TFN Help for Web Page Forms

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Help for Web Page Forms

This document describes the use of forms on a graphical browser (ie. Internet Explorer or Netscape). If you want help for using forms in Lynx (TFN text web browser), please login to a text session and view this web page from that browser.

A form is a means for you to communicate information to the system beyond simply viewing documents. There are, at present, three different elements that you will encounter in a form. One is a one-line text entry field (fill in the blank), another is a checkbox, and the third is an action field (or button). It is important to understand that a form does absolutely nothing until you explicitly Submit it (see below).

To navigate (move around) between the various elements of a form, you use the TAB key and SHIFTED TAB key on your keyboard. The TAB key moves the cursor/focus forward to the next element/field, and SHIFT-TAB moves backward to the previous element/field. You can also click on any element/field with your mouse to move to that location. Take note that the mouse may also set/unset certain elements, like checkboxes. Below, you will find several elements in a practice form. Use your TAB key to go to the first element. (You can also click on it with your mouse).

Fill in the Blank

A text entry field looks like this:

Type here:

To fill in a text entry field, first move there with your TAB or SHIFT-TAB keys (You can also click on it with your mouse). Type in one or more words. You can use BACKSPACE or DELETE or the back arrow to make corrrections as you type. Now press the TAB key to indicate the end of your entry. You can practice on the field above (go ahead, it can't hurt).
IMPORTANT: Do not press ENTER (RETURN) at the end of a text field entry, or the browser will think you have are finsihed with the whole form, and have pressed the 'submit' button (see below). Use only TAB or the mouse to move off the field.

Checkbox

A checkbox looks like this:

Check here.

A checkbox has just two settings: checked or not checked. You can switch between these two settings by moving to the checkbox with your TAB keys and then pressing the SPACE bar. If you click on the box with your mouse, it will both move there and set/unset the checkbox. Pressing SPACE (or clicking with the mouse) once will mark the checkbox as checked and pressing (or clicking) again will make it not checked. Try out the checkbox above.

Action Button

An Action Button looks like this:

Submit the form:

Once you have filled in all the fields in a form, you can press ENTER/RETURN from any field on the screen, or click your mouse on the 'submit' button to send the contents of the form off to the internet system. You can practice on the above Submit field; it will do nothing
Note that some web site designers use words other than 'submit' to make the function of the button clearer, or they use a graphic instead of the basic grey button above.

Another action field that you might occasionally use is the Reset action, which will often be labelled as 'Clear Form', and that is exactly what it does. It unchecks all boxes and returns all fields to their empty (or default) state. Here is one:

To start over:

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