Skip to main content

Forms Item: Essay

Important

Information and features vary according to the roles to which you belong and the permissions associated with those roles. For more information, contact your module manager or your campus support team.

The Essay item type allows form completers to enter multi-line, open-ended responses. Use this field when you need narrative responses, detailed explanations, or feedback. An essay item supports:

  • Multi-line text entry

  • Optional character limits

  • Rules that respond to what the form completer enters

  • LookUps that populate other fields based on the text provided

Settings

How To

Add an Essay Field to a Form

  1. Access the Connect hub, Forms module, Manage Forms page.

  2. Find the form you're updating and from the Actions menu, select Edit form.

  3. From the Build step, select the tab where you want to add the essay item.

  4. Click Add Item. The New Item pop-up window appears.

  5. Enter a Unique ID for the essay item.

  6. Select Essay from the Type drop-down.

  7. Select the appropriate label display option:

    • Display on the form appears visually on the form. If you do not show the item on the form, you must select Screen reader only to ensure screen readers can provide needed information.

    • Screen reader only is hidden visually but available to assistive technologies for accessibility.

  8. In the Text field, enter and format the label you want to use to describe the essay field.

    Tip

    This is typically brief (e.g., Nickname), but can include leverage basic HTML formatting such as <bold>, <center>, <italics>, and hyperlinks <ahref>; when additional context is needed

  9. If you are grouping fields, enter the group name in the Group field.

    Items/fields with the same group name can be acted on simultaneously through other configurations. For example, multiple questions grouped under 'Faculty' can be shown, hidden, or validated together.

    Note

    Each item being included in the group must have the same group name in this field.

  10. Click Save changes.

  11. Select the Settings tab.

    1. The item is automatically aligned to the left of the form page. Use the Alignment options to move the item to the center or right.

    2. Enter the Width and Height you want the item to be. Because this is an essay item, you may want to make it larger to provide ample response space.

      Note

      You can use percentages (e.g., 50%) or pixel/point values (e.g., 50px) to control how large or small the field appears.

    3. Set up the attributes:

      1. Select the Required checkbox to make the item mandatory.

      2. Select the Read Only checkbox to make the item visible to form completers but not available to select. This could be explanatory information or examples.

      3. Select the Show Only in Report checkbox to make the field and its responses appear only in the submitted form to the reviewer. Responses are hidden from form completers during form entry.

        For example, this can be used to collect the submitter's ID number in order to auto-populate other fields or include with the submission.

    4. Select Mobile, Tablet and/or Desktop to determine what platforms the item/field is visible on.

      If an item is required, all display on options are selected and cannot be updated.

    5. Enter a Default Value if you want specific information or a data shown to form completers when they first access the item/field. Form completers can update the value as needed.

      Tip

      This field can be used as hint text. Instructions such as "Select your intended major." can be entered and shown in a drop-down item.

    6. In the Max Length field, enter the highest amount of text form completers can enter in the field.

  12. To associate actions with the item/field, click the Rules tab.

    1. Click Add.

    2. In the first drop-down, select the If answer value is condition.

      Note

      Rules must always have an If answer value is condition in the first statement of the sequence. This tells J1 Web Forms to execute the action if the user's answer matches the answer value you specify.

    3. In the field to the right of the drop-down, enter *.

      Note

      Because essays do not collect values, the answer value should always be *.

    4. In the second drop-down, select the action you want to occur when the condition is met.

    5. If needed, click Add to add another rule.

      • Else if answer value is tells J1 Web Forms to execute the action if the answer value matches the new answer value you specify when the "If" condition fails.

      • Else  tells J1 Web Forms to execute the action if no previous conditions were met.

      • And  tells J1 Web Forms to execute the action in addition to any other action that is set to execute in the previous rule condition.

  13. To use this form item to automatically complete other fields on the form, click the Look Up tab.

    1. From the Look Up Data Source drop-down, select the data set to use. The table columns associated with the data set appear with corresponding drop-downs.

      Note

      The Look Up data source options are Data Dictionaries data sets classified as Form LookUp.

    2. Configure the attributes:

      • Execute on Load means fields are immediately populated when the form is accessed.

      • Trigger Next Set means populated fields trigger their own events.

      • Preserve User Input means text manually entered by the form completer is retained.

  14. Click Update.

  15. If you want to move the item, use the drag and drop icons drag and drop icon The drag and drop icon. to move and i_drag_drop_block.png, and move it to the preferred location.