General comments

The radio button field is similar in some ways to the check box field. However, with the radio button field, only ONE item may be checked.

Like the check box field, one option in the Property inspector window is checked or unchecked. If checked is selected, then that button is marked as selected automatically when the form is displayed. Be careful about using this option, since it might provide responses on a field the user does not intend. Normally it is better to force users to select their own radio button.

Names versus values

Unlike some of the other field types, this type requires that you use the same name for any field which is associated together. In the sample form for the speaker's program, there are five class ranks that the student can select from. But only one item can be selected. For all of these five fields, the field name must be the same (in this case classrank, but the values for each button would be different. To illustrate only two examples here:

The value here is freshman and the field name is classrank.

The value here is sophomore and the field name is classrank.

If a series of radio buttons are in the same group, you must use the same field name for all of the buttons in that group.

Positioning of the buttons

You can put the button before the label that is seen on the screen, or after the label. If your labels will have different lengths, and you are not using a table structure to control the placement, you will probably want to put the button before the label. Be sure as you view your form that it is clear which label is associated with which button.

This document is part of a set of tutorials related to putting a form on your website. The initial page is found at cals.arizona.edu/ecat/forms/olderforms.html