Archive for May, 2008
How to Embed a Form Into Your Site
Linking or Embedding?
FormSmarts supports two ways to integrate a form into your website or blog: linking and embedding. Embedding lets you place the form on your site alongside other content. Linking gives your form its own separate web page. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Many users think embedding the form into their site gives them more control. That’s far from always being the best option.
Embed a Form When…
- the web form is short — 10-15 input fields maximum
- it is self comprehensible and form filling instructions are not needed
Mailing list signup forms and simple contact forms work well embedded.
Link To a Form When…
- the form is long or complex
- the form is accessed both by web visitors and via a mailing list
- the form in intended for a large audience, that may be using a wide range of browsers and devices
- your audience includes mobile phone users
- you expect a large number of form submissions
Event registration forms and survey forms may perform better when accessed buy URL on their own page.
- forms accessed by URL load faster and are more scalable
- they are statistically more reliable
- they offer more flexibility
- there are no sizing issues
A word of wisdom: Resist the temptation to systematically embed web forms on your site for irrational reasons “because it gives you more (apparent) control”. Some web forms perform better on their own page.
Placing the Embedding Code On Your Site
To embed a form into your website, visit the Forms tab, and click Embed to see the form code.
Copy the HTML code, then paste it somewhere in the HTML source of the
host page on your website or blog. If you’re using an online service like Blogger, that’s
all you have to do. Otherwise, you need to publish the page to your web server.
A word of warning: do not try to save the form as an HTML page, and publish that page. This will not work. You must paste the code exactly as given. Do not attempt to alter, remove, or hide the mention “web form by FormSmarts”, or the link to our Privacy Policy. This would be a breach of our Terms of Use, and your account would risk to be terminated without notice.
Changing a Form, Once the Code Is on Your Site
Any changes you make to a form using the form builder will show up straight away on your website. You do not need to update the embedding code. However, as a result of adding more fields, or changing a text box to a larger text area, the frame containing the form may no longer be high enough to fit the form. You will then need to re-publish the embedding code to your site. See the section about Form Sizing below.
Customizing Your Form
You can customize several aspects of your forms in the Form Details screen of your account.
Web Form Sizing
Why Is There Extra Space at the Bottom of the Form?
Forms are contained within an HTML frame (”iframe” for geeks). The frame has a fixed size, which is computed for each form, based on several factors, like the number and type of fields used, and the form layout chosen.
It is necessary to leave room at the bottom of the form for error messages that may need to be displayed during a form submission. That’s the reason for the extra space at the bottom of a form.
Manually Changing Form Height and Width
You can change the size of a web form widget by editing the value of the height and width attributes in the HTML snippet (a.k.a. form embed code) given by the form builder.
We do not recommend changing the height of forms. If you do, remember to allow extra space at the bottom of the form, as discussed in the previous section.
The width of embedded web forms can be resized down to 360px without side-effects, and should degrade well beyond that.
How Do I Get Rid of the Vertical Scrollbar
With time, you may need to add more fields to your forms, but forget to refresh the form HTML code on your site. Since the frame height is hard-coded into the code on your website, the form may no longer fit into the frame, and a vertical scrollbar will then appear. That is not desirable on a usability standpoint, so you are advised to update the code on your site whenever you add new fields, or change a text box to a text area.
Only One Form Per Page
It against our terms of service to embed more than one form in a given web page.
Posted on May 21st, 2008 in HTML form.
23 Comments »
Tags: embed, form builder, howto, web forms, widget
How to Advertise Your Form to a Mailing List
A number of users take advantage of our flexible web form platform to
advertise a FormSmarts-hosted survey form or event registration form by
email.
There are a few things to keep in mind if you wish to include a form URL
in a newsletter or mailing campaign:
- as specified in the terms of use, FormSmarts only allows advertising of a form URL by email for strict opt-in mailing lists
- you must be a verified form owner
- you may only reference the form by including its URL, and must not attempt to embed the form in an HTML email
If you intend to email more than 1,000 subscribers, ask for a permission beforehand. We may ask you to schedule your mailing at a specific time if the expected click-stream is high.
When contacting FormSmarts, please indicate:
- the rough number of subscribers of your list
- whether this is a one off or recurring mailing
- the date/time of your mailing(s)
- whether advertising the form is the main purpose of the mail
- whether you offer any incentives for form submissions
This information will help us estimate the server load to expect.
Posted on May 13th, 2008 in HTML form.
No Comments »
Tags: howto, mailing, web forms
Building Successful Web Forms, Part 1
Web forms play a key role for visitor (and customer) interaction on many
sites. However, many web designers don’t realize that there may be huge
differences in form abandonment ratio, depending on how well the form is
designed. In this post and follow ups, we’ll give you some tips to help
you make your web forms an effective communication channel.
Always provide form filling instructions.
Don’t assume that all of your visitors will understand how to submit a form without further explanation. Short and clear form filling instructions can reduce form abandonment, and increase the quality of the information collected.
- include a call to action phrase like “Please fill out this form to
contact XYZ” - indicate the purpose of the form and the recipient of the information collected
- if applicable, confirm that you will reply, and give an indication of the time frame
Select the correct data type for each input field.
Because of necessary form validation, choosing and incorrect data type may prevent a form user from submitting valid information. When this happens, it is likely to lead to form abandonment.
For example, if you specify that a form field can only contain a Number, it may not work for a phone number. 1233456789 will work, but not 123-345-6789. So use
the Phone type instead. In many cases, the form builder will
pre-select a type for you, but not always. Read
more about selecting an input field data type in the form builder documentation.
Choose the most appropriate input field widget.
Don’t restrict yourself to text boxes and drop-down lists. Take advantage of the full range of HTML form fields with radio buttons and checkboxes. Learn when to use each one.
Using a drop-down list for a yes/no question will slow down the form user, and increase the chances (s)he gives up. Use radio buttons instead. Read tips about choosing the best input field widget in the form builder documentation.
Brand your forms for instant visual recognition.
Always brand your web forms with your own logo. This helps visitors
recognize at first sight who they are about to send information to.
Posted on May 6th, 2008 in HTML form.
No Comments »
Tags: form builder, form design, howto, input field, web forms
