Information & Communication Technology

How to set up a Web Form

This page describes how to set up an HTML form, which can be completed electronically before being either printed and posted, or submitted electronically via email.

Examples

• New Theatre Membership Application (Print and Post)
• Ramin Communications Contact Us (Submit a Form via Email)

Depending on whether the form is to be printed or emailed, it is worth noting some points about Etiquette and Privacy.

If the form is to be accompanied by other material such as payment by Cheque or requires a signature, then it should be designed to be printed. Care should be taken to ensure efficient use of printer resources.

• Avoid heavy logos, which consume ink.
• Try to optimise the number of pages that will be used (based on 12 point Font)
• Ensure information on where to post the form as well as other identification/labelling including date the form was last amended appears on the printed form.

If the form is to be submitted, via Electronic Mail. Then there is a risk that the information could be read in transit unless it has been encrypted. This page does not cover the encryption of submission of secure forms.

Submitting a form, via email, works in situations when a direct "mailto" would not work, for example if the browser is not set up with the correspondents email address, as would be the case in a shared workstation. The form also allows you to ask specific questions and structure the information provided.

Setting up an HTML Form

W3C provides extensive information on HTML forms

• Forms in HTML documents
• Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0 - Forms
• HTML Forms and Input

Submitting an HTML form, via EMail

The FormMail.pl CGI script puts the contents of the form into an email.