This page contains some top tips from our training team on Building WebForms.

These tips will help form builders make their finished document looks good, both for the people filling it in and when all the filled data and signatures get merged to form a signed document.

How the merging process works

To help you understand the reason behind some of these tips, here is a summary of how the finished WebForm document is created.

1. Once all signatures have been submitted on a WebForm, your backing .docx file is broken down into pages.

2. Then each page is further broken down into its individual XML elements (paragraphs, tables, images, etc).

3. After this, for each field in your WebForm design, we add a new XML element with the same position and size as you specified in your WebForm template. If a value was provided for that field, we then fill this new element in with that value.

4. Finally, the document pages are stitched back together into a new document, which is password protected and is stored for you to download later.

Tips for WebForms Templates

Page Breaks

We recommend using a “Section Break - Next Page” at the end of every single page (except the last of course). This helps us split the document correctly into the individual pages. Failing to do this can lead to page elements moving when displayed for signing or, when downloading the merged form.

Bullet points

Numbered bullet points that span multiple pages should be avoided. They will restart the numbering on each new page as there is no way to know they were previously joined.

FCA forms

There is no easy process for converting old FCA forms into WebForms.  We recommend creating your WebForm backing Word documents from scratch. If you do use your old FCA Word documents, note that WebForms do not (and cannot) use the FCA bookmarks used for fields. You need to remove all {{.…}} bookmarks, or they will appear like that on your finished WebForm (and not display any data fields).

Field outlines or borders

Remember that the data field in the online form has a clear outline so there is often no need for boxes or tables in the Word document to have outlines or borders for the response. Doing so may look odd, take up unnecessary space, and make it difficult to position the field in the form builder.

Formatting

Using ‘Bring to Front’ on tables, images, etc in the Word document may cause WebForm fields to be hidden behind the table, image, etc.

Paragraph settings such as ‘Keep with next’ and ‘Keep lines together’ may cause variances between the onscreen form (which will not use them) and downloaded Word documents (which will).

Line Spacing – Also within the paragraph settings window, we recommend setting your default line spacing to 0pt before and 12pt after to make sure that the field text starts at the top and there is plenty of room after.

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Fonts – The third-party software we use for WebForms does not recognise every font in Word and may replace some with its own default font. This can cause major variations in format and style between how the form is displayed when completing it on screen and how it appears in a downloaded Word document. For example, it may cause data fields to become misaligned in Word.
Note: Tahoma font appears to cause particular problems and may be found in example ESFA forms. We recommend using Calibri.

HTML links, e.g. URLs (website addresses), email addresses

Any such links in the word document will not be added to the WebForm as a live link (i.e. one you can click to open). You will need to remove them from the word document and add them as a URL field in the WebForm.

Images

Take care with the placement of these as they may cause text to appear out of place either on screen or in the completed Word form. Avoid using ‘Bring to Front’ on images as this may cause WebForm fields to be hidden behind the image.

Putting a full-screen image in the form header to act as a cover page won't work, fields from the 2nd page tend to end up on the ‘cover page’.

Multiple answers from a list

‘Multiple answers from a list’ questions are shown as a group of checkboxes. This means that your backing Word document must have the appropriate text and space for each available answer, as shown below.

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Page numbers

Page numbers in the footer will break when they don't start from the actual 1st page.

Spacing

Make sure you provide enough space on your backing document, both for the fields you want to insert and for the answer length that you are expecting. A WebForm field requires at least 8mm depth so rows in a table would need the cell height of at least 0.8cm to accommodate them - anything less and the PICSWeb form field will spill over into an adjoining cell.

Some special fields, like the Qualification Plan, can take up a lot of space with the names of your qualifications - e.g. Certificate in Understanding Mental Health First Aid and Mental Health Advocacy in the Workplace.

Tables

While these are useful in a paper form to align fields and indicate spaces to respond, they are often not required in WebForms. Just leave sufficient space for the form data fields and position the labels and supporting text as required.

Tables should not span multiple pages in your backing document. As explained above, we have to separate the document into its individual pages when we process it. This means that tables that span multiple pages will also be separated. When the document is stitched back together, the tables will be split in two leading to poor display and misalignment. If necessary, split the table at the page break and add new header rows for each page.

Default Cell Spacing should be turned off. This is because it is not able to be represented in the document image and therefore will lead to field placement inconsistencies when downloading the final signed document.

Double borders are not supported and will be converted to single borders in the online document. This will lead to inconsistencies in the alignment of fields on the final signed form.

Text boxes

Like images, these can cause problems with other text being either displaced or hidden. Usually better to enter the text as normal and position it with spaces, tabs or indents.

Header Images

Header images should fit in the header. I.e. They should not move the header border themselves. If you have a bigger header image, you should adjust the Header From Top setting to accommodate the full header image size.

Page Content

Trying to fit as much as possible into a page can result in content spilling over onto following pages or additional pages being created in your template.

When this happens you should consider reducing the amount crammed into the page and ensure that you have page breaks as needed.

Testing your form

Once your form is set up it is important to test it before sending to learners or employers.

Create an instance and fill it out as if you were both the filling officer and the other people that it will be sent to. Check the appearance of the form at each stage, ensuring the relevant fields are available to each person – if necessary you can permanently delete the form instance created and then edit the WebForm.