CASE STUDIES ON GREAT FORMS

Transcription

1 CASE STUDIES ON GREAT FORMS Margaret E. Tassin, CFSP, CDC President Forms Doc, LLC Cindy K. Weitzel Forms Administrator Air Products & Chemicals, Inc Glen Dixon Software Engineer U. S. Department of State

2 Course Modification/Retirement form - InfoPath solution Cindy K. Weitzel Forms Administrator - Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. Problem: The purpose of the Course Modification/Retirement form is to collect information about a training course that is to be changed or retired. The original form was in Microsoft Word, and it was a very cluttered design that presented users with all fields for all possible details of a course. However, the recipient needed to complete only those feeds required for the type of transaction requested. For example, if the requester needed the instructor name modified, only the instructor name field needed to be completed. Instead, users were completing all fields on the form, and the recipient had no idea which piece reflected the change. Furthermore, if the course was being retired, the recipient simply needed notification and a few pieces of information Solution: Using InfoPath s basic tools, Forms Administration developed a solution that addressed the problem outlined above. The solution also automated the submit feature and assured that forms were sent to the appropriate box with no missing information. The solution relied on three principles of forms design. 1. Ask the users only what needs to be answered 2. Get all the answers you need to prevent submitting incomplete forms 3. Ensure that the completed forms arrive at the appropriate destination. Part 1 Ask the users only what needs to be answered. This form first asks whether the user is requesting to modify a course or to retire a course. Only the fields that apply to that type of request are presented. Next, if the request is for a modification, users first indicate (via a set of checkboxes) which information needs to be modified. Users are then presented with only the fields that match their request and that need to be completed. For example, if it is the instructor name that needs to be changed, the user selects the instructor name checkbox and is then presented with only the field asking for new instructor name.

3 How? Conditional Formatting. Place in its own section each field or set of fields that appears conditionally. In the section properties, use conditional formatting to define the conditions under which the section hides. For example, the conditional formatting for the section containing the new instructor name field looks at the state of the checkbox for instructor name. If that checkbox is blank, or false, that section should hide. Part 2 Get all of the answers you need Do not allow users to submit a form that includes fields with blank or incorrect values. Error correction is one of the greatest costs of forms processing. If you can avoid the errors, you can reduce the cost. How? Provide a customized submit button InfoPath can place a generic submit button on the menu bar for a form. However, this submit function provides limited capabilities that are not sufficient for this particular form. Therefore, from the tools menu, select submitting forms and be sure that submit commands and buttons are disabled. Place a button control on the form, call it submit, and add one rule for each field that should be checked for a blank value. Build each rule as follows: Set the condition of each rule to check for a blank value of a given field. Remember, though, that many of the fields do not always appear. Make sure that is reflected in the conditions of these rules. If condition is true, set the action to display a dialog box that states, for example, Instructor Name cannot be blank. For example, the new instructor name is only required when the type of request is a modification and when the checkbox for instructor name is true.

4 Finally, be sure that each rule stops processing when finished (do so by checking the box in the lower-left corner of the rules dialog box.) As InfoPath runs through the list of rules, it will stop when it reaches a true value (in this case, when a blank field is found), preventing the form from proceeding to the next set of rules that submit the form. Part 3 Get the answers to the right person This form is to be sent, via , to one of 12 different mailboxes, depending upon which Course Group is selected by the user. The user does not have to be concerned with where to send a completed form. How? Add more rules to the customized submit button First, 12 different data connections need to be added which, when used, send the form as an attachment to an message. The tools menu contains a wizard for creating data connections. It is helpful to name each data connection according to its corresponding Course Group. Next, assure that structure the Course Group field is correct. This field is a dropdown menu of choices. Each choice is given a numerical value. For example, the Build course group has a value of 1, the EHSQ course group has a value of 2, etc. Know these values. After the set of rules that check for blank values on the form, add another set of rules defining who receives the form. Remember that the order of the rules is important, as InfoPath runs through them from top to bottom. We do not want it to proceed to the submit rules until it runs through the rules checking for blank values. Build each rule as follows: Set the condition of each rule to check the value of the Course Group field. Set the action to submit via the data connection for the corresponding Course Group. For example, if the Course Group is equal to 1, the form submits via the established data connection for Build. In each rule, set 2 additional actions. One to show the user, via a dialog box message, that the form has been submitted, and another to close the form.

5 Government Forms Initiative Glen Dixon Software Engineer - U. S. Department of State At the Department of State ( State ) we use many standard and optional forms created by other agencies. In most cases these forms are published in PDF so the public and other agencies can use them. Like most fillable PDFs, the State users cannot save the data or process the forms internally like we can with the forms we produce with our software from Cerenade, Visual eforms and Enterprise Server. To resolve this issue, we use Enterprise Server to process a fillable PDF by picking up the fillable fields and overlaying them onto the Cerenade format. Through this process, State users can fill, print, sign, save, route and process the form using the existing Cerenade software. Visa Application Process Glen Dixon Software Engineer - U. S. Department of State Problem The U.S. Department of State is responsible for processing over 7 million visa applications each year. In the past we have provided PDF forms to our users to fill and print the forms and present them to our

6 processing centers. The processing centers have to re-enter much of the data on the forms into our computers to issue the visas. With the use of 2D barcodes we were able to reduce the workload to our processing centers but this method was still dependent on machines having to maintain the Adobe filler and limited the user to only fill and print. Solution Department of State has an enterprise license for Cerenade s Visual eforms and Enterprise Server. State used of two different technologies developed by Cerenade. One technology is Cerenade s ability to render a form into HTML on the fly for deployment to the web. Using HTML forms for public use requires no download of a filler application on the client machine. HTML forms are supported on Mac, Windows, and Linux through IE, Netscape, Opera, Safari and Firefox. The second technology is to develop our forms using a wizard. This will allow us to combine multiple forms into one wizard yet print out specific forms as needed. State s long-term goal is to integrate the public use forms into our system so that the user fills out the form and submits it to our server. The server performs a validation on the form, and responds back to the user. Once the user has been notified of the receipt of the form, we can tie into two different systems: (1) the schedule system to make your appointment to get your visa and (2) the accounting system allowing you to pay for the visa online. Timesheet form - Excel solution Margaret E. Tassin, CFSP, CDC President Forms Doc, LLC Problem: The purpose of the Timesheet is to record time and provide definitions and legal statements yet be flexible enough for the timekeeping requirements of various groups. The original form was in Microsoft Word, converted to a non-fillable PDF. It was inconvenient to maintain all timekeeping records in a completely manual system. There was no way to save the completed information and no calculation assistance. Solution: Using a basic timesheet from Microsoft s free templates ( Weekly Time Sheet with Breaks ), the timesheet was modified to include legal language, definitions, user instructions and macros. In addition it is fillable, savable and can be modified to track different types of time, depending on the requirements of the specific group using it. Although the solution presented here is a weekly timesheet, this can be extended to biweekly or semimonthly by adding more cells. The file is an.xlt instead of.xls. That means that the template (xlt) is opened by the user and a new spreadsheet (xls) with a new file name is the result. Using a locked template prevents the user from overwriting the original file and it automatically gives the file a new name. Formulas, Macros, Functionality 1. The Pay Period Start Date controls The Pay Period End Date The Date displayed in each column 2. The Weekday fields refer to the Date and also a VLOOKUP that is on Sheet1.

7 3. Sheet1 is hidden via Format/Sheet/Hide. 4. Macros on the Instructions sheet enable the client to customize the type of time that is tracked. There is a hide macro and a show macro for each of the time types. 5. The Click to lock Other button adds protection or locks the Other cell on Weekly Timesheets once the client has renamed this caption. It is imperative that when the designer changes this form that cell D19 (weekly) (referred to in the macro) is not locked (Format/Cells/Protection/uncheck Locked ) when the form is deployed. This cell can easily get locked during testing and it is important that it is unlocked prior to deployment. 6. The Finalize button has a macro to remove the Instructions page that contains all the macros. It is important during testing to be sure this macro refers to an extra sheet besides the Instructions sheet. Otherwise, all the buttons will be removed during each test. Upon final release, change the code to refer to the Instructions sheet instead of the extra sheet and remove the extra sheet. 7. Because it would be so very easy to lose all the buttons on the Instructions page, it is recommended that a duplicate copy of the final file be maintained in folder. 8. When the designer is ready to save and close prior to protection for the final release, be certain that the cursor is in the A1 field on the instructions page. Thus, when the form is opened, the cursor will be in this field. The finalize macro moves the cursor to the timesheet. Protection There are three types of protection on this form in Excel. The password is forms. 1. Each worksheet in the workbook is protected separately via Tools/Protection/Protect Sheet. Protection must be applied individually to each sheet within the workbook. Be sure the dialog box has a check in Protect worksheet and contents of locked cells. In the list of things that users can change, the first two selections are by default, and this is OK. This protection enables users to fill in and save the workbook but they cannot change the cells or formulas. 2. The workbook is protected via Tools/Protection/Protect Workbook. Check the box for structure. This protection prohibits users from moving or adding worksheets and otherwise changing the structure of the workbook. 3. The VBA code with the macros is protected using a password so that the passwords and macros cannot be viewed or changed by users. While in the Visual Basic Editor, go to Tools, select VBA Project Properties, select the Protection tab. Be certain that there is a check in Lock project for viewing. Enter a password. Oddly enough, the password stays in the password fields even if the protection option is turned off. If you want to work on the code, be sure to uncheck the checkbox and remove the passwords; otherwise you will have to unlock the code every time you go in and out of the form.