Online Help: FORMS

# How can I fill out HTML forms?

Pages containing HTML forms have <GETWEB: FORM A> at the beginning of each form. To fill out the form, forward the message containing the form back to the server, filling out any inputs surrounded by braces: [] For example, if you send a command to get the ProMED page, part of the document will look like this:

    <GETWEB: FORM A>

    Search the entire archive: ProMED-mail

    String to search for: [______________________________]
    [ ] Submit: check preceding box and forward to GetWeb
    [ ]Case sensitive     [ ]Partial match

    Return only files modified within the last [_____] days.
    Maximum number of files returned:

          [ ] 10
       OR [X] 50
       OR [ ] 100
       OR [ ] 1000

To search for 'ebola' and 'zaire' within the last 200 days, returning the top 10 matching files, you would fill out the form as follows:

    <GETWEB: FORM A>

    Search the entire archive: ProMED-mail

    String to search for: [__________ebola zaire____________________]
    [X ] Submit: check preceding box and forward to GetWeb
    [ ]Case sensitive     [X ]Partial match

    Return only files modified within the last [_\200____] days.
    Maximum number of files returned:

          [X ] 10
       OR [] 50
       OR [ ] 100
       OR [ ] 1000

Note the '\' before the 200. When filling out a form input, you must 'escape' the following characters by preceding them with a backslash (\):

- Number: write 3 as \3, you can write 50 as \50 or \5\0
- Braces: write [ as \[, and ] as \]
- Underscores: write _ as \_
- Backslashes themselves: write a literal \ as \\

Remember to 'X' the box where it says to 'check preceding box', or the form will not be processed.

Finally, make sure to fill out at most one box in each radio button group or menu. Radio buttons look like this:

    Choose ([X]) Blue or ([ ]) Green, but not both!

Menus look like this:

    Choose:

         [X] Red
      OR [ ] Black

    but not both!

Yahoo offers a short list of the best search engines; Excite offers a more comprehensive list of search engines.

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