It is important to note that:

  • An HTML form is part of a Web page that includes areas where visitors can enter information to be sent back to the author or publisher of the Web page.
  • A special form processing program or script (e.g., process.pl, see HTML Form Basics) is normally required to process the form data received.
  • Rather than sending the form data collected to a special processing script, the form data can also be sent to a specified E-mail address.

The following code demostrates how to send form data to a specified e-mail address (e.g., tswong@wong-sir.com).

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Enter the Page Title Here</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H2>Feedback Form</H2>
<FORM method="post" action="mailto:tswong@wong-sir.com">
User name:
<INPUT type=text name="username" size=25 maxlength=50 value="Enter your E-mail here">
<P>Password:
<INPUT type=password name="password" size=25 maxlength=8></P>
<P>Sex:
<INPUT type=radio name="sex" value="male" CHECKED>Male
<INPUT type=radio name="sex" value="female">Female</P>
Your Class:
<SELECT name="class">
<OPTION value="form1" selected>Form 1
<OPTION value="form2">Form 2
<OPTION value="form3">Form 3
<OPTION value="form4">Form 4
<OPTION value="form5">Form 5
<OPTION value="form6">Form 6
<OPTION value="form7">Form 7
</SELECT>
<P>Your Favorite Color(s):<BR>
<SELECT name="color" size="4" multiple>
<OPTION value="red" selected>Red
<OPTION value="yellow">Yellow
<OPTION value="blue">Blue
<OPTION value="white">White
<OPTION value="black">Black
<OPTION value="other">Other
</SELECT></P>
<P>Which Web page authoring tool(s) are you using now?</P>
<INPUT type=checkbox name="notepad" checked>Notepad<BR>
<INPUT type=checkbox name="dreamweaver" checked>Macromedia Dreamweaver<BR>
<INPUT type=checkbox name="frontpage">Microsoft FrontPage<BR>
<INPUT type=checkbox name="golive">Adobe GoLive<BR>
<P>Please take a moment to tell us your comments and suggestions about our Web site.<BR>
Your feedback will be highly appreciated.</P>
<TEXTAREA name="feedback" rows=10 cols=60 wrap=virtual>
Enter your feedback here...
</TEXTAREA>
<INPUT type="hidden" name="teacher" value="wongsir">
<P><INPUT type=reset value="Clear Form">
<INPUT type=submit value="Submit Form"></P>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>

However, this approach only works when visitors submitting the form have already configured their email clients (e.g., Microsoft Outlook Express) properly.