Forms may seem like a really tricky part of HTML, but you will find that it can be a simple matter to create a useful feedback form for your Web site. You don't need to know CGI or programming to do it.
Tools For Building an HTML Form
- a text editor
You can use your favorite HTML editor, but you should be able to manipulate form items and attributes. - a Web page you want feedback on (and a server location for your feedback page)
- an email address to receive the feedback
- 30 minutes of free time
Steps to Build an HTML Form
- Open your text editor to create a blank page
- Build the main page container elements
<html>
<head>
<title>Feedback Form</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff"> - Give your page a heading.
<h1>Feedback Form</h1>
- Start your form. Your form tag will have a couple of special elements:
- action="mailto:your email address"
This will send the form results to your email address (be sure to change it to your personal address) - method="get"
This sends it all as one request to the mail program (the post method has some unusual results in most browsers) - enctype="text/plain"
This makes the results readable in your email box
<form action="mailto:your email address" method="get" enctype="text/plain">
- action="mailto:your email address"
- Add the questions to your form. My feedback form will have 3 questions: name, rating, and comments.
Name: <input type="text" name="name" size="30" /><br />
Please rate my site from 1 to 10 (1 = bad and 10 = good): <br />
<select name="rating"><br />
<option>1</option>
<option>2</option>
<option>3</option>
<option>4</option>
<option>5</option>
<option>6</option>
<option>7</option>
<option>8</option>
<option>9</option>
<option selected>10</option>
</select><br />
How would you suggest I improve it?<br />
<textarea name="improve" rows="5" cols="30"></textarea><br />
<input type="submit" value="Send Feedback" /> <input type="reset" /> - Don't forget to close your form:
</form>
- Put the final closing HTML tags on your Web page:
</body>
</html> - Upload your form to your Web site.
- Validate your HTML to make sure that you haven't made any typos or other errors.
- Link to your form.
Congratulations! You now have a working feedback form on your site! You can see my form in action, or just view the form HTML.
