[Gllug] Gaining feedback

[Justin Perreault]

On Tue, 2011-10-04 at 10:23 +0100, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> At work we have a system of sending out documents we have written to
> other 3rd parties.
> The job of the 3rd party is to review the document and feedback their comments.
> We then collect all the comments from all the 3rd parties and import
> them into a master list of comments, which we then use to improve the
> next document release.
> Currently this process uses Excel for people to enter their comments,
> and then we import the Excel comments into a database.
> The problem is that the Excel format does not seem to be restrictive
> enough. I.e. We wish to restrict some fields to specific range of
> values etc.
> The users invariably enter the data slightly differently, and this
> causes problems with the import.
> Does anyone know of an opensource package that we present a form to
> the user, with drop down boxes for values to put into the form, and
> one or two free text box.
> It must be possible for the user to enter as many records as they wish.
> We then need the form to be exportable to XML format, so that we can
> import it easily into our database.
> The solution must also be stand alone. I.e. Not web server or web
> service/clound based.
> I.e. A person with a laptop that is not connected to the network
> should be able to raise comments.

You could always use the form controls in OpenOffice/Excel(I think excel
has them):

Create a tab that has the lists you want to allow selections from. This
tab is protected and hidden. name 'lists'
Create a tab that will contain the answers you are collecting. This tab
is hidden but not protected. name 'answers'
Create one or more tabs that will have your questionnaire. These tabs
are protected but not hidden. name 'questions'

the layout for the questions tab is along the lines of:
cell a1 = question 1
cell b1 = "" but has a list box hiding it.
	the list box 
		takes its list from the lists tab
		is linked to the answers tab

for open questions you could use an unprotected cell or a combo box.

You do not need to be able to see a tab to pull the information from it
when pulling data into other spreadsheets.

Hope that helps,
Justin


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