IBM Workplace Forms: Guide to Building and Integrating a Sample Workplace Forms Application

Chapter 4. Building the base scenario: Stage 1 71

For the traditional form page, you want to use a preset page size of the paper format like

Letter or A4 since this page will typically be used for printing the form. Figure 4-10 shows the

scanned image that we created to be used as a template for the page.

Figure 4-10 Scanned Image to be used as a template for the traditional form page

4.4.3 Creating a scanned template

To create a scanned template for the traditional form page, follow these steps:

1. Scan your paper form, and save it in a compatible format (.bmp, .jpg, .ras, .png). It is

important that the scanned image be scaled to fit the Designer form area (945 x 1220

pixels in our case.

2. In the Designer, click New and double-click anywhere on the blank form to open the

Page Properties dialog box. Under Template Image, type the file path of the scanned

image, or click Browse to locate it. Make sure the page size matches that of the original

paper form.)

72 IBM Workplace Forms: Guide to building and integrating a sample Workplace Forms application

3. Give the first page of the form a name (such as Form Page 1) by typing it in the Page

Label

field. Using the paper form name will make the form more recognizable in its new

eForm format.

4. If desired, you may also change the background color of your form by selecting the

Appearance tab and clicking on the panel under On Screen, next to Background. This

background color will not be visible until you preview the form or remove the template

image. You can also set the font to the most commonly used font on the form. You may

also wish to include a toolbar at this point by selecting Add Toolbar to Page, but we will

do this in 4.4.6, “Setting up the toolbar” on page 75.

5. Click OK to finish setting up the page. (See Figure 4-11.)

Figure 4-11 Page Properties of Traditional Form Page

In Figure 4-12 you can see the see the scanned image as a background template on a

traditional page in the Workplace Forms Designer. The template now serves as a pattern to

precisely position our layout item and imitate the original paper form. After you have added

the layout items to the form page, you should remove the image by clicking Clear on the

Properties dialog box as seen in Figure 4-11.

Before we add the layout items onto the page, as described in 4.4.7, “Adding layout items” on

page 78, we will create the wizard pages and set up a toolbar for the traditional form page.

Tip: If the template is too obtrusive in the Designer, adjust the Image Fading bar to a

setting that is comfortable.

Tip: It is a good idea to decide on the page name, background color, default font, and page

size before you begin, because while you can change the page properties at any time,

changing them while there are items already on the form can cause problems with sizing,

appearance, and, if the page name is changed, references from other pages.