Writer Guide

• For a text box, you can set the maximum text length. This is very
useful when adding records into a database. Every database text
field has a maximum length and, if the data entered is too long,
OOo displays an error message. By setting the maximum text
length of the form control to be the same as that of the database
field, this error can be avoided.
• You can set the default option for a form control. By default, a
control is blank, or has every option unselected. You can set the
control to start with a particular option or list item selected.
• For controls where a password is being entered, setting the
Password character (for example to *) displays only that
character, but saves what the user really types.
• You can add additional information and help text for a form
control.
• Other formatting controls such as background color, 3-D look, text
formatting, scroll bars and borders allow you to further define
how the control appears.
XForms
XForms are a new type of web form, developed by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C). OpenOffice.org 3 supports the XForms 1.0 open
standard for creating web forms with XML.
In OpenOffice.org, an XForms document is a special type of Writer
document. XForms use the same controls as the ordinary forms
described in this chapter.
After you create and save an XForms document, you can open the
document, fill out the form, and submit the changes to a server.
A detailed discussion of XForms is beyond the scope of this chapter, as
it is related more to databases than word processing. This file on J.
David Eisenberg’s website is a good tutorial introduction to XForms in
OpenOffice.org: http://books.evc-cit.info/xforms_ooo_06_08_15.odt.
Chapter 15 Using Forms in Writer 489