified) / 中文 (简体)
• Japanese / 日本語
• Russian / русский
• Italian / italiano
• Polish / polski
• Korean / 한국어

Posted on September 16th, 2008 in form handler.
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Tags: international, upcoming

Introducing SmartsPoints

As you may be aware, we’re soon going to allow users to store form results on FormSmarts, rather than having them sent by email. We’ll introduce at the same time a number of useful new features.

Although we’ll give everyone a limited storage space to get starting, most users will want to get more. The good news is that you won’t have to pay for more storage: we’ll trade storage packages against SmartsPoints, FormSmarts’ reward scheme.

Earning SmartsPoints is easy:

1. Start earning SmartsPoints right now by inviting friends and colleagues to FormSmarts from the Settings tab of your account (SmartsPoints option);
2. Introduce your visitors to FormSmarts from your website, blog, myspace,… using the referral link shown in your account.

We’ll credit SmartsPoints to your account whenever someone you invited creates an account and starts using FormSmarts. Note that it takes several weeks for points to be credited to your account.

Start Earning SmartsPoints Now!

In addition to resources allowance, we have a series of high value added features in the making to spend your points on. SmartsPoints can also get you professional per-incident support when you need it, so start earning SmartsPoints now!

Posted on September 6th, 2008 in Smarts Points.
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Tags: Smarts Points

Calling Embedded Form Users!

Form Widget Size Calculation Upgraded

To accommodate users who need to create forms with a large number of fields, we’ve recently introduced a much more sophisticated way to calculate form widget size. If forms on your site currently display a scrollbar, we strongly advise you to upgrade the form embedding code.

Refresh the Code on Your Website When You Add a Field

Once you have inserted the HTML code for the form widget on your site, we cannot resize it at our end. That means that whenever you add more input fields, you must refresh the code on your website. If you don’t do it, a scrollbar may show up, and some users may not be able to see the bottom of the form.

Space at the Bottom of Web Forms Is Normal

The spare space at the bottom of web forms is there for a reason: leaving enough space for error messages that may occur during form submission. Here again, if you remove that space, a scrollbar may show up, and some users may not see the bottom of the form.

Optimizing form widget size is not a simple issue because it depends on the rendering characteristics of the diverse web browsers, as well as on the different aspects of each form. If you believe the size of a form you’ve created is not optimal, let us know.

Posted on August 15th, 2008 in form builder.
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Tags: widget

Introducing Form Layouts

We’re pleased to now support two form layouts.

Question (a.k.a. field name) and input field aligned horizontally (default):

Question and input field aligned vertically:

Which Layout Should You Use?

Most people find web forms designed with the first layout clearer and easier to read. That’s why we use it by default whenever you create a form.

The best layout to use depends on the length of the questions asked on the form.

• When a form is made of short questions like name or email address, prefer the first layout. This what you should use, for example, for contact forms.
• When the form contains longer questions like Why do you want to work for us?, you should rather use the second layout. It turns out that you should use the second layout for most complex forms like web surveys and job application forms.

How to Change the Layout of a Form

You can change the layout of a form in the form details page. Note that if you’re using a form widget embedded into your site, you must update the HTML code on your site whenever you switch layout.

This is simply because the layout affects the size of the form. Forms accessed by their FormSmarts.com URL don’t have this restriction.

Any Feedback About Form Layouts?

We welcome your feedback about this feature.

Posted on August 14th, 2008 in HTML form.
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Tags: form design, usability, widget

Stored Form Results

Whenever someone uses one of your forms, we email you the form submission straight away. That is, at this time, the only way we support for you to access form results.

That’s great if you need to collect time-sensitive information that needs to be processed individually. For example, for contact forms or order forms.

For most individuals and small businesses, their email account is where data is safest. Free email services like Gmail or Yahoo give you reliable data storage, that’s an advantage that is often overlooked.

But sometime what you want is really to collect form data, store it somewhere, and use it later. That’s what you need for medium and large scale surveys, registration forms, and the likes.

Stored form results is the next big thing coming up on FormSmarts.

What Will Change with Stored Form Results?

When this feature becomes available, you’ll have the option to store form submissions on FormSmarts. You’ll then be able to download them, export them to Microsoft Excel, get them emailed to you weekly, or get them via a private RSS feed.

Stored Form Results will initially only be available to a restricted number of users, before we offer this to all FormSmarts accounts. If you want to be part of the pioneers, register here.

Anything to Say?

We’re open to suggestions about other ways to let users retrieve stored form data.

Posted on August 5th, 2008 in form handler.
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Tags: stored form results, upcoming

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