Form Components
FormReturn's Segment and Form Editors are used to add the elements and components of the form template.
A form template can have one or more form pages. The necessary components added to each form page are a Form ID Barcode and a Segment.
The Segment contains the Checkbox Mark Areas and is designed as a separate component, which is then added to a form template. The segment barcodes are used by the software during OMR form processing, to locate the mark areas.
Anything else added to the form page will depend on how you want the form to look and if you want to identify who each each form belongs to. It is optional to add an Identification method which will link the response data from each form to the respondent's records, which have been added to a data table in FormReturn's Source Data. Source Data is the part of FormReturn's Database where records are stored.
The recognition preview is an important step towards designing a Scannable Form that can be recognized by FormReturn. Most often if there is a problem with form recognition detection, it is because one of the components wasn't added correctly or is obscured by something else added to the form page.
Click on the image below to view it as a PDF file.
A FormReturn form template, showing the names of the components which have been added to this form page.
The Form Template
The form template, is the whole form which can contain a single page or multiple pages. The form is created using the form editor to add each form component.
- Click New Form in the application toolbar to create a new Form Template. A form template is created and a form printed for each respondent.
Form Editor Toolbar
Use the form editor toolbar to add the form ID barcode and the segment/s to every form page in the template.
Form ID Barcode
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Barcode tool.
A Form ID barcode must be added to every form page before the form template can be published. It can be located anywhere on the form page that you choose as long as it doesn't have anything interfering with it's detection, such as dark lines or text.
When adding the Form ID barcode, keep it at full default size, taking care not to squash it against the side. The barcode needs to be recognized by the software to identify the form page.
The form ID barcode stores the published form's identification and reconciles the captured response data from each form with the data table record it belongs to, so they can be stored together in Captured Data.
Note: If a form has multiple form pages, then a Form ID Barcode must be added to every page of the template.
Add a Form ID Barcode
The Segment Template
The main role of the Segment is to contain the checkbox mark areas of the form. FormReturn's form processor uses the segment barcodes, at the top right and bottom left of the segment, for locating the mark areas, before it begins to extract the dark marks made in checkboxes.
A segment template is
designed separately using the segment editor toolbar to add the checkbox mark areas. The segment is then added to the
form template.
Click on the image below to view it as a PDF file.
Design the segment and then add it to the form template.
It can look any way you want as long as the mark areas don't go outside the margins or touch any barcodes, printed text or dark lines.
The finished Segments are then loaded onto the form template you created, using the form editor.
Segment Editor
Text Areas
Text tool.
Text areas for typing can be added wherever you need, using the text tool from the segment editor toolbar or the form editor toolbar. They are basically added as invisible areas on the template until you type in them. A text area must be large enough to fit all of the text, or you may have missing text. You can check this in the recognition print preview.
The Mark Area
Checkbox Tool.
The mark areas are added using the checkbox tool in the segment editor toolbar and contain the checkboxes which are used by FormReturn to process hand marked
responses into captured data. Mark Areas / checkboxes can only be added directly to the segment, because FormReturn uses the segment barcodes to locate where the mark areas are when the forms are being processed. When the completed forms are scanned and uploaded, the form processor analyzes each mark area and determines which checkboxes contain dark marks.
A Fragment as seen in the Recognition Preview.
Each mark area has a fragment padding which is the invisible surrounding
white area between the checkbox borders and the edges of the mark area. The fragment padding is used to capture any part a hand-mark in a checkbox that has gone over the checkbox border. So as not to break the detection of response marks, it is
important that when mark areas are added to the segment they don't touch any printed text, dark lines or barcodes, which have been added to the segment and they are kept within the
segment borders.
Mark Areas
Mark Area Properties:
Double clicking on any mark area opens the Mark Area Properties dialog, where you can set up the mark area.
Checkbox size and style
Mark Values
The Aggregation Rule is set up when you want to asign a score to the correctly marked checkbox. It is set up in the mark area properties dialog.
Marks
Marks refers to the hand-marks made in checkboxes. Marks in checkboxes are detected using the Recognition settings of FormReturn.
Some requirements of OMR form processing are:
- Hand-marks made in checkboxes are made with a dark pen or pencil, so that when the scanned image of the form is processed the marked checkbox can be detected accurately.
- If pencil is used ( for color scans only ) the Luminance setting may have to be re-set so that it detects the marks properly.
- If a pencil mark must be rubbed out it must be done thoroughly.
A Test preview using a form image captured from your scanner will show how well handmarks are detected, before you publish and print the forms. Quality scanners which produce clear, sharp images of the dark response marks and the barcodes are an important factor for Optical Mark Recognition processing of forms.
Form Identification Components
Whichever way you choose for each form to be identified and reconcile the captured response data with records in a data table, the identification component is added to the form template
For Surveys, Anonymous Forms can be published and the captured responses will be reconciled with an empty data table.
A Form ID Barcode is still added to every page of the form template, so the page can be recognized by the OMR form processor.
- Form ID - Template Variable Replacement
- Key Field - OMR ID Grid
- Key Field - Affixed Barcode Label
- Anonymous Forms
Option 1. The Form ID -
Template Variable Replacement method is a straight forward and streamlined way of identifying who a form belongs to and linking the captured response data from each form back to the record it belongs to in your data table.
A text area is
added to the form template (anywhere as long as it doesn't touch any barcodes or mark areas) to type Fieldnames that appear in your data table. The fieldnames will be
replaced with the records in your data table when the form template is published and printed. (similar to mail merge)
For this form identification method, the publication type called "Form ID reconciles-append only" is chosen when the template is being published.
A unique form for each respondent in your data table will be published and printed.
The captured response data from each form will be stored together with the data table record it belongs to.
Option 2. A Key Field OMR ID grid is added to the Segment part of the form's design for capturing respondents ID numbers marked into the grid.
The grid is added using the checkbox tool and the Captured Data Fieldname in mark area properites is changed to the fieldname in your data table where the ID numbers are stored.
A Key Field publication type must be chosen to reconcile the ID numbers and checkbox responses from processed forms with the data table records and store them together in Captured Data.
The Publication Type called "Key field reconciles - append or new record", means a New Record will be automatically generated in the data table if there is no matching ID number. This is the safest Publication Type to use for this method of form identification as it makes sure all captured response data will reconcile with a record from the data table.
A single form is published from the template and printed into multiple copies.
The processed response data from each form will link with and be stored together with it's data table record in Captured Data.
Option 3. A Key Field, Barcode Area is added to the segment when you want to affix your own barcode labels to the printed forms for identification.
If you are using your barcode label to link the captured response data with your respondent's records, the Barcode area is set up in Mark Area Properties with the Captured Data fieldname being the same as the fieldname in your data table where your barcode id's are stored.
The Publication Type called "Key field reconciles - append or new
record", means a New Record will be automatically generated in the
data table if there is no matching barcode ID number. This is the safest
Publication Type to use for this method of form identification as it
makes sure all captured response data will reconcile with a record from
the data table.
A single form is published from the template and printed into multiple copies to which you will affix your respondent's barcode labels.
The captured Barcode ID from each form will link the processed response data with it's data table record and store them together in Captured Data.
Option 4. If you want your forms to be Anonymous forms, for instance for a general survey when the respondents don't want to be identified.
Your form template will still require a form ID barcode for reconciling the captured data from the forms with the published template.
An empty table is created in source data, because FormReturn works by linking the captured data with the form publication and storing the two together in it's database.