Form Components
Forms being processed in FormReturn's OMR form processor, are recognized using the Form ID barcode added to The Form Template and Marks made by respondents are captured from the checkbox mark areas added to the Segment, which in turn is added to the form template. These are the necessary elements of the form design which will be used in the data capture process. They are added to the form template using FormReturn's Segment and Form editors. Design a Scannable Form.
The Form Template
The Form ID Barcode
The Segment Template
Text areas
The Mark areas
Mark area Properties
Marks
The Form identification components
Click here to download a PDF file of the Form Components.
A FormReturn form template, showing the names of the components on the page.
The Form Template
A Form Template, which can have one or more form pages, is created using the form editor. Click New Form in the application toolbar and use the form editor toolbar to add the form ID barcode and the segment/s.
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 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.
If a form template has multiple pages then a Form ID Barcode must be added to every page.
Add a Form ID Barcode
The Segment Template
The main role of the Segment is to contain the checkbox mark areas of the form. A segment template is
designed separately using the segment editor toolbar to add the mark areas. The segment is then added to the
form template. 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.
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.
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 returned forms are scanned and uploaded, the form processor analyzes each mark area and calculates which checkboxes contain dark marks.
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 of the mark in a checkbox that went over the checkbox border. Therefore it is
important that when mark areas are added to the segment they can't touch any printed text, dark lines or barcodes and they are kept within the
segment borders or the detection of marks could be broken.
The fragment padding allows for the capture of any parts of handmarks that have gone outside the checkbox border.
Each Fragment is an individual mark area and will be detected and processed separately during form processing.
Mark Areas
Double clicking on a mark area opens the Mark Area Properties dialog where you can set up the mark area.
Mark Area Properties:
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 handmarks in checkboxes. Marks in checkboxes are detected using the Recognition settings of FormReturn. A requirement of OMR form processing is that the handmarks 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.
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 images of the dark response marks and the barcodes are an important factor for Optical Mark Recognition processing of response data.
Form Identification Components
There are three options for Identifying who a form belongs to. A method is chosen and added to the template, depending on how you want to reconcile the captured response data from your forms, with your data table. For Surveys, Anonymous forms can be published and the captured responses will be stored 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 captured response data with the record it belongs to in your data table.
A text area is
added to the form template to type Fieldnames taken from your data table, which 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.