Yearbook Labs GradForms+ Tutorial

Tutorial

YearbookLabstut Getting Started with GradForms

Version 1.1 EARLY OCTOBER 2014

+

2014 Yearbook Labs Co. All rights reserved. 1

Contents

1. Creating an account .............................................2

2. Getting Started (Dashboard, My Account) ............. 3

3. Initial Form Selection (Custom, or QuickStart) ...... 4

4. The MENU ........................................................... 5

5. Welcome screen.................................................. 6

6. Registration ......................................................... 7

7. Form Customization ............................................ 9

7. a) Info Text ...................................................... 9

7. b) File Download ............................................. 10

7. c) Short Response ........................................... 10

7. d) Long Response ........................................... 11

7. e) Multiple Choice ........................................... 11

7. f) Checkbox .................................................... 12

7. g) Upload File ................................................. 13

Aside: File Retrieval ........................................ 13

7. h) Drop Box .................................................... 14

Aside: Checking drop boxes ............................ 14

8. Registration Form .............................................. 15

9. Form Functions .................................................. 16

10. Classes............................................................. 18

11. Styling ............................................................. 19

12. Viewing and scoring responses.......................... 20

Need help? ............................................................ 22

Welcome to GradForms+! You are about to simplify the way in which you gather, store, and use data. GradForms+ allows you to customize forms so that you are in charge of precisely what data you collect. While this guide assumes that you are using GradForms+ to collect student and parent information for school yearbooks and annuals, we think youll soon find that its applications in and out of the classroom go far beyond this.

This guide will showcase much of the features incorporated in the application in a logical manner. The Menu will be introduced, and then each of the essential Menu items will have a chapter dedicated to it.

Before we get to explore the site, the first thing youll need to do is go to www.yearbooklabs.com to create an account. (So go there already )


1. Creating an account

Go to www.yearbooklabs.com.

Select Create an account and follow the simple

instructions.

It is highly recommended that you write down the

username and password that you have created and

store it in a secure place (the piece of paper under

your keyboard titled Passwords is not a secure

place, but we do that also).

You will probably want to select School, college, or

university as your type of institution.

Enter in your schools relevant information below.

Province or state is requested for time zone

identification purposes. This information is needed

when you have deadlines attached to forms, for

example a May 30th midnight deadline will shut the

form down at midnight in your time zone, not

Greenwich mean time.

Information such as institution name, logos, and even

the background colour (in hexadecimal colour code)

entered on this page will be seen on the welcome

screen that your contributors will see. You probably

havent memorized the hexadecimal code for your

schools colours (we havent), so you can just double

click on the field to bring up a colour picker, and select

your colour that way. Simply click anywhere on the

field and then vary the shade by using the slider on

the right.

In regards to your school or institutions logo when

you select a photo or logo to upload, remember that

only a .png file has the ability to have a transparent

background. .jpgs will have a white background.

After youve entered in all the pertinent information,

click NEXT.

Youll receive an email shortly with a link that will take

you to your Yearbook Labs home page.


2. Getting Started (Dashboard, My Account)

When you log in to Yearbook Labs, youll come to the

home page seen below. This page updates you as to

how much space you have used from your allotted

space, as well as how many students and parents are

registered.

It will allow you to go to either GradForms+, or

Ichipoll. For this tutorial you will be using GradForms+.

Before we leave this page, please notice in the upper

left corner a dark grey button titled MY ACCOUNT.

Here you can:

Purchase more storage space, or buy

additional student quota in the Yearbook

Labs Store.

Create guest accounts that allow your staff to

edit only the pages you want them to

Change your password (dont forget to

change it on that piece of paper under your

keyboard too!)

Lets create a form in GradForms+ now, to get you

acquainted with the app. You can get back to your

YearbookLabs+ home page by selecting the

DASHBOARD button in the upper right hand

corner.

Click the DASHBOARD button and select the GO

button on the GradForms+ section on the home page:


3. Initial Form Selection (Custom, or QuickStart)

Clicking Go will take you to a page that allows you

to either select a QuickStart template form (or forms)

option, or an option to make your own form (or forms)

from scratch.

GradForms+ recognizes that there are 2 distinct data

acquisition target audiences; parents and students.

You will be gathering information from one, or both

of these demographics.

The forms that are generated for you (QuickStart), or

you create (Start from Scratch), will be different for

each target audience (parents, students, etc.), and

reflect that different parameters need to be set for

each group.

Note: If you chose one of the quick start options, you can always modify your form(s) afterwards, so you really arent losing any creative license.

Weve made it pretty intuitive to create your own

forms as well, so if you want to be in charge of the

process from the start, select Start from scratch.

Well go over creating your own form(s) after we learn

how to modify existing ones created with QuickStart.

Lets select a QuickStart form. In this instance, well

select Collect grad write-ups, baby photos, and

parent dedications.

Youll see a page confirming that your forms have

been created:

Youll also see a green button that will link you to your

GradForms+ website, where you can see what the

forms youve created look like to the end user

(students, parents, etc.).

Well do that shortly, but first were going to

customize how our website looks to users by going to

the green MENU pulldown in the upper left corner.


4. The MENU

The MENU is important for a number of reasons. It

is your main navigation tool.

The MENU is composed of modules that will allow

you to customize and manage every aspect of your

site. Youll see the following modules contained in the

MENU when you select it (dont worry, well cover

many of them in this tutorial).

After creating your QuickStart forms, youre going to

want to review, and possibly customize three things

before you make your site accessible to parents and

students:

The Welcome screen module

The Styling module

The Registration module

Well go over how to do this in the following tutorials.


5. Welcome screen

The first thing you will want to review is the

Welcome screen. This information is what parents

and students will read when they create an account or

log in. There is some blanket information that you

should read through and cater to your own institution.

This is what you will see when selecting the Welcome

screen module:

You have a lot of flexibility to format the Welcome

Screen as you wish; you can add links to other

websites (school websites, etc.), as well as change

font size, font color, etc. using the formatting buttons

above the fillable form section.

When a visitor goes to your GradForms+ website to

log-in or create a user account, the text you entered in

the form above will be displayed to the right of the log

in/ registration boxes. You can review what the page

will look like (see below) by clicking the link to your

website in the green banner to the right of the

MENU button.


6. Registration

The registration component in the MENU allows

you to specify how you would like your users to

register in order to use GradForms+. Go to the

MENU and select Registration module.

You will come to a page that looks like this:

The default setting for both parents and students to

create and access their accounts is by using a

username that they create.

For students, you also have the ability to have them

log in with their student ID.

If we select Log in with student ID on the

registration menu page and save our changes by using

the green Save button at the bottom of the page,

this is what students will see when they go to login or

create an account.

Assuming that this was a new user to the site, upon

selecting STUDENT START, the student would be

asked to provide their student ID.

Note: Students will be asked to provide their student ID regardless of what method you require of them to create or access an account. Well talk more about this later.


After a student enters their student ID, they will be

able to create an account on a page similar to the one

below. (If a student enters an incorrect student ID,

they may still be able to create an account, dependent

on the settings you chose in the Class List module.

For more on this, see the Class List module tutorial)

Note that the above registration page is requesting an

Email address as a required field.

This is because when creating the registration

parameters, we checked the box that states Also ask

for email addresses from students (see below.) This

is a handy feature that allows you to better

communicate with students and/or parents (you are

able to request email addresses from parents as well.)

These email addresses are available for you to view by

going to the Student Forms module in the menu

and selecting VIEW DATA in the Registration form.

Next were going to look at what the actual forms that

students and/or parents will be filling out. Well start

with student forms, but the fields that will be

discussed in detail are exactly the same fields you can

add to a parent form.


7. Form Customization

Were going to look at the forms that students will be

filled out when they log into GradForms+.

Even if you created your forms using QuickStart,

you should become familiar with forms and the fields

they contain. You may want to create a new form, or

modify existing ones to your liking. Well look at

existing forms before creating a new one.

Select the Student forms module in the menu.

Youll see the following screen when you select it.

Youll see that there are 2 forms, Registration, and

Grad Writeup.

Well be talking about the Registration form in

chapter 8.

These are forms that were created when we chose

QuickStart when initially registering.

If you select the EDIT FORM button ,

youll come to a page that will allow you to customize

your form by adding a field, it will look like this:

The area on the left shows 2 fields already created;

Instructions and Grad Writeup.

The shaded box on the right with the icons in it titled

Add a Field allows us to do just that; add a field to

the pre-existing two fields on the left.

These icons are called Field Buttons.

Well be going through these field buttons one at a

time to familiarize you with them.

7. a) Info Text

Selecting the Info Text field button will take you to a

page that looks like this:

The purpose of Info Text is to communicate to your

users what you want them to do in the following

sections of the form. You may format your text in any

way you wish with the buttons in the formatting bar.


The formatting bar allows you to:

Create bulleted lists

Numbered lists

Add or remove a link to a webpage

Change the text colour

Strikethroughs, subscripts, and

superscripts

Bold, underlined and italicized script

Note: When a subsequent feature or field (Short Response, File Upload, etc.) you choose to incorporate in your form asks for a description, you will have the ability to use the same formatting tools.

You will probably want to have at least one Info

Text field in your form to go over with students what

is expected of them in the upcoming form.

You may also choose to have multiple Info Text

fields interspersed throughout your form.

Remember to click SAVE when you are done, and

click the yellow BACK button when you are done

with the Info Text field.

7. b) File Download

File download is extremely useful if you would like

students to download pictures or files youve posted

that they need to help them fill out their forms.

As the form states, you can upload files up to 100

MBs in size.

At this point GradForms+ allows you to upload jpgs,

pngs, and gif file types.

7. c) Short Response

The Short Response field works well for graduation

write-ups because it does not allow the student to

create more than one line (students are unable to

press enter or return to proceed to the next line.)

Of particular interest is the ability to limit the

maximum number of words or characters a user can

enter (see below.) This maximum word or character

count will help you when you have space limitations in

your publication.

Note that you need to add a name to your field, one

that students will see when they are filling out their

form. You will not be able to save this field if you do

not fill in a name for it.


7. d) Long Response

The Long Response is the Grand Pubah of fields that

you can add.

If allowed, users could submit a novel. (Of course, you

can limit the maximum number of words or characters

they can submit, just like with the Short Response

field.)

It functions in very much a similar manner to the

Short Response field you can add to forms, yet allows

the user to use the enter key.

7. e) Multiple Choice

The Multiple Choice field allows students an/or

parents to select one item from many choices.

The Description: section of the field is where you

ask a question of your respondents, while the

Choices section is where you enter the possible

answers to the above question.

Near the bottom of the form there is the choice for

respondents to use either radio buttons to select their

choice, or a drop-down combo box.

(If you are unfamiliar with radio buttons, they are

what youll use to select between Use radio buttons

and Use a drop-down combo box.)

We suggest experimenting with both.

Remember, you can preview what your form will look

like at any time by saving your page first and selecting

the preview button that is linked to your GradForms+

webpage.

then

Note: While the Multiple Choice feature can be used for multi-question polls asked of many users, Yearbook Labs Ichipoll polling and tabulation app is far better suited to this task.


Ichipoll tabulates collected data in a much faster and user friendly way, without regard to who is submitting the information.

An example of where Ichipoll would be a more suitable tool would be when asking multiple questions with the same choices. For example, a body of questions asked to a graduating class such as Most likely to become president, or Best Smile, where the answers are all the same.

The multiple choice field in GradForms+ is used to

determine what a particular respondents choice is,

such as What entree would you like at the formal

dinner?

7. f) Checkbox

The Checkbox field is useful for when you want a

respondent to answer a yes/no type question.

Pose a question of your respondent in the

Description field, as you would in any of the

previous fields, and the respondent will either leave

the box checked or unchecked.

An example of this might be a question such as

Please check the box if you are inviting a guest to the

prom.

Click save and the preview button to see what a

student will see when they are filling out the

GradForm+ you have created:

Notice now that the above form has a checkbox

beside Prom Date.

The name you entered in the field beside Checkbox

when creating this feature of the form will appear in

bold and a larger size font.


7. g) Upload File

The Upload File feature of GradForms+ allows users

to upload a single file that you can download. As

noted on the page, this file will be replaced if another

file is uploaded.

Note that you can designate the maximum size of file

upload, and what type of file you will accept. The

default setting is 100 MB of any file type.

In the example below, note that we set the

parameters to .1MB and only .jpgs

Trying to upload a .jpg photo that is 2.5 MB will result

in the following message:

Trying to upload a file that is the wrong file type (ie.

a .png file) will result in the following message:

When the user uploads a file of the correct type and

size, they will get a Saved message to let them

know their file uploaded successfully.

Note: A user is allowed to view the file they have uploaded in File Upload by selecting the highlighted View file in the form they are editing (see below).

Aside: File Retrieval

Downloading files is easy!

Select the Students Forms module from the

MENU

Select VIEW DATA from beside Grad Writeup

You will be given the choice to either view or

download a file that a single user has uploaded by

selecting one of either View/Get from beside that

students name:

or download all uploaded files as a .zip file.

You will be met with the following drop down menu:

If you had created more than one File Upload in

your form, you could download all uploaded files by

selecting GET ALL. If you only want to download

files associated with specific File Uploads, simply

select the name of that File Upload (in this case,

Dog Pictures.)

A .zip file will be downloaded to wherever you have

your files downloaded, but the neatest thing?


When the file is unzipped, the file name will be

renamed after whoever uploaded it, followed by

which file upload the picture belongs to!

Note that the file above was originally uploaded to

the File Upload Dog Pictures as a file named

05467.jpg.

Before it was downloaded, GradForms+ changed the

file name to reflect the person who uploaded it (in this

case, John Lennon!)

The persons last name will appear first, followed by

an underscore and their first name, and finally, an

underscore followed by which File upload the file is

associated with (in this case Dog pictures).

If you have a second File Upload where students

were asked to upload a picture of their cat, as well as a

File upload for their dogs, the cat files would be

easily distinguished by the inclusion of the Cat

_pictures in the file name.

Amazing!

7. h) Drop Box

Drop Box allows a user to upload multiple files, in

essence, it is very similar to File Upload in that:

You designate accepted file types

You designate maximum file

But it does differ in a few key ways

You can limit how many files in total a

user may upload

Any file a previous owner has uploaded

will not be deleted by them uploading a

new file in Drop Box

You can choose whether or not a user

can view their submitted files

Similar to most fields associated with a form, you can

add a description better detailing exactly what you

would like students to upload in the Description:

field.

Aside: Checking drop boxes

You can either check drop boxes as if they were file

uploads (which they are, in a sense). But, we also have

a Drop Boxes module where you can look at every file

that you have collected.

Go to MENU > Drop Boxes. You will see the drop

box(es) that you have set up. Clicking on any one of

them will show you a file list, along with the students

or parents who have submitted them.

As with file uploads, you can download them all as a

zip.


8. Registration Form

We briefly looked at the initial registration procedure

in chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7.

While the Registration form acts in a similar fashion

to a regular form, (we modified the Grad Writeup

form in our example) it has one key difference. You

can toggle its visibility on and off after the initial

student registration.

When a registered student or parent (a student in this

case) logs in, they will see the following screen (if you

have disallowed them access after initial registration)

If you had selected the dark grey button on the left

that reads ALLOW ACCESS TO THIS FORM AFTER

REGISTRATION, the user would see the following:

This would allow the user to edit the information that

they initially entered during registration. The choice is

really up to you!

Note: One reason to not allow users to modify a registration page after their initial registration is that during initial registration you can have the user agree to any terms of use you wish.


9. Form Functions

To the left of any form (the Grad Writeup form in

this case), youll see 4 icons (see below.) Well review

them from left to right.

Note: These icons do not appear beside the Registration form

a) Form Removal: The first icon, an X in a red field, is

used to remove a form. You will be asked to confirm

this choice before the form is permanently deleted.

b) Form Order: The second icon showing two blue

arrows, allows you to move a form so that it shows up

in a different order when viewed by your end user.

When selected, the form to be moved will shake on

the screen, and you will be able to choose which form

it should sit under.

This is useful if you create a new form and your forms

are in such an order that one needs to be seen before

the other.

This will also be useful if you choose to use the Logic

function.

c) Get Info: This tool allows you to rename a form.

d) Form Logic: Form logic allows you to omit a field

from a form, or a subsequent form altogether.

Form logic is a powerful tool that you may not find

yourself using initially, but it can help you cater your

forms to the user.

In the example below, we have 3 forms; Registration,

sample1, and Grad Writeup.

A student will only see the registration screen (as

discussed extensively in chapter 8) when they initially

register, should you choose it.

Sample 1 is a form created for this demonstration.

In this instance, we have made a very simple single

question checkbox form:

The user will see it as follows:

In this instance the description of the checkbox asks

the student if they would like to carry onto a grad

form.

If the student checks the box, they are able to press

SAVE, and carry onto the Grad Writeup form.


If you want the user to skip certain forms based upon

what they enter into an initial form, you would select

the logic feature (an icon of a light switch).

In this instance, we asked our user in sample 1 if

they wished to complete a grad form. If the user

checks the box, we want them to be able to fill out a

Grad Writeup form, so we leave the Grad Writeup

form visible.

If the user doesnt check the checkbox asking them if

theyd like to fill out a form, then they will not have

the option to fill out the form.

To make this happen, you would select the ADD

LOGIC button beside the Grad Writeup form and

press the ADD LOGIC button. Select the radio

button that says Show form when, and use the pull

down menus to show the following:

Note that the pull down has all the features that were

added to the forms you have created. This means that

you can customize a form to either hide or show

based on what the respondent answers.

Notice the AND/OR on the upper-right corner.

If you choose AND, the form will show or hide only

when ALL of the conditions are met. So, lets say you

have some checkboxes that you want a student to

check before proceeding with another form. AND is

perfect here, because if set, the form will not appear

unless all conditions have been met, or in this case, all

checkboxes are checked. If you have chosen OR, at

least one condition has to be met. So, in this case, the

student can just check one checkbox to proceed with

the other form.

If you have another form with rules that you want to

copy to this form, there is a Copy logic from

pulldown on the lower-right corner.

In the next chapter, well look at another example of

where logic can be useful.


10. Classes

As we hinted at before, GradForms+ is great for

yearbooks, but its also great for general classroom

use. Suppose you have three classes you want to

collect assignments for. You can collect them all

without getting your students confused as to why

there is a drop box for a French Revolution essay

when they are only taking English class, for example.

So, how do you keep your forms for each class

separate, so students dont see the forms for classes

they have not enrolled in? Its actually very easy to do

with Logic. Lets walk through how you can

accomplish this.

Lets say you have three classes: Social Studies 10,

English 11, and Literature 12.

1. Go to MENU > Student Forms. In the

Registration form (the upper-most form),

click on EDIT FORM.

2. Add a check box for each class. You should

now have the following on the Registration

form:

If you happen to also manage the yearbook,

you can have one more checkbox labeled I

am graduating this year, which, when

checked, will allow the student to see grad-

related forms.

3. Create forms for each class. Each class can

have multiple forms. You should end up with

the following:

4. For each form, click on the switch icon for

Logic.

5. Click ADD LOGIC.

6. Keep Show form when checked. The first

dropdown should be set to the class that

corresponds to the form. For example, SS10

French Revolution should have the dropdown

set to Social Studies 10. The second

dropdown should be set to is checked.

Leave the rest as-is.

7. Click SAVE. Now, this form will only show

when the student has checked the

corresponding course checkbox during

registration.

8. Repeat for your other classes forms.

Now, remember that you can copy logic from one

form to another using the Copy logic from

dropdown on the lower-right corner. If you have

already set SS10 French Revolutions logic, then for

SS10 New France, just use the dropdown and select

the SS10 French Revolution to copy the formers logic

to the latter.

What will the student see? Well, when registering, the

student will see checkboxes for each course that you

teach. He can just check the ones that he is enrolled

in.

If he checks Literature 12, then he will only see forms

associated with that class.


11. Styling

Now that our forms are all set up, here comes the fun

part: making your forms look nice.

Go to MENU > Styling to see all your styling options.

With this module, you can set the background

pattern, and whether or not you want drop shadows

and rounded corners. For example, the settings above

will result in this design:

To change the background color, go back to the

Dashboard by clicking on the ribbon at the upper-left

corner.

Next, go to MY ACCOUNT, then Change

province/state, color, or logo. Click on the color

selection and choose another color.

Remember that you dont have to know what code

your new color is. Just click on the color selection and

a palette will appear.

Your new color is applied to both GradForms+ and

Ichipoll backgrounds.


12. Viewing and scoring responses

The data you collect is not very useful if you cant

retrieve them. So, heres how you can view data.

Weve already discussed how you can view uploaded

files and drop box submissions. Viewing other forms

of responses is even easier.

Go to MENU > Student Forms or Parent Forms

(depending on the responses you wish to view). Now,

click VIEW DATA for the corresponding form.

You can see all responses in the table view.

You can also view responses for only one student or

parent. This is useful if you are collecting long

paragraphs, because its not possible to view them in

their entirety without drilling deeper. Just click on the

response that you want to look at.

Remember the Editable selection when you insert a

field? Its near the SAVE button in the screenshot

below.

Well, you can tick it, and the student or parent wont

be able to provide a response. Now, why would you

want to do this?

First, if you have set a deadline for a certain response

(lets say you want all the write-ups in by a certain

date and time), you can set the field to be non-

editable after the deadline.

Additionally, you can set a field to be non-editable

when you want to provide feedback to the student or

parent. When you are looking at his or her responses,

you can actually edit them (try it!). You can also edit

responses whose field is non-editable. For example,

lets say you want to let the student know his score in

an essay over GradForms+.

You create a non-editable Score short response box.


This is what the student sees.

Notice that Score is grayed-out. He cannot edit it.

This is what you see when looking at the students

responses.

Notice that score is editable in this case. So, you can

enter a score, lets say 85. Your student will see this

the next time he accesses the form.

Notice that he still cannot edit the score, but can only

view it. Also, because the deadline is over (remember

to set it beforehand), he cant edit his response either

(the grayed-out effect isnt applied to the long

response for technical reasons).

Where might this be useful for a yearbook? Well, if

you are requiring that that parents pay for the

inclusion of their dedication to the grad in the

yearbook, then you can set up a non-editable

checkbox that you can tick when you have received

the payment. This is what the parent sees on the

dedication form:

In this case, the parent has not paid, and he cant

check the checkbox. Only you can.


Need help?

That concludes our tutorial. If you need additional

help, dont hesitate to email us.

[email protected]

Dont forget to click on the ? button throughout

GradForms+, they provide additional information not

found here.

There is a lot that we didnt cover, such as Message

Center and Guest Accounts. Both of these features

have help documents associated with them, so we

encourage you to check them out. They are very

useful features; the former lets you communicate to

students and parents via instant messaging and/or

email, while the latter lets you create accounts for

colleagues or students (e.g. teacher assistants, or the

student(s) working on the grad section of the

yearbook) to gain limited access to form-editing

features, as well as responses that you collect.

Note: While Message Center is available in the MENU, Guest Accounts is only accessible by going back to the Dashboard (click on the ribbon in the upper-left corner), then clicking on MY ACCOUNT.

We hope you enjoy using GradForms+!

Yearbook Labs GradForms+ Tutorial

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