If you’ve ever searched a Web site, taken a poll, or made a purchase online, you’ve used a Web form. Web forms comprise pop-up menus, checkboxes, and little text boxes. They’re designed to collect information from the Web site visitor and save it on a server for processing.

You can build a Web form in Word, but you’ll need the help of a Web programmer to write the necessary CGI scripts to make the form work. (CGI stands for common gateway interface, a software convention for transferring and processing data between Web pages and servers.)

To build a Web form, you have to insert various form controls in your page—checkboxes, radio buttons, pop-up menus, buttons, and so on—that your visitors will use for submitting the information and resetting the form. You’ll find them in the Insert → HTML Object submenu. With a programmer at your side, select settings and values from the resulting dialog box.