Forms

I would like to encourage those who provide forms on their site to always include a comment textarea!

This is true even with CGI scripts written to collect various data. It would be a basic consideration for those wishing to supply extra needed information or comments. There are times when specific applications require an extra input field.

If you are collecting personal information from visitors, provide a privacy statement to include how this information will be used.

Define Form	<FORM ACTION="URL" METHOD=GET|POST></FORM>
Input Field	<INPUT TYPE="TEXT|PASSWORD|CHECKBOX|RADIO| IMAGE|HIDDEN|SUBMIT|RESET">
Field Name	<INPUT NAME="***">
Field Value	<INPUT VALUE="***">
Checked?	<INPUT CHECKED> (checkboxes and radio boxes)
Field Size	<INPUT SIZE=?> (in characters)
Max Length	<INPUT MAXLENGTH=?> (in characters)
Selection List	<SELECT></SELECT>
Name of List	<SELECT NAME="***"></SELECT>
# of Options	<SELECT SIZE=?></SELECT>
Multiple Choice	<SELECT MULTIPLE> (can select more than one)
Option	<OPTION> (items that can be selected)
Default Option	<OPTION SELECTED>
Input Box Size	<TEXTAREA ROWS=? COLS=?></TEXTAREA>
Name of Box	<TEXTAREA NAME="***"></TEXTAREA>

Opening and closing tags for forms are very misused within banner exchanges and coding supplied by affiliate programs. Many people fail to close an opening tag prior to closing a previous open tag. Others when using tables, put form opening and closing tags within various cells which are not interpreted correctly due to being embedded within the table. Be careful when using forms and tables and verify your coding to be sure it will function properly!

Please note that your email is available to email spam robots through your forms :( Try inserting <!-- stopindex --> prior to your form command lines and <!-- startindex --> afterwards. This may help prevent these robots from accessing your email from necessary from elements.

Tables

Define Table	<TABLE></TABLE>
Table Border	<TABLE border=?></TABLE>
Cell Spacing	<TABLE CELLSPACING=?>
Cell Padding	<TABLE CELLPADDING=?>
Desired Width	<TABLE width=?> (in pixels)
Width Percent	<TABLE width="%"> (percentage of page)
Table Row	<TR></TR>
Alignment	<TR align=LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER|MIDDLE|BOTTOM Valign=TOP|BOTTOM|MIDDLE>
Table Cell	<TD></TD> (must appear within table rows)
Alignment	<TD align=LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER|MIDDLE|BOTTOM Valign=TOP|BOTTOM|MIDDLE>
No line breaks	<TD NOWRAP>
Columns to Span	<TD COLSPAN=?>
Rows to Span	<TD ROWSPAN=?>
Table Header	<TH></TH> (same as data, except bold centered)
Alignment	<TH align=LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER|MIDDLE|BOTTOM Valign=TOP|BOTTOM|MIDDLE>
No Line breaks	<TH NOWRAP>
Columns to Span	<TH COLSPAN=?>
Rows to Span	<TH ROWSPAN=?>
Table Caption	<CAPTION></CAPTION>
Alignment	<CAPTION align=TOP|BOTTOM> (above/below table)

Although widely used, using background colors within table cells does not conform to HTML 3.2 standards.

The most common lack of use for form tags have been:

Using: <TD><B> text </B></TD> . . when the use of <TH> serves the same purpose and takes less coding :)

this line uses the bold tag
this line uses the TH tag

since this is a header tag the cell contents are centered by default

<TR><TD align=center></TD><TD align=center></TD></TR>
or <TR><TD><center> </center> </TD></TR>

the same can be accomplished by using:

<TR align=center><TD></TD><TD></TD></TR>

Never leave a table cell empty within a table. If you have a cell which does not contain data, insert a non-breaking space character within the table cell:

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