[CLUE-Tech] HTML forms and printing

[Jed S. Baer]

On Sat, 02 Mar 2002 10:39:56 -0700
Kevin Cullis <kevincu at orci.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I've just started working with HTML forms and I'd like some suggestions
> from you all.  The problem is that I'm sending out Word forms and it's
> causing problems with formatting with different versions of Word as well
> as not getting 100% of the people, i.e. those that DON'T have Word, like
> myself.
> 
> So, I'd like to propose an HTML form which will, once filled out, would
> be printable and printed by each person after the text is cut and pasted
> into the forms. I've seen the "Printer version" icon on most sites so I
> was wondering what you all thought.
> 
> Can anyone point me in the right direction and/or what issues/problems
> I'd have with this?

Well, for a start, will Word do a "Save as HTML" and give a place to start
on your existing forms?

As far as a "printer version", I'd make that a submit on the form, which
runs a script to put out a nicely formated HTML page. There are numerous
available Perl and PHP scripts for doing forms processing, or you can
write your own. I haven't done an exhaustive review of what's available,
but look at www.zend.com for their code archives, also
www.phpresourceindex.com, www.phpbuilder.com. It's been a while since I've
done Perl/CGI, but do a web search for Matt's Script Archive, Selena Sol,
or just Perl CGI Scripts. www.perl.org will point you to some resources,
including CPAN. I've used the Perl form processor from Selena Sol's
archive quite successfuly.

Off the top of my head, I don't know how I'd distinquish between the
"submit for processing" and the "submit to get a "printable" back. Of
course, the "submit for processing" could just always return the printable
page. And, depending upon how you lay your form out, even that might
suffice for a printout.

-- 
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men,
 undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
 - Thomas Paine