NetWebForm : Are we limited to the Prompt:Value:Comment 3 column paradigm?

[britech]

Hi Folks,
I have read the NetWebForm template and I getting  the sense that we  are limited to the 3 column paradigm.
I'm not complaining mind you, I'm just curious as to whether there is any other way to handle complex data forms, other than the 3 column approach.
Is there a pure source code approach, or some other template approach that I may not be aware of yet?
Look forward to your comments.
Brian

[kevin plummer]

There are other options on the template for last in cell and last on lines as well as span promt/value/comment so your forms can go down and across. Add Tabs, browses etc I think you should be able to do what you want.

[britech]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the reply. So it is possible to have 2 or 3 fields on one line?

example:

FirstName: _________________ Last Name:________________ Company:________________

I'll have to read up on the last on line parameter.

Brian

[Flint G]

Brian,

The "Last on line" option is probably the one you're looking for.  But if not, you can still manually create any form you want as long as you're not afraid of the Embeditor.  It's just a matter of finding the right places to stick your code.  You can still apply the NT styles this way.

If you want to go this route, I could dredge up an example or two.

Regards,
Flint

[britech]

Hi Flint,
I'm not afraid of the embeditor, but I haven't had any luck finding an example to lead the way.
If you get a chance, I'd love to see an example.
I'm going through all the Nettalk examples, but I haven't found anything yet.
Kindest regards,
brian

[kevin plummer]

Last on line will give you what you want. There is not much to read up - just experiment with that and the other options I mentioned to see what they do. An invisible table is created and you can use FireBug to see the cells as you hover over them. Once you get your head around how the layout works and what effects last in cell and span do, you can pretty much replicate the same layout you have on a windows app.

[Bruce]

Hi Brian,

No, you're not limited to the 3 column approach. That's the default just because it makes a reasonable layout in very quick time.

The threee settings you want to play with are;
'Span Prompt / Value / Cell'
'Last on Line' and
'Last in Cell.

So start by thinking of the form in the traditional 3 column way.
If you tick off "last on line" for say the Name, then you have 6 columns
prompt value (name) comment prompt value (next field) name

using this approach you can have any number of fields on a form, still arranged neatly into columns.
Obviously pages grow better vertically than horizontally, so you need to consider screen size when taking this approach.

you can also suppress the "comments" column completely, resulting in a multiples-of-two column approach.

Last in Cell, if off, breaks the "columnar" nature of the page. It allows fields to be more free-form in width,
so fields do not necessarily line up under each other. It's good for the odd ad-hoc extra field on a line, or where you want to make a really cluttered screen.

the span option reduces the columns as well, from 3 down to 1. there is less stuff lining up neatly, but also less whitespace. For some form field types (like browses) the span makes a lot of sense.

Cheers
Bruce
Bruce

[britech]

Perfect.
Thank you.
Brian