Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance José Aponte Public Health Advisor Developing Surveys Using Form Designer July 2015 Epi Info™ 7 Software for Public Health EIS Summer Course

Outline  Learning Objectives  Introduction to the Form Designer  Creating projects  Field types and how to create fields  Templates and other features

Learning Objectives  After completing this section, the participant will be able to: Open the Form Designer module Identify features of the Form Designer module Create different types of fields using the Form Designer module Add pages to an existing form Use and create templates

PLANNING THE APPROPRIATE FORM DESIGN Form Designer

What Information is Needed?  Every data element should map to a purpose What will it monitor? What information or knowledge will be gained?  Individual data elements can have multiple uses Laboratory Tests Clinical observations and examinations Patients, Friends, Family and Other Contacts

Parts of a whole - Think about information as consisting of parts (i.e., individual data elements) that can be arranged in multiple ways to answer many different questions, only limited by the basic unit of capture.

How will Records be Identified?  Role of unique identifiers Allow linkage of unique records Facilitate retrieval of information  Consensus about how the identifier is defined Allows data sharing Facilitates integration with other components of a system Ricardo Jose Aponte Mendoza 125 East Main Street Centerville, GA nd house on the left after passing the church John and Mary’s son PAT

INTRODUCTION TO THE FORM DESIGNER Form Designer

Opening the Form Designer Double-click on the Launch Epi Info™ 7 shortcut The Epi Info™ 7 menu Opens and you can select “Create Forms” to open Form Designer

Form Designer Work Areas  The Form Designer has several “work areas”: The Menu o The toolbar contains buttons for creating projects, editing the form’s check code, going to the data entry module, and undo/redo. The Project Explorer is where you can add and remove forms from your project, add, edit, and remove pages from individual forms, and work with templates. The Canvas is where fields are placed, moved, and edited.

Form Designer Areas 1.The Menu 2.The Project Explorer 3.The Canvas

The Menu and Toolbar The Form Designer main menu provides an easy way to access your projects and gives you tools to edit your forms, manage your project and customize your Canvas.

The Toolbar Buttons  The toolbar contains buttons for directly entering a function within Form Designer.

The Project Explorer The Project Explorer is where you can add and remove forms from your project, add, edit, and remove pages from individual forms, and work with templates. Usually, items in the Project Explorer have a right-click context menu. The Project Explorer also has a list of “open fields” that can be dragged directly on to the canvas.

The Canvas The canvas is where fields are placed, moved, and edited. Fields can be dragged around the canvas by left-clicking to hold them and then moving the mouse. The canvas has a right- click context menu that allows users to add new fields, set the tab order for the current page, and more.

CREATING PROJECTS Form Designer

Epi Info™ 7 Projects  Projects are the standard file format in Epi Info™ 7, much like DOCX files are the standard file format used in Microsoft Word.  A project may contain one or more data entry forms. These forms are created in the Form Designer module.  Forms may contain one or more pages.

How Data is stored?  Your Epi Info™ 7 Projects consist of two files: The project file and the database. The database contains all of the information about how to display the form AND contains all the data entered into that form. The project file contains a pointer to the database.  Each page has it’s a corresponding table in the database that stores data collected into that page.

How Data is stored?

Step 1: Click the ‘New Project’ button

Step 2: Select a name for the project In the Name field, type ProjectDemo. This will become the name of the project.

Step 3: Select a name for the first form In the Form Name field, type CaseInvestigation. This will become the name of the first form contained within the project. Click the OK button when you are done.

The Form is ready for editing Notice ProjectDemo in the Project Explorer. CaseInvestigation is underneath it. The canvas has also been changed to show the form name and page, in this case CaseInvestigation\Page1.

Creating an Epi Info™ 7 Project Instructor Demonstration

FIELD TYPES AND CREATING FIELDS Form Designer

Field Types  A variety of field types exist in Epi Info™ 7 to help customize the data entry experience.  Choosing the right field for the type of data being collected: Reduces data entry errors Ensures the data collected can be analyzed (meaningful results) Allows faster data entry Improves user satisfaction with the data entry process

Field Types  Label/Title: Used to display the form title or section headers. Also used for providing directions to data entry person or interviewer.

Field Types  Text: Used to capture plain text data. There are four types of text fields: o Text (e.g., name of the patient) o Text[Uppercase] (e.g., country codes that will appear in capital letters) o Multiline (e.g., description of treatment given at home) o Text with Legal Values (e.g., sex – Male or Female), Comment Legal (e.g., P-Positive, N-Negative) and Codes

Field Types (cont.)  Legal Values: A drop-down list with a limited number of choices. Useful for eliminating errors, such as misspelling the name of a town.  Comment Legal: Like Legal Values but with a code typed in front of text (with a hyphen). The code is entered instead of the text (i.e. 1- Male) and only the code is saved to the data table.  Yes/No: Used for questions where only a positive, negative, or unknown value is desired.  Checkbox: Similar to Yes/No fields. Best used to ask about a series of items.

Field Types (cont.)  Number: Only valid numeric data can be stored.  Date: Field only accepts valid dates based on the pattern selected. For example,  Time: Is an alphanumeric field with pre-set time patterns For example, 11:23:01  Codes : Links two fields. Based on the value of one field, the value of another field is populated (i.e. County Name, County Code)  Phone Number: Field only accepts valid U.S. phone numbers. For example,

Field Types (cont.)  Option: Creates radio buttons consisting of mutually exclusive choices.  Image: Allows an image to be inserted by the user

Field Properties  Each field has a set of available field properties. o Some options may not be shown depending on the field type. o Some options may be disabled (grayed out) depending on what other options have been chosen. For example, selecting ‘Read Only’ will disable ‘Required’

Creating Fields To create a field, right- click on the canvas and select New Field. Then select one of the field types from the list. (See picture at right.) The next several slides will show the process of creating seven new fields on the form: One text field, one numeric field, three checkbox fields, one legal values (drop- down list) field, and one date field.

Field Examples QuestionField nameField Type Categories/Pattern Last name Text Age Number## Fever Vomit Cramps Fever Vomit Cramps Checkbox Sex Legal valuesMale Female Ambiguous Unknown DOB Date

Creating Legal Value (drop-down list) Fields  We probably need to capture the patient’s sex.  We want to make sure that the data entry clerk can select from only a small handful of pre-set values to reduce the chance of data entry errors into this field.  A legal values field is ideal for this type of scenario.

Create a Legal Values Field The Sex field is present on the form and will accept only the values that were specified.

Creating Comment Legal Fields  Comment Legal values involve adding a number(s) or letter(s) in front of the value.   This allow entry of data into the field just by typing the number or letter corresponding to the value.  Comment Legal fields only store the number or letter placed in front of the value.

Create a Comment Legal Value Field The Facility Setting field is present on the form and will accept only the values that were specified. The preceding code will be stored.

Creating fields in Epi Info™ 7 Instructor Demonstration

OTHER FEATURES Form Designer

Aligning Fields Forms look better and are easier to follow when the fields are aligned nicely. The Form Designer has multiple options for alignment. To align fields, simply drag a lasso around the fields you want to align. They will become highlighted as shown to the right.

Aligning Fields Right-click on the canvas and select one of the options. Select Align Selection on Row if horizontal alignment is desired.

Vertically Aligned Fields All the fields selected by the lasso are now aligned as two columns.

Grouping Fields Grouping fields allow statistics to be run on a group of variables as a whole or on the individual variables inside the group. Grouping can also be used to organize the form to place emphasis on sections or groups of questions. To group fields, simply drag a lasso around the fields you want to group.

Grouping Fields Right-click on the canvas and select “New Field Group” to open the Group Properties dialogue box. You can also select “Insert > Group” from the main menu to open the Group Properties dialogue box.

Group Properties Dialog Enter the name (Race) of your Group into the Question or Prompt field Confirm you have a valid Field Name and select “OK."

Tab Order To Show the current Tab order right click in the canvas area and select Tabs from the pop-up menu. Show Tab Order will show the current tab order. Start New Tab Order will start a new tab order on the page (left to right; top to bottom.

Changing Tab Order When the tab order is shown you can click each black tab box displayed in the order you want the tab through the fields. Right-clicking on the black tab box will turn it red; removing that field from the tab order. Left-click anywhere on the canvas to hide the black tab order boxes.

Deleting and Renaming Pages Pages on the form can be renamed or deleted by right-clicking on that page.

Adding Pages New pages can be added by right-clicking on the form name and selecting Add Page.

Using Templates  We probably need to capture the patient’s sex.  We want to make sure that the data entry clerk can select from only a small handful of pre-set values to reduce the chance of data entry errors into this field.  A legal values field is ideal for this type of scenario.

Adding Templates Any pre-built field templates can be added to your form by expanding the Templates node, selecting an item, and dragging it onto the canvas.

Creating Your Own Templates You can create your own templates by selecting a group of fields, right-clicking on the canvas, and clicking the Save Selection as Template option. Additionally, complete Forms or Pages can be saved as templates by right clicking the page or form in the Project Explore and selecting Save Form (Page) as Template.

Displaying the Data Dictionary From the Form Designer menu, select Tools > Data Dictionary

Data Dictionary Display The Data Dictionary displays Page Number, Prompt, Field Name, Variable Type, Format, and Special Info.

Features of Form Designer Instructor Demonstration

For more information please contact Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA Telephone: CDC-INFO ( )/TTY: Visit: | Contact CDC at: CDC-INFO or The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance Questions?