HTML Forms

HTML Author will allow you to build forms using the facilities provided in the Forms toolbar. To obtain this toolbar, use the Toolbars option in the View menu. For an explanation of HTML forms and how they work, see the following documents: Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0 or HyperText Markup Language Specification Version 3.0.

For an example of an HTML Author generated form, see the HTML Author Comment Form. An image file is available showing appearance of this form in HTML Author

In HTML Author, Forms start with a Start Of Form marker and end with an End Of Form marker. These may be created with the corresponding buttons in the Forms Toolbar, and all fields in the form should be placed between the two markers. HTML Author will check for correct placing of form elements when the HTML file is generated. The markers are shown in the source document as a grey horizontal bar across the page, containing the words "Start of Form" or "End of Form" respectively.

The Start of Form marker holds the Method and Action details for the form itself, and the specifications for any hidden input fields. These may be entered and edited using the dialogue box (shown below), which is obtained either by clicking on the Start Form button in the Forms toolbar or double clicking on an existing Start of Form marker.

Hidden fields may be added to the form by filling in the name and value in the respective dialogue box fields, and pressing the Add button. These will be inserted into the form immediately after the HTML FORM tag. The Enctype field is not usually needed and should normally be left blank.

Note. HTML Author uses embedded Word drawings to represent the appearance of the more complex form elements. It sometimes takes time for Word to update these drawings in the document.

The form element types supported by HTML Author are: INPUT, TEXTAREA and SELECT. These are described briefly in the following sections.

For a form to be useful, it will be necessary to set up an appropriate CGI script at the server end. It is outside the scope of this manual to discuss the implementation of cgi scripts.