Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Jotform: Creating a Form

After logging in to Jotform.com - you're ready to create your first form! All of this is straight from the JotForm User Guide found here.

Text-Instructions:

1. Think about what to ask first

First of all, think about what kind of questions to ask to our visitors. The best web forms convert much more by keeping it short & simple. Many users will simply abandon the form if it has too many questions. So keep your web forms as short & clear as possible.

2. State the purpose on the heading

Although you know why you're creating this web form, a confused visitor might land on the web page without knowing what your form does. So, put a short heading such as "Contact Us" to your form.

Put extra info in the sub-heading.


3. Use predefined quick tools for common fields (name, email, address etc.)

Next, ask the name & email address of the visitor. Simply click on "Quick Tools" menu and add the name & email fields.


4. Use a text area for long answers (comments, description etc.)

A large comment box allows visitors write detailed comments on it. Click on "Text Area" on the left "Form Tools" menu to add a new text area. Change its name to "Comments".


5. Setting up email notifications

Setting up email notifications to get instant emails when someone completes our form is a handy feature. Use the top toolbar to setup a new email notification. Click on the "Setup & Share" tab on the toolbar.

 
Then click on "Email Alerts" button and then select "Add New Email".
 
The "Email Wizard" will launch. Since you're creating an email that'll come to you, select "Notification Email". The "Autoresponder Email" option is useful when you need to send a confirmation email to a user who submits the form.
The second page of the "Email Wizard" is for entering your email address. Enter your email address to the bottom right corner of the envelope get email notifications.
 
The third and last page of the "Email Wizard" is to enter the subject and message for the email you will receive. You can leave it as it is since it already contains all of the questions on the form. Adding the "Name" to the subject as shown below might be a good idea which will make it easier for you to find an email notification easily on your email account.
 







Click on "Finish" to complete and save your new email notification.

6. Embed your form to a web site

Integrating your form to a web site is crucial for collecting data continuously.

Click on "Embed Form" button on the top toolbar.
 







Click on "Embed" button in the "Embed Form" wizard to get the tiny javascript code to embed your form to your web site.
 

Copy & paste this code into your web within the body tags usually and your form will be integrated the moment you save in your editor.

7. Test your web form & see it working

Test your form on your live web site to see that you're getting notifications to your email and your JotForm inbox. If anything doesn't come through return back and check your steps correctly.


Congratulations on setting up your first web form. Return to this article anytime if you get lost. Tell us your experience on creating your first web form in the comments section below.
 
 
 
 

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