This allows you to name your form. Each form is required to have a name, so that javascript functions can correctly interpret them, and so server side code (such as ASP, CF, and several other abbreviations) know which form is being submitted to what.

Here you type the URL where the form data will be sent when you submit the form. If you're using a cgi script to send form results to an E-mail address, this is where you put the cgi script's location. You can use a relative or absolute URL.

The form method tells your page how to send the results to the action page. GET will send the form entries as a querystring (yourpage.asp?name1=value1&name2=value2). POST will send them behind the scenes where your CGI script, ASP page, CF, PHP etc etc, can parse the results with server side code. Default usually will send via POST, but it's always a good idea to specify the method anyway.

This is a unique identifier for your text field. Each input field must have a unique ID in order for CGI script, JavaScript and server side languages to reference the field correctly.

This just determines how wide your input fields are.

This section actually serves two purposes. If you have the "Single line" radio button selected, this box displays the Max Chars box. In this way you can limit the number of characters typed into an element (7 digits for a zip code for instance).

If you have the "Multi line" radio button selected, this box determines how tall your textarea is.

This determines what type of input field you will be using. The single line is just a regular one line input field. The Multi Line allows you to put in larger boxes for entering longer amounts of text (comment fields for example). The password type is a single line field where each character is replaced with a *.

Here's another area that changes depending on the type. This is the default value that will be displayed when the page loads. The user can change the value if they want. You should be careful not to put any HTML (or quotes) in this field, as it will break the HTML code for the field.

For Multi line fields, you get a miniature little text area to enter your text into. You *can* put HTML into the textarea without worry.

This dropdown affects how text wraps inside textareas. It is grayed out if you are using a single line input field, and available for multi lines. It is a deprecated attribute in HTML 4, so I would just leave it on default at all times.

Like all form elements, your button needs to have a unique name. This is where you put it.

This is the text that will be displayed on your button.

This determines what your button does. If you set it to Submit form, it will submit the form to whatever that form's action is. If you choose reset, it will clear out all the forms field, and reset them to their default values. If you choose none, your button will not do anything, except run javascripts that you assign to it. A good use of this is a cancel button:

<input type="button" name="Cancel" value="Cancel" onclick="javascript:history.go(-2);" />

We're going to cover checkboxes and radio buttons at the same time. This field is about the only thing that's different, and the difference lies in how you name your elements. Checkboxes should all be name differently. CheckBox1, CheckBox2, etc.

Radio elements on the other hand don't follow normal naming conventions. Each radio button in a group should have the exact same name. That is what allows only one radio button in a group to be selected.

This determines what value to send to the action of the form if this particular checkbox (or radio button) is selected.

This determines whether or not this checkbox or radio button is selected when the form first loads. This can be changed by the user of course.

Like all form elements, our list needs to have a unique name.

Here you can choose whether to have a drop down menu (the default) or a scrollable list. If you choose a list, the options to the right of these radio buttons will become active.

If you choose a list (instead of the default drop down menu) these two options become available. The height determines how many items from your list will show at one time. If you click the "Allow multiples" checkbox then users can choose several items in the list by ctrl or shift+click.

Click the item you want to be selected when the page first loads. If nothing is highlighted in this box, then the list or menu will be blank when it loads.

The list values button brings up a dialog box for you to enter your values for the list or menu. Click the + or - sign to add or remove entries, and you can use the up and down arrows to change the order of your list. The Item Label is what is displayed to the user, and the Value is what is based to your script to be processed.