How to create a questionnaire in FrontPage 2000

What's related > Receiving user-submitted data as tab-delimited text

This document shows you how to create a sample questionnaire in FrontPage 2000 using one-line text boxes, radio buttons that only allow one choice to made, and drop-down menus that can allow multiple choices.

You should avoid using check boxes as no data will be sent if the user fails to check a box - there is no validation in FrontPage for checkboxes. This will be a problem if you additionally specify to receive the user-submitted data in tab-delimited format as the missing check box values will upset the order of the data when you paste it into a spreadsheet or database.

The three documents on using mailform to create basic, standard, and validated forms will introduce you to using forms in FrontPage 2000.

'Receiving user-submitted data as tab-delimited text' explains how to copy and paste the information you receive by email into a spreadsheet or database.

The 'Tips' section at the end of this document is worth reading.

  1. Position the cursor at the location where you want your questionnaire to appear and select
    'Insert', 'Form', 'One-line text box':

    Screenshot of a one-line text box form

    Text description
    Screenshot of a one-line text box form.
  2. As you don't want the user to accidentally reset all of the form field values, select the 'Reset' button and press 'Delete':

    Screenshot of the form with the 'Reset' button deleted

    Text description
    Screenshot of the form with the 'Reset' button deleted.
  3. Position the cursor immediately after the 'Submit' button and press the left arrow key twice to move the cursor to the start of the form.
  4. Insert within the form a table of two columns and four rows. Set the table border to '1', the cell padding to '5', and the cell spacing to '0':

    Screenshot of the form and 4x2 table

    Text description
    Screenshot of the form and 4x2 table.
  5. Select and drag the one-line text box to the second column of the first row:

    Screenshot of the table now containing the text box

    Text description
    Screenshot of the table now containing the text box.
  6. In the first column, beside the text box, type 'Your Name' and align the paragraph to the right.
  7. In the column immediately beneath type 'Your Sex' and align this paragraph to the right.
  8. Position the cursor in the second column of the second row and select 'Insert', 'Form', 'Radio Button'. Type 'Male' beside the button and then press the space bar three times. Select 'Insert', 'Form', 'Radio Button' again and type 'Female' alongside.
  9. Right-click the first radio button, select 'Form Field Properties' and set the properties as follows:

    Screenshot of the 'Radio Button Properties' window with the Group name set as 'Sex', the Value set as 'Male', and the initial state set as 'Not selected'

    Text description
    Screenshot of the 'Radio Button Properties' window with the Group name set as 'Sex', the Value set as 'Male', and the initial state set as 'Not selected'.

    Be sure to change the initial state to 'Not selected'. Click 'OK'.
  10. Select the second radio button and enter the values as above but set the value as 'Female' instead.
  11. The name field has been left optional but to ensure that the user specifies gender, you need to add validation. Right-click the first radio button and select 'Form Field Validation'. Check the 'Data required' check box and enter 'Your Sex' as the display name.
  12. Your form should now appear as follows:

    Screenshot of the form with the radio buttons added

    Text description
    Screenshot of the form with the radio buttons added.
  13. Position the cursor in the first column of the third row and type 'Which search engines do you use? [Multiple selections are allowed]'. In browsers running on Windows, users can select more than one option by holding down the control key and then clicking on the additional values. Mac users can select multiple values by holding down the option key instead of the control key. Unix users can just click on desired options. You should mention these various ways of selecting multiple options in the introduction to your questionnaire when you come to create it.
  14. Move the cursor to the second column the third row and select 'Insert', 'Form', 'Drop-down Menu'. Then right-click the drop-down menu, select 'Form Field Properties' and enter the 'Name' as shown below.

    Click 'Add' and the 'Add Choice' window will appear. Add the choices shown below, tick the 'Specify Value' checkbox so that the 'Value' is the same as the 'Choice' and set the 'Initial State' as 'Not selected'.  Click 'OK' to close the 'Add Choice' window..

    Set the height value as '4' so that all the options are visible and select 'Yes' to 'Allow multiple selections'. Click 'OK' to close the 'Drop-Down Menu Properties' window.

    Screenshot of the 'Drop-Down Menu Properties' window with the Name set as 'Search_Engines_Used' and the options set as 'Altavista', 'Dogpile', 'Google', 'Yahoo'. None of the options are set as 'Selected'.

    Text description
    Screenshot of the 'Drop-Down Menu Properties' window with the Name set as 'Search_Engines_Used' and the options set as 'Altavista', 'Dogpile', 'Google', 'Yahoo'. None of the options are set as 'Selected'.
  15. To ensure that the user chooses an option, right-click the drop-down menu and select 'Form Field Validation'. Check the 'Data required' check box and enter 'Which search engines do you use' as the display name.
  16. The form should now appear as follows:

    Screenshot of the form now including the drop-down menu

    Text description
    Screenshot of the form now including the drop-down menu.
  17. To add a Likert 1-to-5 bipolar response scale question, click in the first column of the last row and enter 'How do you rate your experience of using the Internet? [1=low, 5=high]'.
  18. Right-click in the second column of the last row and select 'Split Cells'. Choose 'Split into columns'  and set the number of columns as '5'.
  19. Select all five of the new cells, right-click and choose 'Cell Properties'. In order to space the columns evenly, check that the specified width is '10' in percent.
  20. Next position the cursor in the first of the new columns and select 'Insert', 'Form', 'Radio Button'. Once the radio button has been inserted, create a new line by holding down the shift key and then press return. Type '1' and then press the 'center' icon on the main toolbar to centre the radio button and the number.
  21. Repeat the last step for the remaining four columns, numbering each radio button in ascending order.
  22. Right-click the first of the five radio buttons, select 'Form Field Properties', and set the values as follows:

    Screenshot of the 'Radio Button Properties' window with the Group Name set as 'Internet Experience', the Value set as '1', and the Initial state set as 'Not selected'.

    Text description
    Screenshot of the 'Radio Button Properties' window with the Group Name set as 'Internet Experience', the Value set as '1', and the Initial state set as 'Not selected'.
  23. Repeat the last step for the four remaining buttons, keeping the group name as 'Internet_Experience' and the initial state as 'Not selected' but incrementing the 'value' to match the text below the button.
  24. To ensure that the user completes this question, right-click the first radio button and select 'Form Field Validation'. Check the 'Data required' check box and enter 'How do you rate your experience of using the Internet' as the display name.

    Your form should now appear as below:

    Screenshot of the form now including the five radio buttons that comprise the Likert scale example.

    Text description
    Screenshot of the form now including the five radio buttons that comprise the Likert scale example.
  25. You now need to specify where to send the form. Right-click anywhere in the form and select 'Form Properties'. Select 'Send to other', 'Custom ISAPI, NSAPI, CGI, or ASP Script'.
  26. Click 'Options' and enter as the 'Action', 'http://www.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/mailform'. Leave the method as 'POST' and the encoding type blank. Click 'OK.
  27. Click 'Advanced' 'and then click 'Add' and enter 'email_subject' as the Name and whatever you want to appear as the subject of the email you'll receive as the Value. E.g. ''Example Questionnaire'.

    You must use lowercase letters for all Names and separate the words with underscores '_'.
  28. Click 'Add' again and enter 'recipient' as the Name and the first part of your full email up to '@lse.ac.uk' as the Value. The server will automatically add '@lse.ac.uk' for you. You are restricted to using LSE email accounts.
  29. If you want the email to also include the user submitted data as tab-delimited text, click 'Add' and enter 'tab_format' as the Name and 'yes' as the Value.
  30. If you want the email to only include the user submitted data values as tab-delimited text, without  paragraphs or the names associated with values, click 'Add' and enter 'tab_format_only' as the Name and 'yes' as the Value.
  31. If you want the users to be taken to a 'Thank You' page once they have submitted the page, you can specify this by again clicking 'Add' and entering the Name as 'sent_page' and the value as the full location of your acknowledgment page, e.g. 'http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/your-dept/questionnaire-thanks.htm'.
  32. Finally, click 'OK' till you close the Form Properties window, save the page and publish it to the Web server.

Here's how the completed form appears in a user's browser:

Example questionnaire

Your Name

Your Sex

Male   Female

Which search engines do you use?
[Multiple selections are allowed]

How do you rate your experience of using the Internet
[1=low, 5=high]


1


2


3


4


5

Tips

Once you have published the form to the server, test that you can receive the data and if you are intending to post the tab-delimited results into a spreadsheet, check with a couple of test messages that the data appears in the correct spreadsheet columns. Just to recap, don't use check boxes in your form as unchecked data won't be sent and will cause the data to be incorrectly entered when pasted into a spreadsheet or database.

You may want to add an additional hidden value as you did for the 'recipient' but this time as a end-of-text marker:

  1. In your spreadsheet or database create an additional column that will just contain the end-of text marker.
  2. Open your questionnaire page in FrontPage and right-click anywhere in the form and select 'Form Properties'
  3. Click the 'Advanced' button and then 'Add'
  4. Enter 'end_of_text' as the Name and 'eot' as the Value
  5. Click 'OK' to close the 'Name/Value Pair' window
  6. Click 'OK' to close the 'Advanced Form Properties' window
  7. Click 'OK' to close the 'Form Properties' window
  8. Save the page and publish it to the Web server

'Receiving user-submitted data as tab-delimited text' describes how to copy and paste the tab-text into a spreadsheet or database.

If you find that the 'eot' text is in the last column of the text you can be reasonably sure that the data has been entered correctly. 

In browsers running on Windows, users can select more than one option by holding down the control key and then clicking on the additional values. Mac users can select multiple values by holding down the option key instead of the control key. Unix users can just click on desired options. You should mention these various ways of selecting multiple options in the introduction to your questionnaire.

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