In my current work I have had to design many kinds of forms: reports, notepad forms for customer service, feedback forms, faxable referrals etc. I actually like to design forms, but it is also work than can cause some head-ache if you don't have some technique how to do it efficiently.

So, when I have finished my first version of a new form, I usually give it to my Boss for feedback. You can guess what happens then - often there is something that needs to be added, taken away or re-ordered. As I hate to start any work second time from the beginning, I have developed a form design technique that helps me to continue development of forms easily.

Another goal of my technique is to help me design good-looking forms. In forms I like so much id the titles are horisontally and vertically aligned. That gives that pro-look, at least in my opinion. So,I want to introduce my technique here, hoping it will help You.

Use a good table (not granpa's handmade wooden...)!

I usually make a table that has 13 colums. I make the first column on the left a little wider, let's say about 3cm (1,20inch). Rest of the colums I force to have equal width, whatever that ends up to be.

Why? Because I use first column as title column. As name says, title of each row (for example, "personal details") are on that column.

Then remaining 12 cells in each row are easily grouped into 6, 4, 3 or 2 cells - or into a single cell as well - if necessary. But whole table will still look beautifully balanced, since rows still have many common vertical lines. Mathematics is nice! Look the picture on top of this article.

Leave extra (empty) row after every row..

After every actual form row, during my design process I leave an extra row. This is because, if I need to add rows later, it is much easier to duplicate a "clean row" than a row that has been modified in different ways. Look again the picture on top of this article.

... and cut them out from Boss-version!

Then in the "end" of of design porocess, I make another copy of the original, remove all extra rows from new version and hand out that version to my Boss. Although he will want some changes anyway, I am not worried, because I have a design version also saved.

Use paragraph styles for titles!

How many people really take advantage from using paragraph styles in word processors? Learn to use them, if You haven't already! Use of styles is out of the scope of this hubPage, but I'm sure You'll find tutorials in the internet.

To say shortly, paragraph styles are easy way to save font style, font size, indent, tabs and so on into a named style that can be applied to any paragraph in document. And when You change style settings afterwards, all paragrapsh with that style will be changed accordingly in a split second.

In form design process, You could create named styles like row_title, small_caption, option_text or whatever helps You. This is even more necessary if You design a series of forms. You want them all to look stylistically same, don't You?

Also You can play with font size a little bit to adjust the length of the form. When font sizes are saved into styles, it is so much easier to make final adjustments.

Adjust page margins if necessary!

Nobody likes to have a form of one full page and two lines on the other page. If You are running out of space, You can reduce the margins of the page little bit. You may need to fix the table little bit after margin adjustment, but that is not a real problem.

Save enough versions!

Save a new version after every major change. Later You or Your Boss might want to go back to an older version. No problem, if You have them. I rename versions usually like this: thisform_1.doc, thisform_2.doc and so on. Don't worry, you will not run out of disk space because of forms. What uses disk space are videos, unpacked images and software suites.

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Hope this helps You to desgin nice forms and deal with Your Boss!