[Solved] Which view to make a web form if I want to print it

[ngpetersen3]

Hi all,
Just gave up MS Office to start using OpenOffice. Been a great experience so far but having a struggle when it comes to creating this form. I am creating a form to put on a website that will be a job application. Once it is filled out it will be forwarded to me and I want to be able to print it out. Should I develop the form in Web Layout or Print Layout? I notice when I use web layout it doesn't look like it will print correctly but I'm afraid print layout would be small on a web page. Any insight is appreciated!

[UnklDonald418]

Web layout and Print layout appear in the View menu because they only affect the screen image.
In the context of a Writer document Print layout allows you to see how your final document may look when printed. You might say its Print Preview without leaving the edit mode.
Rather than design a whole new front end for Base the OpenOffice designers chose to use special Writer pages as the front end and called them forms. Thus Base forms are used for screen display of data stored in the underlying HSQL database.
Base reports are for displaying that same data on a printed page. As a result forms often do not print correctly because they aren't designed to be printed.
Web layout and Print layout and for that matter Print are artifacts of the connection between Base forms and Writer documents, and don't really serve the same purpose in the context of a Base form.
In answer to your question, since they only affect the view on the screen it probably doesn't matter which you use since the form isn't meant to be printed.

[ngpetersen3]

Thank you for the info. Is there a better way to make a web form that is meant to be printed?

[UnklDonald418]

No. As I mentioned, Base Forms are for screen display and Reports are for printing.
If you are storing the data entered on the Form in a database table, then create a Report to print that data. You can format the Report so that it looks like the Form if that's what you want.
Perhaps you are using the wrong program. If you are not concerned with storing the data in a database then a pdf form may work better for you. They are meant to be printed.

[keme]

I see this is tagged as solved, but just to make sure...
Base forms are used when you connect to a database online by using the OpenOffice software. It seems that this is not exactly what you are after.

You are making a form document to be downloaded, filled in and submitted to you (by upload, email etc.)?
Print view is the way to go. The actual form will not display on the web page. In the document viewer/wordprocessing application, scaling will be adjustable, so each user can choose the preferred dimension. This form will normally not be online with the database, but the user saves the document and submits it in its entirety to you.

You are making a form to publish as a web page?
Writer is not the ideal tool to create web pages. If you must do that anyway, web view will provide the closest match to what will appear in the web browser.

Ideally you should create your form in a web page editor. You can then e.g. submit the form data to a database or send it to your address by email. Final rendering (print layout) is more or less independent from initial display (your input form) and from content entered. By using media queries in your stylesheet, you can also differentiate screen vs. print output (like buttons visible onscreen but hidden on printout).