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FormSmarts Compared with Other Form Handlers

What’s specific about FormSmarts form handler? Compared with other web form handlers, FormSmarts may not offer yet the richest set of features. We currently only deliver form results by email, although other form delivery methods are under development.

We believe our Ajax-based form builder allows our users—including those with little technical knowledge—to get an HTML form ready in very little time, and that’s something we wanted. Simplicity, efficiency and usability were our primary design goals.

That being said, FormSmarts is best viewed as a web spam blocker with form handling features, rather than a form handler with form spam prevention features.

Form accessibility is another strong point of FormSmarts: our web forms are usable by anyone, using any HTML-capable browser.

Unlike most other form handlers available today, FormSmarts was puposedly designed to block form spam. We didn’t simply add a CAPTCHA to an old formmail script. The same applies to our form builder: our care for usability and accessibility didn’t come as an afterthought.

Posted on Dec 9th, 2007 in form handler.
1 Comment
Tags: form builder, web forms

Adding Form Filling Instructions to Your Web Forms

You can specify Form Filling Instructions for your web forms. Although this field is optional, we encourage you to make use of it. It will help your visitors complete the form more efficiently, and also help you build trust with them. Here are some information you may want to place in the Form Filling Instructions.

Remind users of the purpose of the form to avoid people submitting the wrong form.

Precise the intended content of particular fields. This will help your visitors complete the form accurately and efficiently.

State for which purposes you will use the data submitted, and whether the data will be shared with a third party. This is particularly important if you collect email addresses and other personally identifying information. People are often concerned about their privacy when submitting forms, so having a clear privacy policy will help build trust with your users.

Include the name of your website, so visitors can be confident they are contacting the right person or organization.

Whenever relevant, give an estimated response time, e.g. “we normally reply within 2 working days”.

Links & Formatting

You may insert links in the form filling instructions and add basic formatting with this wiki-like syntax.

Posted on Dec 6th, 2007 in form builder.
6 Comments
Tags: form design, howto, privacy, usability, web forms

Form Field Data-Type Guessing

The type of a form field defines the range of values it may contain. Using an appropriate datatype for each input field is important to allow correct form validation. FormSmarts form spam filter also behaves differently, depending on the data expected for each field.

To prevent common mistakes, FormSmarts Form Creator now tries to infer the correct field type from the name you specify. However, if you are unsure about what type is best for a particular field, read the help page.

Posted on Dec 4th, 2007 in form builder.
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Tags: form spam, form validation, web forms

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