Aces Full of Links

Many's the time I've made comments on a form I've been asked to fill out.

I feel no compunction about editing or commenting on a poorly constructed form/survey, etc. If I can't figure out what it is you want, how can you possibly know what to do with my answer(s)?

Speaking of editing...

I would like to say that it was not I who took a red marker to a billboard next to my office. The word "reliability" is spelled incorrectly as "relaibility," and not one but two people edited the sign with the symbol for "reverse letters," one in red, the other in blue.

Man you'd hate to work here. We are all about the form. I actually like forms when they are well constructed (any form that's 30 pages is not really a form. questionaire maybe?). They save time and remind you to record important information that you might forget otherwise. We do a lot of repetetive tests in the lab so instead of relying on people to remember what to record we use forms and prompt them for the required info.

Oh and I LOVE doing our taxes (I probably should have been an accountant).

Thirty pages? The benefits of quickly filling out forms and tabulating their results have long since disappeared by that point. The same information can't be gathered by a shorter phone or in-person conversation?

Oh, please. I work in Regulatory Affairs. You want to talk about forms? I've got forms, let me tell you. Internal forms, forms required by the FDA, forms one must fill out to create forms, forms one must fill out to change forms...

Still, forms are necessary for documenting decisions. The key is a well-constructed form.

Like Bob, many of the forms I work with capture the same information over and over. I've worked to make some of these forms write-able and save-able so that the repetitive information can be input once and saved. This is no mean feat in a world goverened by Part 11 compliance, believe you me.

James's issue cries out for an automated computerized write-able survey with text fields. Instead of having a checklist to help you keep track of how much of the form you’ve already completed, the form/survey should be automated so that any repetitive information can be autopopulated.

It souds like it's just too damned long if this is a feature that is necessary. Someone didn't know when to stop writing. As a writing professor said to me many years ago: "Tighten, tighten, tighten."

I feel your pain.
If a form has some kind of memo field on it, I'll put as much info there as possible; if not, there's little point in putting a note on a form because the data entry person isn't going to be able to do anything with it.

I also hate writing them by hand. And I hate that it was distributed in .doc format. I don't mind getting a .doc from friends, but I hate getting them from strangers. You don't know me; don't assume I have MS Word.

I finished the form. My supervisor signed off on it. Even with my "creative" answers. Luckily, he's not a form kind of guy either.

One of the things that came out of a review was that forms completed by hand are impossible to decipher, which makes the information on them kind of useless, thus my work on a wrteable form, which was very well received.

Can you suggest to the originator that he or she make it a writeable form, or would that critique not be appreciated?

This is a one-time thing. I hope.

you just gotta get all mavericky on that form, there, and make some changes, cause change is good, ya know, there. Just pick up that little old pen, there, and, you know, fill out the little squares, it's not so dog gone hard, doncha know. It's not like it's nucular science, goodness, knows, even a hockey mom can tell ya that one.

Can I call you Joe?

Of course you can call me Joe.

My advice to you is, take that form and pew pew pew! You betcha.

I used to like forms. I also like lists and databases. I got over my affinity for forms two years ago when I had to fill out an online form to get my security clearance for my current job. If it were printed out, the thing would have been about 40 pages. Since it was online, and expanded as necessary if you had multiple answers for some questions, it never seemed to end. It took me three days to fill it out completely. And then, I was terrified that I might have missed something or misstated something that would end with me being interviewed by Homeland Security.

So, um, yes, I now harbor a bit of form-o-phobia.

BTW, it took me a record 16 months to get my clearance. About six months longer than the average applicant. Maybe I screwed up the form! (Actually, they kept having to retake my finger prints. I have shallow ridges.)

Three days?! You win the award for Torture by Form.