What’s all this Form Stuff??
A form is a collection of fields that you use for gathering information from people visiting your Web site. Site visitors fill out a form by typing text, clicking radio buttons and check boxes, and selecting options from drop-down menus. After filling out the form, site visitors submit the data they entered, which can be processed in a variety of ways depending on the form handler you set up.

The steps in creating a form are:
1.       Decide what kind of information to collect, and then start a form.

2.     Add fields to the form.

3.     Set data entry rules for your form fields.

4.     Set up how you want to handle the information you collect from the form.

5.     Set up a confirmation page.

The first step is to decide what kind of form you want to create, and what kind of information you want to gather with it. Forms have a variety of uses, such as:

• Gathering contact information.
• Receiving requests.
• Collecting order, shipping, and billing information.
• Getting feedback.
• Setting up a guest book.
• Letting visitors search your Web site by typing a query.
• Prompting visitors to log in to a Web site with a user name and password.

Create a form
You can create a form anywhere on a page outside of an existing form. Microsoft FrontPage inserts a rectangular area outlined with a dashed line where you can add text and form fields, such as text boxes, radio buttons, check boxes, drop-down menus, and push buttons.

A submit button and a reset button are also included in the form. Site visitors click the submit button after filling out a form, and the information they enter is sent to the form handler you set up. By default, the form results are saved to a text file. Site visitors click the reset button to reset the form to its default state by deleting any text they have entered and clearing any selections they have made.

• On the Insert menu, point to Form, and then click Form.

• The time or date the form was submitted
• The name or IP address of the site visitor's computer
• The site visitor's user name
• The type of Web browser used by the site visitor

2.     Click Options, and then click the Saved Fields tab.

The names of all the fields in your form are listed in the Form fields to save list.

o        Select any field that you do not want saved in the form results, and then press DELETE.

o        To save the date or time the form was submitted with the form results, select formats from the Date format and Time format lists.

o        Select any additional types of information you want to save in the form results
 

Add a radio button to a form
When you want a site visitor to select one option in a group, add radio buttons to your form. Only one radio button in a group can be selected at a time. Click the radio buttons below to see how they work.

When the form is submitted, the group name and value assigned to the selected radio button are included in the form results. If no radio button is selected, the group name is included, but the value is blank.

1.       In Page view, click in the form where you want to place the radio button. You can insert a new line by pressing ENTER.

Note   By default, if you place a field outside of a form, a new form area will be created with submit and reset buttons, and the field will be inserted inside the form. You can disable this feature if you want to use fields with scripts rather than inside forms.

2.     On the Insert menu, point to Form, and then click Radio Button.

3.     Type the label for the radio button directly on the form.

4.     Double-click the radio button to set its properties.

5.     In the Group name box, type a name to identify the group to which this radio button belongs. This internal name will be visible to the site visitor on the default confirmation page, which is displayed when you use a form handler rather than a custom script.

6.     In the Value box, type the value to associate with this field. If this radio button is selected, this value is returned with the form results, and is displayed on the default confirmation page.

7.     Click Selected under Initial state if you want the radio button to be selected by default when a site visitor first opens the form.

Repeat this procedure for each radio button you want to add to the group.
 

Add a one-line text box to a form
When you want to accept one line of information from a site visitor, add a one-line text box to your form. Type in the text box below to see how it works.

After you place a one-line text box on your form, assign it an internal name. An internal name is not displayed on the form, but identifies the field in the form results.

When the form is submitted, the name and contents of the field are included in the form results.

1.       In Page view, click in the form where you want to place the text box. You can insert a new line by pressing ENTER.

Note   By default, if you place a field outside of a form, a new form area will be created with submit and reset buttons, and the field will be inserted inside the form. You can disable this feature if you want to use fields with scripts rather than inside forms.

2.     On the Insert menu, point to Form, and then click One-Line Text Box.

3.     Type the label for the text box directly on the form.

4.     Double-click the text box to set its properties.

5.     In the Name box, type a name to identify the text box. This internal name will be visible to the site visitor on the default confirmation page, which is displayed when you use a form handler rather than a custom script.

6.     If you want text to appear in the text box when a site visitor first opens the form, type the text in the Initial value box.

7.     In the Width in characters box, type a number indicating how many characters wide you want the box to be.
 

Add a scrolling text box to a form
Add a scrolling text box to your form when you want to accept multiple lines of text from a site visitor. Type in the text box below to see how it works.

After you add a scrolling text box to your form, assign it an internal name and specify its size. An internal name is not displayed on the form, but identifies the field in the form results.

When the form is submitted, the field's name and contents are included in the form results.

1.       In Page view, click in the form where you want to place the text box. You can insert a new line by pressing ENTER.

Note   By default, if you place a field outside of a form, a new form area will be created with submit and reset buttons, and the field will be inserted inside the form. You can disable this feature if you want to use fields with scripts rather than inside forms.

2.     On the Insert menu, point to Form, and then click Scrolling Text Box.

3.     Type the label for the text box directly on the form.

4.     Double-click the text box to set its properties.

5.     In the Name box, type a name to identify the text box. This internal name will be visible to the site visitor on the default confirmation page, which is displayed when you use a form handler rather than a custom script.

6.     If you want text to appear in the text box when a site visitor first opens the form, type the text in the Initial value box.

7.     In the Width in characters box, type a number indicating how many characters wide you want the text box to be.

8.     In Number of lines, type a number indicating how many lines of text high you want the text box to be.

Add a check box to a form
Add check boxes to your form when you want a site visitor to select one or more items, or none at all. Click the check boxes below to see how they work.

After you place a check box on your form, assign an internal name to it. An internal name is not displayed on the form, but identifies the field in the form results. Assign a value to the check box and specify whether it should be selected by default.

When the form is submitted, if the check box has been selected, its internal name and value are included in the results. Otherwise, only the internal name is included, and the value is blank.

1.       In Page view, click in the form where you want to place the check box. You can insert a new line by pressing ENTER.

Note   By default, if you place a field outside of a form, a new form area will be created with submit and reset buttons, and the field will be inserted inside the form. You can disable this feature if you want to use fields with scripts rather than inside forms.

2.     On the Insert menu, point to Form, and then click Check Box.

3.     Type the label for the check box directly on the form.

4.     Double-click the check box to set its properties.

5.     In the Name box, type a name to identify the check box. This internal name will be visible to the site visitor on the default confirmation page, which is displayed when you use a form handler rather than a custom script.

6.     In the Value box, type the value to associate with this field. When the check box is selected, this value is returned with the form results, and is displayed on the default confirmation page.

7.     Click Checked under Initial state if you want the check box to be selected by default when a site visitor first opens the form.
 

Add a drop-down menu to a form
When you want a site visitor to choose options from a list or menu, add a drop-down menu to your form. You can set the properties of the menu so that only one choice can be made, or you can allow multiple choices. Click the drop-down menus below to see how they work.

After you place a drop-down menu on your form, assign an internal name to it and specify the choices that you want displayed in the menu. An internal name is not displayed on the form, but identifies the field in the form results.

When the form is submitted, the name of the menu is included in the form results, followed by a list of values for the selected choices.

1.       In Page view, click in the form where you want to place the drop-down menu. You can insert a new line by pressing ENTER.

Note   By default, if you place a field outside of a form, a new form area will be created with submit and reset buttons, and the field will be inserted inside the form. You can disable this feature if you want to use fields with scripts rather than inside forms.

2.     On the Insert menu, point to Form, and then click Drop-Down Menu.

3.     Type the label for the drop-down menu directly on the form.

4.     Double-click the drop-down menu to set its properties.

5.     In the Name box, type a name to identify the drop-down menu. This internal name will be visible to the site visitor on the default confirmation page, which is displayed when you use a form handler rather than a custom script.

6.     Add the choices you want to display in the drop-down menu:

o        Click Add.

o        In the Choice box, type an option you want to display in the drop-down menu.

o        If you want the value for this choice to be different from the text displayed in the drop-down itself, select Specify value, and then type the value in the box. For example, a choice in the menu could be No, but the value returned in the form results could be 2.

o        Click Selected under Initial state if you want the choice to be selected by default when a site visitor first opens the form.

o        Click OK.

Repeat this step for each choice you want to add.

You can also change the order in which choices are displayed by clicking a choice in the list, and then clicking the Move Up or Move Down button.

7.     In the Height box, type how many lines of text you want displayed in the drop-down box. For example, if the drop-down menu has three options, you can set the height to 3 so that all choices are visible.

8.     Click Yes under Allow multiple selections if you want to allow multiple selections in the drop-down menu. If you click No, the site visitor will be able to make one choice only.
 

Add a hit counter to a page
A hit counter tallies and displays the number of times a page has been visited. For example, add a hit counter to your home page so that you and site visitors can see how many times your Web site has been visited.

Microsoft FrontPage provides several styles of counters, but you can supply your own number graphics by creating a custom picture in GIF format. The picture must include numbers 0 to 9, evenly spaced.

Note   A hit counter works only for pages in a web, and requires your Web server to run the FrontPage Server Extensions.

1.       In Page view, position the insertion point where you want to place the hit counter.

2.     On the Insert menu, point to Component, and then click Hit Counter.

3.     Under Counter Style, click the type of hit counter you want to use. If you click Custom Picture, type the relative location of the GIF file, for example Images/Custom.gif.

4.     To set the counter to a specific number, select the Reset counter to box, and then type the number.

5.     To display a fixed number of digits in the hit counter, select the Fixed number of digits box, and then type the number. For example, to display 005 rather than 5, select this option and type 3.

[HitCounter] is displayed on the page as a placeholder for the hit counter. To see how the hit counter will appear to site visitors, click the Preview tab, or preview the page in a Web browser.
 

Choose Form Properties:

Choose Options and type in the pertinent information in the three fields:
 
 

Choose Form Properties:

Choose Options

 
 

Choose Email Results Tab

You can optionally set up your own confirmation page.  If you would like to do so, specify this page here like in the below example:

Choose Saved Fields Tab and specify which fields you would like saved and sent to you via email here: