EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced Widget Updated!

EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced widget debuted alongside the new blogging feature in EverWeb version 2.0. The Contact Form Advanced (CFA) widget effectively replaces the original Contact Form widget that debuted in EverWeb version 1.0.

The New and The Old

Using the CFA widget is recommended over the original Contact Form as the newer widget provides better security and certainty when sending and receiving email. It also reduces the chances of sent contact form emails being treated as spam by mail servers. The CFA widget uses SMTP settings to help achieve this but implementing SMTP settings in the widget can sometimes be problematical. Our blog post EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced Widget Explained should help if you run in to difficulties.

Testing that sent emails are received in the email recipient’s mail box is vital here. Clicking on the ‘Submit’ button and getting the ‘Contact form has been sent’ message is no guarantee that the email has actually been received.

If you’re replacing the original Contact Form widget with the new Contact Form Advanced widget, it’s best to get up to speed with our ‘All About the New Contact Form Advanced’ widget blog post.
If you’re already familiar with the CFA widget and want to take advantage of the new features added in EverWeb version 2.7, read on…

New Header and Description Controls

The first addition to the CFA widget comes with the new Header 1, Header 2 and Description controls. The new controls functions enable you to create sections within your forms e.g. a Header 1 control could be used as the form’s title, whilst Header 2 controls could be used for section headings in the form. The Description control allows you to add descriptive text to your form.

The new controls differ from using other form controls in that you can apply fonts and styles to them using the new Fonts and Styles section of the Widget Settings. When you apply font and styling changes, the changes are applied to all instances of the control in the form. If, for example, you have three sections each using a Header 2 control, changing the Header 2 font will change all three section headings.

When adding large amounts of text to the Header and Description controls, it’s best to have EverWeb’s spell check set on using the Edit-> Spelling -> Check Spelling While Typing menu option. Alternatively enter your text in a word processing app and spell check it there before cut and pasting the text into the control in EverWeb.

New Control Instructions/Tip Feature

The CFA widget form now includes a Control Instructions/Tip field, so you can add hints, tips or instructions about how to complete any control used in your form. To use this feature, select the control you want to add the instructions/tip to in the Form Controls section then enter the text you want in the Control Instructions/Tip field.

To add font and styling to the control, go to the Fonts and Styles section of the widget and click on the Fonts button for ‘Control Tip Style’. Use the Fonts Panel to make your styling choices.

New Submit Button Features

The Submit button in EverWeb 2.7 has new capabilities! First, you can now align the ‘Submit’ button within the form either to the left, right or in the center.

If you want to use your own custom made Submit image button, you can now do so by first checking the ‘Use Custom Button Image’ checkbox to enable the custom image button features. Once enabled, select your own custom button image using the Choose button. ‘Custom Image’ represents the ‘normal’ button state, ‘Image Over’ and ‘Image Down’ represent mouse over and mouse down respectively. In addition to these new options, you can also adjust the height and width of your custom button image using the width and height options. These dimensions are as percentages of the size of the custom image button.

The new features added to the Contact Form Advanced widget bring a new level of customization to EverWeb’s already versatile widget.

If you have a question or comment on the new Contact Form Advanced widget features, or on anything EverWeb, let us know in the Comments Section below.