Archive for the ‘form builder’ Category
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.
No Comments »
Tags: widget
Form Color Settings
Like many FormSmarts users, you may sometimes want to customize the style of your web forms. This may be because you want the forms to match the rest of your website, or because you want a form to stand out on a web page.
The form builder now allows you to change the text and background color of your forms. Visit the Form Details window in the Forms tab to set color preferences for a particular form.
Things to note:
- color settings only affect embedded forms, not forms access by their FormSmarts URL
- because your color settings are stored in our servers, you can change settings and see the result immediately. You don’t need to update the form code on your website.
How to Change Form Colors
- By default, form text is black, and form background is transparent. This should fit the needs of most users, and if you’re happy with this, you don’t need to do anything.
- If you do want to change a color, the easiest way is to choose one of the popular colors we’ve preselected. Just click on the color you want.
- If you prefer to use your own colors, you may type any valid 6-digit HTML color code directly. For example, 808080 is a shade of gray.
Usability Note
It’s important to preserve the accessibility of your forms to visually impaired visitors, and their usability under poor reading conditions (e.g. bright sunshine). Always keep a high color contrast.
Posted on July 6th, 2008 in form builder.
4 Comments »
Tags: embed, form builder, usability, web forms, widget
Form Owner Verification with Google Page Creator
To verify you own a website, we ask you to create a file with a specific name on your web host. If you use Google Page Creator, proceed as follows to verify your site:
- create a new page
- enter the verification file name (e.g. syronex8800…2523.html) as the page title
- publish the new page
Form ownership verification is optional but recommended to build trust with your visitors. It is required you intend to advertise a web form URL by email.
Recent Issues with Google Page Creator
Although hundreds of Google Page Creator users have successfully verified their site, we’ve had a few issues in the last few days. Google was redirecting some of the requests to googlepages.com to the same page on google.com, thus preventing us to check the verification file exists. We obviously have a limited scope for action, but we identified a likely cause and took technical measures that seem to have solved the problem. Leave a comment if you experience any more problems.
Posted on July 2nd, 2008 in form builder.
1 Comment »
Tags: embed, form builder, google page creator, widget
Ever Wished You Could Reorder Fields?
The set of form-making operations supported by FormSmarts form builder was up to now almost complete, allowing to:
- create a form
- delete a form
- edit form properties (name, title, return URL, form filling instructions, recipient email account)
- add a form input field
- delete a field
- edit field properties (name, description, field type, input widget, optional/required)
The last unsupported operation was to allow users to easily change the order in which fields appear on a form. This is often needed to:
- group fields logically
- group optional fields together at the bottom of a form
- insert a field in a existing form
- move fields around to increase the visual appeal of a form
Reordering fields manually is tedious, as it involves deleting and re-creating fields.
No more. Reordering fields is now a trivial drag & drop: in the fields tab, drag the field you want to move, and drop it in the position you want.
As usual, we welcome your comments and suggestions about this feature.
Posted on June 20th, 2008 in form builder.
1 Comment »
Tags: form builder, form design, input field
Form Recipient Management Now Available
You can manage the email addresses registered on your FormSmarts account in the Settings tab, under Form Recipients.
Adding a Form Recipient
A new email address you’ve just added to your account is shown as Unverified. Once you’ve visited the verification link emailed to you, its status will change to Verified. Note: you will need to refresh the table if you opened the verification link in a new window.
Changing the Recipient of a Form
When you create a new form, results are sent to the login email address by default. To have a form sent to another email account, create a new recipient (Form Recipients option in the Settings tab), and then edit form details (Forms tab) to change the recipient for that form. A recipient must be verified before it can be used as a form recipient.
A form may only have one recipient. See this comment.
Changing Your Login Email
You can set any of the verified email addresses registered on your account as your FormSmarts login. There is one restriction: you can’t set an email address as you login if it’s already the login for another account.
A key icon is displayed next to your login email address.
Note: any email addresses that you use as login or form recipient has the Active status, and can’t be deleted.
Give Feedback!
We welcome your feedback about this feature. This will help us improve it in the future.
Posted on June 16th, 2008 in form builder.
6 Comments »
Tags: form builder, form recipient
