Forms

They follow us and can make us crazy

What do you think is meant by this? The voices in our head? No, it’s not that bad. What is meant in this case are forms. Nobody likes them but still they define our everyday life, be it privately or in the company, but especially in our governmental affairs 😅. You might think that our authorities love forms. It feels like you have to fill out a new form for every single process. 

But what exactly is a form?

A form is a standardized tool for capturing, viewing, and preparing data, which often occurs for similar business cases. Or in other words: A form is a document that serves as a generally valid form and is only completed by the insertion of individual components. 

What is the structure of a form?

The structure of a form varies depending on its purpose and audience, but in general a form consists of several components:

  • Title: What is it about?
  • Instructions: How exactly does the form need to be filled out?
  • Fields: different sections in the form for entering data
  • Labels: labels that indicate what type of information is expected
  • Checkboxes/selection fields: Choices, e.g., “Yes” or “No”
  • Text fields: Input of free text
  • Buttons: “Send” / ” Cancel”.
  • Privacy information

 

When constructing a form, you should always make sure that it is easy and user-friendly and that users can enter their data quickly and efficiently. A clear and organized structure can help ensure that a form can be filled out without any problems.

What types of forms exist?

Basically, there are two types of forms. Those that merely serve as proof of an activity and those that trigger a follow-up process. 

Depending on the requirements and target groups, forms can come in different forms such as an online form that is filled out and sent directly on the Internet, a paper form where a printed version is filled out and handed in or sent by mail, a PDF form, a digital form that is filled out on a PC and sent by mail or online platform, or an HTML form that is imbedded in a web page and can be filled out and sent directly online.

Where and for what are forms used?

Forms are used in many fields. Some examples are:

  • Application forms (capturing data from applicants).
  • Feedback forms (collecting feedback from customers or users in order to improve the quality of products/services)
  • Order forms (capture orders from customers)
  • Registration forms (capturing data from attendees of an event/course or even for membership).

 

Forms can and should make our daily work easier. They allow work tasks to be completed in a standardized manner, saving time and minimizing misunderstandings. This is because forms have the goal of providing certain minimum details and minimum information, which helps to eliminate queries. 

What are the benefits of using forms?

  • Consistency: Necessary data is captured in a consistent manner.
  • Efficiency: Data can be captured more quickly. This saves time and costs.
  • Accuracy: Data entry errors are reduced, increasing the accuracy of the data.
  • Clarity: A user-friendly structure makes it easier to enter data.
  • Traceability: It is ensured that all necessary information is recorded and thus clear documentation is obtained.
  • they standardize specific work tasks
  • They protect against ambiguity, which may well occur in an informal application or when words are freely chosen.

 

Today, forms are more and more often made available online, which has the great benefit that they can be filled out easily, quickly and conveniently. However, even though electronic forms are increasingly replacing printed versions, there are still many forms, especially in the healthcare sector, that are filled out by hand. 

Whether digital or paper, a form is still a document that needs to be processed. 

With DocBits, we offer you a software solution that makes document processing much easier. Thanks to AI swarm intelligence and machine learning, DocBits is able to automatically read in and out any document. It doesn’t matter whether it is a digital or a handwritten form/document.

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Forms

Image credits: Header- & Featured image by jannoon028 on Freepik

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