Creating an HTML form

Hi Phil,

This is covered in our Dreamweaver Intermediate course.

First you need to insert a form (Insert -> Form -> Form). You then need to set up the 'action' for the form, which is the web site file that will be processing the information. This needs to be a CGI type file with an extension such as .php, .asp, .cgi etc. The file needs to be written in a server side scripting language. You can learn about php at http://www.php.net

Alternatively, bravenet can sort you out with free CGI scripts, especially a contact form for your visitors. They have easy instructions included on their web site.

Once you have inserted a form onto your page, you can start inserting form elements within the form.

An easy way (apart from using the Insert -> Form menu) is to use the insert panel at the top of Dreamweaver 8. Ensure the drop-down box is set to 'Forms'. Then you can insert elements types such as hidden fields, text boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, text areas and select boxes.

Each element has at least a type (as listed above), a name and a value. You can set these by selecting a form element, then entering them on the properties panel.

You can also set the 'action' of the form to be "mailto:email" where email if your e-mail address. This will send all form name/elements to the e-mail address specified, but not securely and not well formatted. The user often receives a warning message when using this method, so it's not recommended.

I hope this answers your question.

Regards, Rich