This section will cover creating a custom form from start to finish. You can open the Custom Forms from the menu drop-down, Manage > Custom Forms. That opens the Custom Forms Home page window as shown below. You will see any existing pre-built forms located here at the left, that you can customize to suit the needs of your school organization. At the right, you will see the Add Form box, which is where you begin to create a new Form. Enter your form name and the column span you wish to use. Generally, the column should be set to 3 for best on-screen viewing and for printing the completed forms. Click the 'Add' button to begin the form creation process.
After clicking 'Add', you will see your form in the list at the left with the name you've assigned it. Note the Field Trip Permission Form at the bottom of the list that we just created in the image below. Click the blue Edit button on the Field Trip Permission Form line to begin building the form.
You will see the following screen. The Form Name will appear as the header of your form. I've chosen this form to use a column span of 3. That means that your form can only handle three columns/fields per line on the form. Again, I would normally recommend a setting of 2 or 3 for best viewing to the public.
It is most important that you select Single Participant Only if you wish to gather data for each student individually.
This is most helpful on an Athletic Participation Form for example. If you wish the family to complete a custom form that will have more than one participant, then Single Participant Only should not be checked. (not very common)
Click the 'Add Field' button to start adding fields to your custom form.
You will see the following screen. There are many different choices of Input Type as shown in the drop-down menu. For an in-depth look at all the Input Types, go to Custom Form Input Types in this help manual.
Here I've added the Student First Name as a Text Box. This means the parent will have a Text Box to enter their information. The column span will dictate how many columns your field will use. You can choose to have this field print when you are printing completed forms. By default, Yes is selected. For a text box, you have the choices of Plain Text, e-mail or phone field masks. The 'Name' box is the name of the field. No two fields can have the same name on your form. The Prompt is what the parents will see on the form, they will not see the Name field. Columns indicates how wide your field will appear in the one column span. The Max Length field is how many characters are allowed for entry in that field. You can also choose Required, so the parents must fill it in.
Do not leave spaces or enter special characters such as an apostrophe (') in any field names.
When you've finished this field, click 'Finish'. Let's add a field for the Student's Last Name as shown below. Note the Form Preview at the bottom. This will give you an idea of how your form will appear.
Next, I will add a field for the Student's grade as a Drop Down List Box as shown below.
Click 'Next' and then select 'Add Choice'. You need to enter the choices a parent will see in that drop-down list box. Here, I've entered Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4 and Grade 5. Just click 'Add Choice' to continue to add the fields.
I left the first choice blank so Grade 1 wouldn't be pre-selected as the default on the form. The Value will appear on a printed form if desired, it is not required however. If the Text is very long, you might not want to have that text appear on the printed form, so the Value will appear on the printed form instead. The Selected boxes refer to if you want your form to automatically select one of the choice's by default. In this example, we're not going to use the Value or Selected choices.
Note: The Drop-Down List Box currently doesn't have the ability to utilize required fields.
Click 'Save' when you have finished adding all your text choices. I would recommend saving your form at regular intervals by clicking the 'Save' button near the top of the screen. A Value must be added as it is now required.
Whenever you save your form, you will again be at the Custom Form home page as shown below. This page will show all your forms, how many fields and columns. Just click the blue edit button to continue building your form.
Next. we want to add a Text Area field for a student's Medical Conditions. A Text Area field is similar to a Text Box but allows for more data input. Enter the Column Span, whether you want this field to print on forms and the Input Type.
Enter the field name in the Name box and enter the prompt, which the public will see. The Rows and Columns dictate how wide that field will appear within that one column span and how many characters can be entered.
Click next to Required if you wish this field to be a required field. Click 'Finish'.
Next, we want to add conduct rules to which the students must abide to participate in the field trip. A Check Box list might be the best way to collect this data.
A Check Box List is a field type that allows you to build a list where all the choices will be required. Enter the Field Name in the Name box, Enter a prompt in the Prompt box. Choose the amount of columns you wish your Check Box List to display. In the example below, I selected 1 Column so the choices will be displayed vertically to the public. Enter all your choices and click 'Save' when finished. This field type allows required fields.
Custom Forms allows you to enter .html blocks within your form. These blocks don't require any input from the public, you can include instructions and other information in an .html block.
As shown below, you will need to assign a unique name to this field as well. Choose a Column span and whether or not you want this to print on a completed form submission. There is a built-in .html editor so you don't need to know .html programming.
You can format your text as if you are working in a MS Word program. If you are going to copy and paste into this form, it is recommended that you don't copy and paste previously formatted text. If you have a Word document, it might be best to copy and paste that text into Notepad without the formatting. You will get consistent results if you do.
Click 'Finish' when completed.
We're almost finished. We're going to want to collect e-signatures on this form as well. As shown below, I've created text boxes to collect the First Name of the parents for our form. Create this Text Box as you added the Student First Name above.
Now, the parents Last Name. Create this box similar to the Student Last Name earlier in our form building.
If you are using your Custom Form for more than one participant, you can create additional custom required fields if data is entered by the parent in a specific field.
For example, families must complete an emergency contact form for all their students. If you build the form with fields for several students, you can now make them required in a different process. In the example below, for the Student 2 Last Name field, I clicked on the drop-down at the top right stating that if Student 2 First Name is completed, then Student 2 Last Name is required. This is helpful because you don't need to have this field required if there is only one student in the family! You wouldn't want to click the Required check box at the bottom in this case.
We also want to have the date the parents e-sign the form. Create this as a Calendar input type. Enter Name, and the Prompts as shown below.
We've already completed our form! Below is a screen shot of how that form will appear to the public.
