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Filed under: Utilities, Blogging, Freeware, Web

Cforms II WordPress plugin - easily create forms for your WordPress blog

Cforms II

For non-programmers, creating web forms to collect information from a website can be a real hassle. For example, what if you wanted to put a form on your blog to allow people to contact you, without exposing your email address to the nasties lurking online?

If your blog is on WordPress and you're looking for a solution to this problem, give Cforms II a try. Cforms II is a WordPress plugin that instantly gives your blog very full-featured form creation and management capabilities. Out of the box it comes with a few pre-configured forms like the previously-mentioned contact form, as well as a newsletter subscription form, tell-a-friend form, online booking form, and a sign-up form, among other variations of contact forms.

Cforms II is oddly hosted on what at first appears to be a blog supporting a cook book. Delicious Days is actually a blog run by a couple, Nicky and Oliver. Nicky is a foodie, and the site appears to belong primarily to her, and Oliver is the techie, so it seems likely that Cforms II and the two other WordPress plugins hosted at Delicious Days are his handy work.

Filed under: Business, Internet, E-mail, Productivity, Web services, Google, Social Software, web 2.0

New Google Docs feature makes mass surveys easy

Google docs forms
It's already possible to make and distribute surveys through Google Docs, but the process can be a pain. As survey-takers log-in to edit the spreadsheet, sometimes they don't follow directions or they edit parts they're not supposed to edit. What's worse is that users have to register with Google in order to use Google Docs, but this new Google Docs feature, called "forms," makes survey distribution and information collection incredibly easy.

Forms are created in Google Docs spreadsheets via the share tab, where you'll need to make sure you select "to fill out a form." Multiple-choice or free-response questions can be added as you wish. Then add some email addresses, and wait for the responses to arrive. Survey-takers don't need to sign-in and can access the survey through an email message or a link. The responses will be added to your spreadsheet automatically.

[via Google Blogoscoped]

Filed under: Web services

Sidewalk: Easy form builder for your web site

SidewalkSidewalk is a nice-looking Ajaxy web form builder. While it doesn't have very advanced validation options (just "required" or not), adding and arranging form elements is fast and easy and setting up a new form from scratch really does take just minutes. The drag-and-drop positioning, though becoming passé in the age of Prototype, is still cool, and Sidewalk forms can be embedded in any web page just by copying and pasting a bit of JavaScript, which I think is one of its greatest selling points. When someone fills out your form their answers are e-mailed to you as well as added to a web-based database where you can search the responses and export them to CSV. Sidewalk isn't without its limitations, though. One missing feature that might be a show-stopper for some is the inability to edit fields once they've been created. For simple text fields this isn't a big deal, but for radio groups or drop-downs with many options it's a pain to have to re-create the whole thing just to make one small change. Another limitation is that, unless I'm missing something, it's only possible to create one form per account. Sidewalk is free to try for 30 days, after which time your forms will remain active and editable, but responses will only stay in the database for one day. A more permanent account will cost you $7.99/mo.

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With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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