Any of the text in red is meant to be stripped away entirely. It's just here to explain what each part of the template is about. You should delete all the red text when you're finished authoring your form. BE SURE NOT TO DELETE THE YELLOW TAG ICON AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE. That's the tag that establishes the fact that this whole page is a form. Without it, this is just another web page.

Put the Name of the Form Here

Put the instructions for the form here.

Don't delete any of the twelve tags under the title. Each has a purpose and some must be edited in order to make the form work for you. We'll explain each tag, one at a time.

To edit each tag in Composer, double-click on it and look at the dialog box that pops up.

TAG 1
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="your_email_address"
VALUE="gwashington@whitehouse.gov">

Do not change the NAME part. Put your own e-mail address inside the quotes in the VALUE part. This is the address to which the form results will be sent.

TAG 2
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="your_name"
VALUE="George Washington">

Do not change the NAME part. Put your own name inside the quotes in the VALUE part.This is the name that will appear in the To: field when the form data is mailed to you.

TAG 3
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="email_subject_line"
VALUE="Response from test form">

Do not change the NAME part. Put some descriptive phrase inside the quotes in the VALUE part.This is the text that will appear in the Subject: field when the form data is mailed to you. Since all mail coming to you from this form will have this subject line, you can have your mailer program look for this phrase and file it away in a particular folder.

TAG 4
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="required_fields" VALUE="your_email_address">

Do not change any of this.

TAG 5
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="thank_you_title"
VALUE="Thanks!">

Do not change the NAME part. The "Thanks!" in the VALUE attribute is the title of the page that pops up after the usef has submitted the form. You might as well leave it as is.

TAG 6
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="return_link_url"
VALUE="http://webquest.sdsu.edu/">

Do not change the NAME part. Inside the quotes in the VALUE attribute, put the URL of the page you'd like the user to be directed to after they leave the "Thanks!" page.

TAG 7
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="return_link_name"
VALUE="Back to the WebQuest Page">

Do not change the NAME part. Inside the quotes in the VALUE attribute, put the words that will be hotlinked with the URL you put into Tag 7.

TAG 8
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="background_color"
VALUE="#808080">

This is just the background color of the Thanks! page. Might as well leave it alone.

TAG 9
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="text_color"
VALUE="#FF0000">

This specifies the color of the text on the Thanks! page. Might as well leave it alone.

TAG 10
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="link_color"
VALUE="#FFFF00">

This specifies the color of the link on the Thanks! page. Might as well leave it alone.

TAG 11
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="visited_link_color"
VALUE="#FFFF00">

This specifies the color of the visited link on the Thanks! page. Might as well leave it alone.

TAG 12
Right now it says <input TYPE="hidden" NAME="active_link_color"
VALUE="#FFFF00">

This specifies the color of the active link on the Thanks! page. Might as well leave it alone.

Each of the form elements that follow are intended to be edited by you to gather the data you need. You can copy and paste as many of each type of form elements as necessary.

The first form element type is the open-ended response. The E-mail address is required. You could eliminate the "Your name:" field if you like.

Your name:

Email address:

Next is an example of a radio button. If you need more than 4 responses, just copy and paste another one in.

The HTML for the first item is
<input TYPE="radio" NAME="Where to?" VALUE="I don't know">.

The NAME attribute is the short name of this question. Each question has its own name. If you need multiple radio-button questions, clone this one but be sure to change the NAME attribute for the other questions so that each question has a unique name.

Where do you want to go today?
I don't know
Disneyland
Bill Gates' house
Back to bed

Next is an example of a question with check boxes. You would use this in a situation when more than one option can be chosen (or none at all). If you need more than 4 responses, just copy and paste another one in.

The HTML for the first item is <input TYPE="checkbox" NAME="Movies I like"
VALUE="Horror">

The NAME attribute is the short name of this question. Each question has its own name. If you need multiple checkbox questions, clone this one but be sure to change the NAME attribute for the other questions so that each question has a unique name.

What kind of movies do you like?
Horror
Science Fiction
Romance
Comedy

Here's a pop-up field question.

How many salesmen does it take to change a light bulb?

Here's a open-ended question using a TEXTAREA form element.

Any comments?

These two tags establish the SUBMIT and RESET buttons. You can change the VALUE to put different words in the button, but don't change any other part of the tag.

Don't delete this last tag below this line. It signifies the close of the form.