Creating Forms with FrontPage
FrontPage forms only work if you have the extensions. However, you can use FrontPage to create the form your visitors use with FrontPage, then use either a perl script or a JavaScript to direct the form input to your email.
You can create other types of forms for use with the FrontPage extensions such as a guest book or message board. Once you have mastered a basic mailto form, the rest will come easily.
Let's get started
To create a form, click Insert - Form - now what?! The last fly out gives us specific choices, depending on how we want to use the form.
We can choose:
- One Line Text Box — One line text boxes are used anyplace you want the visitor to type in a relatively small amount of text/numbers such as name or email address.
- Scrolling Text Box — A scrolling text box allows for a paragraph or two, such as a comments section in a guest book.
- Check Box — A check box is used when you want to allow your visitors to make multiple choices from a list of options, such as choosing the ages of their children, or what magazines they read from the list.
- Radio Button — Radio buttons are used when you want them to choose only one item from the list, such as their own age.
- Drop Down Menu — Drop Down Menus are used when the list of choices is fairly long, or you don't want to give a lot of space to it on your page. They are an excellent replacement for regular check boxes.
- Push Button — Push Buttons are used to send the contents of the form on their way to be processed. (We'll talk more about the functions of push buttons a little later).
- Label — Allows the visitor to click on the text next to a check box or radio button to activate it.
- Form — Pressing the form button at the top "begins" the form, without any of the other items. You will get a form with only a submit and reset button.