The Select Menu Element

The select menu element represents an html 'select' element and is used to present a drop down menu where the form user can select one or more menu options:


Create a select menu by clicking 'Select Menu' under the Form Elements heading in the 'Add New Element' menu:

Then edit the attributes for the select menu

and click the 'Create' button.

Menu Options

A select menu is made up of option elements:

<option id="idvalue">Menu Option Text</option>

where Menu Option Text is the text that appears as a menu option in the drop down menu and id is the value portion of the name=value pair passed to your form processing script if this option is the one selected when the form is submitted.

A tabbed menu for editing menu options will appear above the "Edit Select Menu" form

Details on adding and editing menu options can be found here:

Add Menu Options
Edit Menu Options
Order Menu Options
Import Menu Options

ID

ID is the document object model identifier for the select menu. The important thing to remember about any id you assign is to make it unique among all the elements in the form. The editor will remind you if you try to assign a duplicate id to any element.

Name

Name is the identifier passed to your form processing script as part of a name=value pair that identifies the menu option chosen by the form user. The value is set to the id attribute of the option that is selected when a user submits your form.

For example, if you give a select menu a name of "state" and provide 50 menu options, each with the state abbreviation as an id and the state name as the menu option text (e.g. OH as id and Ohio as text) and a user selects 'Texas', the string state=TX would be passed to your form processing script.

The ID attribute and the Name attribute can (and often do) have the same value. In the administration pane of formArchitect, you can tell the editor to automatically assign whatever you enter as ID to Name as well.

Whether you copy the ID attribute to Name or not, you should be sure to assign a unique value for name to each field in the form you want passed to your form processing script.

Label

Label represents an html label element that serves as a caption for the select menu, telling the form user what he or she is selecting in the menu. Enter the text of the label here, or leave it blank if you don't want a label assigned.

One of the useful features of the label is that a form user can give focus to the select menu by clicking on the select menu itself, or on the text of the label also.

The label doesn't have a fixed position in relation to the select menu (like the relationship between a fieldset and a legend) and can be moved above, below, or to either side of the select menu in the presentation pane of formArchitect.

Multiple Selections?

Select 'Yes' to allow the form user to select multiple menu items (by holding down the 'control' or 'shift' keys while selecting multiple options). Check your scripting language documentation for instructions on parsing multiple selection values.

Rows Visible

Rows Visible specifies the number of rows in the select menu (the number of menu options) that should be visible at the same time.

Access Key

Access Key allows you to specify a character that will allow a user to select the select menu without using the mouse or another pointing device. The actual key combinations (shift-[key], alt-[key], etc.) vary by browser.

Although designed to make forms more accessible to those unable to use a mouse, this attribute can cause conflicts with other assistive technology (like screen readers) and is poorly implemented at best. I've included it here for completeness, but be sure to research the implications of specifying an Access Key before doing so.

Tab Order

By using the 'tab' key on their keyboard, a user can cycle through and access all the elements in your form without using the mouse to select them. Tab Order allows you to specify the position of the select menu in your form's tabbing order.

If this attribute is left blank (or set to 0), this select menu will be placed in the tabbing order as it appears in the form.

If Tab Order is set to a negative number, this select menu will be removed from the tabbing order.

If set to a positive number, elements in the form will be selected in increasing Tab Order with this select menu being selected in the position you enter here.

Disabled

When Disabled is set to 'yes', a user will be unable to enter text into the select menu. Additionally, a disabled select menu cannot receive focus, will be skipped in tabbed navigation, and it's contents will not be sent to your form processing script.

Editing / Deleting a Select Menu

The "Edit Select Menu" form is the same as the "Add New Select Menu" form with two exceptions.

First, the current values for each attribute are filled in. Edit these attributes as you wish then click the 'Save' button at the bottom of the form to save your changes.

Additionally, a link to delete the select menu can be found below the 'Save' button:

Click this link to permanently delete the select menu.