Different Form Uses

Summary PaT's form builders can make all types of form, from surveys and contact us pages to new employee onboarding forms and customer information files. There are two kinds of form. An SD Form is an SD template that uses form elements for data entry, so it suits records people need to read, like employee or customer files, and it can include notes and tasks. A Pure Form is just a page, ideal for surveys, inspections and audits. Either way, PaT stores the answers in a results table, and a submitted Pure Form also creates a readable SD.

Steps

Step 1

Before you build a form, decide which kind it should be: an SD Form or a Pure Form. The steps below explain each kind, and how PaT stores what people enter.

SD Forms

Step 2

An SD Form is simply a normal SD that has been marked as a template, with form elements inserted to control how data is entered, instead of notes. SD Forms are typically for internal use. Because form elements are connected to a database, the data can automatically build reports, create a mail merge or trigger an automatic alert, based on a value a user enters. Form elements also control how users enter data, which eliminates the errors that free typing causes: for example, a date picker keeps the date format the same, and a list of options replaces typed answers.

Step 3

Use an SD Form where readability and context are important, or where you want to use tasks as part of the form. An SD Form keeps the logical structure of an SD: section headers organise the content into distinct sections, the way headings and paragraphs organise a Word document.

Step 4

You can add notes above or below the form elements. A note can hold text, images, videos and interactive demos, to give more context about the form or one of its elements. For example, a text input element can be supported by an image of the kind of response expected.

Step 5

To keep the page uncluttered, extra details can sit behind the info icon of a section header: the orange i at the right end of the section header's row.

How PaT stores form results

Step 6

The SD Form is one of two ways PaT stores form results. The SD itself is the human friendly, readable format: the form data shows as tables, dropdown boxes, text boxes, sliding scales, 5 star rating images and so on.

Step 7

PaT also stores form results in a computer friendly format: the answers sit side by side in a row, as in a spreadsheet. Sliding scales and star ratings are stored as numbers, not images, and paragraphs of text lose their formatting and are stored as long strings of text. This format is needed to build reports and trigger actions based on values, but it is hard for people to read.

Step 8

So if the data needs to be read by a person, for example an employee record, use an SD Form. With an SD Form, PaT saves the data in both formats.

Step 9

To see an SD Form in the form builder, click Advanced in the SD, then SD Form Builder in the menu on the left. An SD Form can use a Table Form element, for example to collect customer information: its fields sit side by side on the Canvas.

Step 10

The form's results are under SD Form Responses, in the menu on the left of the form builder, where they sit in what looks like a spreadsheet. A short form is not too hard to read there, but some forms have dozens of fields, and as the row stretches further to the right it becomes too difficult to read. The data is much easier to read when it is laid out as a page, in an SD.

Step 11

To return to the SD, click Back to SD, the purple button at the top of the menu on the left.

Step 12

In the SD, the form elements sit under different section headers. When users enter data into the form elements in the SD, PaT automatically stores the values in the form results table, or data source. This happens for every copy of the SD created from the template.

Step 13

It is best practice to embed a form template into a form template master, as with a standard SD. Then every copy you create files into the master automatically, which prevents data loss and keeps administration streamlined.

Pure Forms

Step 14

A Pure Form is ideal for surveys, inspections and audits. Unlike an SD Form, it is just a page: you can't add tasks, section headers or notes. To create one, build the form in the form builder, then click Share, at the top left of the builder next to Preview, to get its link.

Step 15

On the page, banners separate the different parts of the form.

Step 16

Under the banners is a mix of text input boxes and select buttons, such as Yes and No.

Step 17

A Pure Form can also include tables and checkboxes.

Step 18

When the person filling in the form clicks Submit, at the bottom of the page, two things happen. PaT spins up an SD and automatically adds it to the SD Form Template master, giving a human readable document of what they filled in. The form results also go into a datasource connected to the form template, like an Excel spreadsheet. This is the format needed to build live dashboards.

Note. The aim is to capture data quickly and easily. The next step is to visualise the data with dashboards, push reporting and graphs.

Tip. Choose the kind of form by how its answers will be used: an SD Form when people need to read the record, with notes and tasks around it, and a Pure Form for a single page, such as a survey, an inspection or an audit.