Customizable Contact Forms for any Platform .
Contact Forms are an important aspect when it comes to your blog [ or website ] , as they provide your users a way by which to personally communicate with you should they have a question which is more personally based and cannot be posted as a comment and be shared with the entire community publicly. After all , it is a form of blogging etiquette , since we sometimes need to contact the site administrator and either request something or even convey a personal opinion which we dont want others to see .
There are users who cannot differentiate between regular commenting and personal based questions or remarks and they will go on and post them as comments on one’s blog . Now surely – we cannot shift the entire blame on the user, as there are quite a few number of bloggers out there who do not provide a ” contact me ” link, nor a separate contact form by which to provide their users / readers with any other option within contacting them.
In the past , the Blogger Platform didnt even provide any other choice other than their generic comment form , and Blogger users were subjected to using the comment form provided by Blogger ( and there are still a great many Bloggers who are still using that generic comment form – why ? I dont know .. ) ; but ever since Blogger decided to allow the integration of users incorporating comment forms such as : Intense Debate and Disqus , Bloggers now have a choice between choosing amongst the two comment systems . Integrating any of these two comment systems into one’s blog will definitely improve not only your Blogs appearance but your comment rate as well . Blogger is making rapid advancements within many of its user functionalities – and I am sure that more such features will be integrated soon which will make Blogger a more user friendly Platform .
Another feature which Blogger has integrated lately into their platform have been the Pages feature , such as those which have been existent on the Almighty WordPress platform since its inception .
Now, since most of you have learned to use the pages feature , you may wish to create separate so called Pages on your blog such as : About or even a Contact & Subscribe page(s) . Creating your About or Contact pages should not be a complex matter – and I am certain you have by this point figured out how to do so – and now you will obviously want to create a Personalized Contact Form for your page .
Again now, as far as Contact Forms go , there have not existed a great too many options for Blogger – aside from the usual Generic Contact Forms, and yes : They are quite boring and ugly in appearance, the choices for creating contact forms for Blogger have not been many [ since one requires a database to run a contact form - something which Blogger does not have .] ; thus , having a Contact Form which one is able to customize as they want or to match their Theme has been non-existent ……. until now .
Get ready because , the days of boring , generic , ugly contact forms are now over ! You can now have a Fully Customizable Contact Form , tailored to your specifications , and even one which will match your Blog entirely ! If you would like to see what I am implying by a Contact Form matching your Blog entirely , take a look at my @Contact( Drop Down Panel at the top of my blog’s header ) – now pull that down and take a look at my contact form . Nice isnt it ? and not boring or ugly in the least now is it ?
You can now have your very own personally customized contact form regardless of what platform youre on [ be it on Blogger or WordPress ] – without having to write a single line of code – or knowing any HTML ! Wufoomakes creating and stylizing your Contact Forms a breeze whether you know how to create a Contact Form or NOT .
The first step in getting your Contact Form is to simply go to
and sign up for an account . The Free Account which they offer limits you to just 3 Forms . You can create a Contact Form , Subscription Mailing List Form or any other type of Form you want – the possibilities are endless as Wufoo offers many options . After you have signed up for an account , you can view the visual examples I have set below for guidance . It is truly a simple process and I will not go into details here on how to create one ( I dont wish to insult anyone’s intelligence ) .However , once you familiarize yourself with the Contact Form Editor you will be styling your Contact Forms within no time at all !
WUFOO.COM
create your wufoo account
WUFOO PRICE PLANS
price plans & free form plan
CSS GALLERY DESIGNS
CSS Forms Gallery
THEME DESIGNER
Designing your contact form panel
Form Builder
add a field | field settings | form settings
If you wish to implement Icons into your Forms ( as I have done below in the example Forms ) you will need to have uploaded your images to an Image host ( or your Blogger ) , copy the URL to your image and insert it using HTML into the field settings . Take a look at the example below and you can see how I have installed the icons into the Forms used here .
FORM MANAGER
managing your forms
ENTRY MANAGER
creating and viewing & managing your entries panel
CODE EDITOR
choosing your installation code
Below are just some examples of what you can do as far as customizing your Contact Forms and Mail Subscription Forms for your Blog . Please note : In the Wufoo Theme Designer where you are offered the styling features – you will see that you have the option of implementing your own Header as well as Wallpaper ( which of there exist a list of options ) or you may want to create your own, such as a logo or any other type of image you have in mind .
A Forewarning about this feature : It will NOT be effective once you install the Form into your theme, as all the forms are geared to take on your themes features. But I have found a way around this : The only way by which any of your images will be visible is if you install the header image or any other type of image you wish to use by going to the FORM BUILDER PANEL SETTINGS , and install any image you wish by going to Field Settings and installing the images directly into the Field Label box . Repeat this process anywhere you wish to install images .
Stylized contact forms
Customized Subscription Mail Forms
Please note , that after you have customized and edited your custom Contact Forms – you will be given the choice of several installation feature options within the Code Editor panel . Now I have tested several of the installation codes , here on my own theme and on my test site , and I will tell you in brief : As many Templates are differently structured , you may find that the Javascript code may not work properly and the Contact Form is NOT visible .
This means that you will either have to choose the iFrame code , or : if that does not work either ( due to your Theme ) – you may have to end up choosing the Pop Up Link Form option .
This means that you will have either a Text Link displayed ( wherever you wish to place it on your Blog ) or you may wish to replace the Text Link with an image , such as : an Envelope or an @ symbol icon , again , there are many choices for displaying your contact form on your site .
The best part about the Wufoo Contact Forms are that once a user fills out the info and submits the info required – they are not taken nor redirected off your page ( which is a big plus ! )
ICONS
If you wish to use icons within your contact forms in order to give them an added special touch , you can go to Dry Icons, as they have some of the best icons around for developers and users alike and which come in a variety of sizes from 16 x 16 all the way up to 512 x 512 px ! You may also try Iconspediafor some great icons as well .
If you wish to implement your own Send or Submit buttons such as I have done on the Contact & Mail Forms , you will have to create them , and simply implement the URL link of the image into the Text Link when you are designing your Forms in the Theme Designer Panel settings . The best way to design your forms for any of you who are not familiar with the editor is to simply take your time and acquaint yourselves with all of the various settings Wufoo offers – if you attempt to do it all in a hurry , you may become frustrated and lost . So..take your time and go out there and create the best Contact Forms ever !
Enjoy !
If you require any assistance , please feel free to contact me 
