Understanding Form Fields
One of the keys to creating a form is the creation of fields. There are many different types of fields, including text boxes, text areas, option buttons, list menus, and push buttons. In addition to these fields, there are also Advanced Buttons, which you can customize through font and color selection, and Group Boxes, which you can use to segregate clusters of related controls into one group. Password fields are basically one-line text boxes used to add passwords to your site so that you can restrict access (to charge for membership, for example). When a site visitor enters their password, it appears on screen as a collection of asterisks to secure confidentiality.
After you've decided what types of fields to add to the form, you can define what you want them to do and how you want them to look. You can even set properties for each field, such as the length of a text field, or the available options on a list menu. You can insert form fields using the Form submenu on the Insert menu. If an item on the Form submenu is grayed out, the command is not available. You need a Web server equipped with FrontPage Server Extensions or SharePoint Team Services to active the commands. After you create a form, you have to determine how to collect and display the visitor data.
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Text Box | Enter short, one line text, such as a name | Text Area | Enter multiple line text, such as a comment | File Upload | Upload a file provided by the visitor | Check Box | Select between two values, such as yes/no | Option Button | Select one value from a list of values | Group Box | A titled border that surrounds a group of related elements | Drop-Down Box | Select an item from a list of several choices | Push Button | A button that executes an action | Advanced Button | A button that executes an action, yet also displays HTML content on the front | Picture Form Field | A picture | Label | An invisible element that surrounds a form field and its title | Hidden | An invisible element that the browser uses to execute an action |
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