Page Length Question

[rsanford]

Hello everyone,

I am a new kid on the block. I downloaded the Blue Voda website builder a little over four weeks ago and started building my site. I am thoroughly enjoying it, and it is coming along nicely. I am spending all my available time and still moving slower than I would like. The tutorials are great, but I seem to come up with questions for which I cannot find answers. It may be that I have not yet learned the lingo.

My site will be 25-30 pages when I launch it including information and eCommerce. I will need to get information from clients to provide our services. For most areas I can get a form on one page. (I want to keep my pages at 1000-1200 pixels in length.) My current question: How do I continue a form over multiple pages with the submit button on the last page? Also, if I put a reset button on each page, would hitting the reset button on pages two or three, reset previous pages?


rsanford

[zigzag]

Re: Page Length Question

Find any recent posting by navaldesign (there are plenty) and there is a link to a multipage form example

[Bethers]

Re: Page Length Question

I suggest that people would rather scroll down a page to fill out the form than to have to go to multiple pages to do so. Just something you might want to think about - the form won't cause long loading times.

[Andy128]

Re: Page Length Question

I agree with Beth- unless the form is so lengthy that this cannot be done. It will be less problematic this way.


If you still want a multi-page form- try these resources;
Navaldesign is our resident expert on forms and php coding. Here is his tutorial on multi-page forms;

http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/bluevoda-tips-tricks-shortcuts/10151-multipage-form-tutorial.html

Additionally- Whatdaflip is very profficent forms and php coding. He offers a form making and php code service that is very reasonable. I have used his services as well as a few others with no complaints- infact, mine turned out quite well and uis very reasonable priced. His service can be found here:

http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/services/8122-form-scripting-service.html

If you are not familiar with php coding and do not have ample time to learn- perhaps Whatdaflips service would be the best avenue.

Cheers-

Andy

[navaldesign]

Re: Page Length Question

The reset button will only reset the fields of that page.

I don't agree with Beth and Andy, though ofcourse it is a personal opinion. I beleive that when the info is by it's nature devided in different categories, a multipage form is more suitable. Especially when the information required would oblige to the use of a very long form. All large companies, set steps in their various setup procedures, each step being dedicated to a different role. If you have a form with (as an extreme example) 150 fields, devided in 4 or 5 logical groups, it would be unthinkable (for me) to use a single page. If, on the other hand you only have lets say 20 fields, divided in 3 logical groups, thenyou might as well use a single page form, with maybe different background color for each group, in order for the visitor to distinguish each logical group of information.

[Bethers]

Re: Page Length Question

Naval,
I don't disagree with you- and shouldn't have said what I did without seeing the form.

The last multipage form I filled out could have all been handled on one page that wouldn't have been too long. I was on dial-up and each page took over a minute to load - 5 pages, filling out then waiting for next page to load - took me over 15 minutes where as a one page form would have taken me less than 5 minutes. If it hadn't been something very important I would have left and never come back.

It is also why many shopping carts are going to one page (maximum two page) check-outs. The less pages people have to go through, the better the conversion rate.

However, there are times and purposes for multiple pages and I didn't acknowledge that. You covered both points very well.

[navaldesign]

Re: Page Length Question

Hi Beth, i see that we agree more and more over time (I-frames: the next step?)

How did you do with ABVFP ? Just wondering

[Bethers]

Re: Page Length Question

LOL re the I-frames. My site is doing much better without them - so we'll agree to disagree on them. I'm intending to learn how to call up the header and nav with CSS - and that would mean not needing i-frames - but is a challenge as I'm CSS illiterate :)

As I have been adding new product lines to a store, the form was put on a back burner. I shall return to it :) One question. If I install the form into my main site - would I be able to use the form-maker from all the other sites simply by calling for it from the main one?

[navaldesign]

Re: Page Length Question

Yes, you can install the ABVFP in your main site, and it will work with forms in all your other sites. Just make sure to give the full path (http://www. ......) to the configuration file that you will create for every form. Also, make sure NOT to have the same page name: if in your main site the contactform is "contactform.html" then the one in another site must be named f.e. "contactform1.html" and so on, otherwise there will be a conflict between the configuration files.

[Bethers]

Re: Page Length Question

Thanks - that's what I want to do. Needed to confirm that I could.