What kind of interactive form are you trying to fill in and for what purpose.
Many roads lead to Chicago as Ted sings.
For example, one of my pet peeves for years was that I wanted some sort of interactive message form for phone messages. I was tired of all the pieces of paper and wanted and easier way to not only store and categorize phone messages but also to be able to email them and / or fax them. It was not as easy as I thought it would be but we finally got an awesome one.
We did it in Word 2000. (Word XP is like saying Word 2002. May of the same features.)
1. It pulls data from our database if the caller is in our database.
2. Automatically inserts their name, company name, address, phone(s), fax, etc.
2. Automatically inserts the date and time message was taken, the name of the one who took the message.
3. Has a large space for writing the message with all of Word's features.
4. Has a space for the message recipient to respond with "Results" or "comments" that they can fill in and send back to us.
5. Has a few "Radio buttons" where needed so we can just check the box, for example:
___ Message taken via phone
___ Message left on voice mail
It is a form that is custom made just for us. It has made life much easier and more efficient.
Lay out your form on a full size sheet of paper to start with. Then go from there trying to figure out what to do to accomplish your goal.
I am not an expert on forms. In fact ours is more of a template. They are similar I think.
One thing I learned from my limited experience is that Templates have the extension *****.dot
When you use the template and insert data into it you end up with a Word document with the extension ***.doc . The reason, of course is so that you do not over write your original template.
There is a lot of help on the internet. Maybe some of us here could help you with some basics.
I know that people have done some amazing things with forms. There may be some already pre made that you can download and modify.
Thanks for the help guys this sure is an exciting adventure for me that's for sure!
I am working on a form for Georgia Organics to use as part of a statewide survey of sustainable farmers. We have approximately 50 folks in my county who are involved in sust. ag. in some form or fashion and if the rest of the states demographics are similar to ours then there is a whole bunch of folks out there that we know nothing about.
Some of these will succeed some will not but by GO making contact with them and helping them to network, inviting them to seminars which are tailor made for them and promoting their products we will be doing our part in helping them to succeed. This is a drum I've been beating for several years now and is finally getting serious consideration (aka looking for funding).
There is a direct marketing position opening up in the immediate future (no I am not considering it) and I think this would be a fine fit with that job.
The form would need several tables for their address phone etc and another one for additional comments as well as a couple of check boxes and fill in boxes. Mostly stuff like how long have you been farming how many acres do you currently work and the all encompassing *what is the biggest issue or concern you are facing on your farm in 50 words or less*. Basicly what I want is a rough draft of the form with functional goodies to delight the eye, capture the imagination and hopefully provide a timely boost to it's inception.
My vision for this project is an all out effort to locate these guys via contacts at farmers markets, extension agents, conferences and any other means reasonably logical and practical; then to develop programs to meet their needs as well as building an online and print database of growers arranged by county for easy reference. But all I need now is a form...
I'll play with it this weekend. As and aside, what do I need on the other side of the form to recieve/read it? I'm assuming it doesn't just appear somewhere all by itself.
See GO (bless their lil ol hearts) has been using adobe for their online registration which meant/means that a conference attendee has to print the durn thing out n mail it in...
I would have to look into it further but you would probably want to have this Excel Everywhere form on YOUR website. Then it is probably sent back to you in the form of email or something like that. Sort of like a Feedback form.
I am not experienced in the area of web design or web sites but it doesn't appear to be too complex.
If you right-click on any web page, you should be able to see an option called "View Source" which lets you see the actual HTML that makes up the page. So, I took a look at their sample.
The problem with Excel Everywhere is that, although the forms are pure HTML and do not require the viewers to have Excel installed on their machine, the example given uses a Microsoft Front Page web-bot to do the actual email processing of the form. If you do not control your own web server (which has to be Windows NT/2000/2003 to use MS Front Page extensions--the Unix ones are flaky at best) you are out of luck--it won't work.
They appear to do it all for you in a secured log in environment. Why not pay them to do it professionally. The end user participating in the survey migh never know the difference.
I looked over their service's and they look helpful. From what I gather tho GO is going through a funding crunch, having to get an extension on a couple of grants due to the sudden departure (with books) of a previous director whose name oddly enuf was craig
In anycase I don't think we'll be recieving more than 200 responses which means the staff can process the info themselves (we have a great bunch of volunteers :)--> ).
I think I'll play with the excel spreadsheet this weekend n see what I can come up with.
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Steve!
Herbie, no prob.
Click on "Help", "Microsoft Word Help", then type in the keyword "form", because that's what it is.
Checkboxes and radio buttons are available as well, as well as drop down lists.
There should be step by step instructions, and maybe even a tutorial.
Good luck!
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igotout
Herbie,
What kind of interactive form are you trying to fill in and for what purpose.
Many roads lead to Chicago as Ted sings.
For example, one of my pet peeves for years was that I wanted some sort of interactive message form for phone messages. I was tired of all the pieces of paper and wanted and easier way to not only store and categorize phone messages but also to be able to email them and / or fax them. It was not as easy as I thought it would be but we finally got an awesome one.
We did it in Word 2000. (Word XP is like saying Word 2002. May of the same features.)
1. It pulls data from our database if the caller is in our database.
2. Automatically inserts their name, company name, address, phone(s), fax, etc.
2. Automatically inserts the date and time message was taken, the name of the one who took the message.
3. Has a large space for writing the message with all of Word's features.
4. Has a space for the message recipient to respond with "Results" or "comments" that they can fill in and send back to us.
5. Has a few "Radio buttons" where needed so we can just check the box, for example:
___ Message taken via phone
___ Message left on voice mail
It is a form that is custom made just for us. It has made life much easier and more efficient.
Lay out your form on a full size sheet of paper to start with. Then go from there trying to figure out what to do to accomplish your goal.
I am not an expert on forms. In fact ours is more of a template. They are similar I think.
One thing I learned from my limited experience is that Templates have the extension *****.dot
When you use the template and insert data into it you end up with a Word document with the extension ***.doc . The reason, of course is so that you do not over write your original template.
There is a lot of help on the internet. Maybe some of us here could help you with some basics.
I know that people have done some amazing things with forms. There may be some already pre made that you can download and modify.
Same with Excel.
PS - I, too, am a humble window cleaner.
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herbiejuan
Thanks for the help guys this sure is an exciting adventure for me that's for sure!
I am working on a form for Georgia Organics to use as part of a statewide survey of sustainable farmers. We have approximately 50 folks in my county who are involved in sust. ag. in some form or fashion and if the rest of the states demographics are similar to ours then there is a whole bunch of folks out there that we know nothing about.
Some of these will succeed some will not but by GO making contact with them and helping them to network, inviting them to seminars which are tailor made for them and promoting their products we will be doing our part in helping them to succeed. This is a drum I've been beating for several years now and is finally getting serious consideration (aka looking for funding).
There is a direct marketing position opening up in the immediate future (no I am not considering it) and I think this would be a fine fit with that job.
The form would need several tables for their address phone etc and another one for additional comments as well as a couple of check boxes and fill in boxes. Mostly stuff like how long have you been farming how many acres do you currently work and the all encompassing *what is the biggest issue or concern you are facing on your farm in 50 words or less*. Basicly what I want is a rough draft of the form with functional goodies to delight the eye, capture the imagination and hopefully provide a timely boost to it's inception.
My vision for this project is an all out effort to locate these guys via contacts at farmers markets, extension agents, conferences and any other means reasonably logical and practical; then to develop programs to meet their needs as well as building an online and print database of growers arranged by county for easy reference. But all I need now is a form...
Mikey
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igotout
Herbie - the first hought I had about this was that it might be good to do this in the context of a website devoted to your cause.
You could have people fill out an online survery. It is far reaching, more so than a paper form.
Look at this as an example:
Excel online survey forms
And look at this one for teachers:
Teachers survey form
And here is a company that appears to do all the work for you. Look at some of their sample surveys:
Online survey samples
Hope this gives you some ideas. I found the above examples by doing a simple Google search of online survey forms.
Please complete the following survey. Did the above information:
__ Help you
__ Bore you
__ Confuse you
__ Please go away and do not bother me
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herbiejuan
Thanks Igotout (thank god ya did bro!)
I particularly like that excel form.
I'll play with it this weekend. As and aside, what do I need on the other side of the form to recieve/read it? I'm assuming it doesn't just appear somewhere all by itself.
See GO (bless their lil ol hearts) has been using adobe for their online registration which meant/means that a conference attendee has to print the durn thing out n mail it in...
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igotout
I would have to look into it further but you would probably want to have this Excel Everywhere form on YOUR website. Then it is probably sent back to you in the form of email or something like that. Sort of like a Feedback form.
I am not experienced in the area of web design or web sites but it doesn't appear to be too complex.
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Zixar
If you right-click on any web page, you should be able to see an option called "View Source" which lets you see the actual HTML that makes up the page. So, I took a look at their sample.
The problem with Excel Everywhere is that, although the forms are pure HTML and do not require the viewers to have Excel installed on their machine, the example given uses a Microsoft Front Page web-bot to do the actual email processing of the form. If you do not control your own web server (which has to be Windows NT/2000/2003 to use MS Front Page extensions--the Unix ones are flaky at best) you are out of luck--it won't work.
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igotout
Yes, Zixar, I would think it has to work within the context of a web site as you described, one with Front Page extensions installed.
There always seem to be somebody somewhere who provides a service for just about anything for a fee. (What a great country.)
So, Herbie, what about that other site, the 3rd one I listed. Di you check it out: http://www.parnova.com/samples/index.html
They appear to do it all for you in a secured log in environment. Why not pay them to do it professionally. The end user participating in the survey migh never know the difference.
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herbiejuan
I looked over their service's and they look helpful. From what I gather tho GO is going through a funding crunch, having to get an extension on a couple of grants due to the sudden departure (with books) of a previous director whose name oddly enuf was craig
In anycase I don't think we'll be recieving more than 200 responses which means the staff can process the info themselves (we have a great bunch of volunteers
:)--> ).
I think I'll play with the excel spreadsheet this weekend n see what I can come up with.
Mike
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