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The Data Entry Form Template Designer is a “what–you-see-is-what-you-get” (WYSIWYG) application for creating data entry forms in IMSMA^NG. With its drag-and-drop capability, the Data Entry Form Template Designer lets information managers select from all of the data elements available in the Data Inventory Manager and position them on a template. Information managers can create wholly new data collection forms and forms that mimic existing paper forms using only the data elements that are valuable to their programme’s workflow. The resulting, streamlined templates—free from tabs and other confusing navigational concepts—can then be printed and used for data collection.

You can repeat these steps as necessary if you find that the Data Entry Form template needs to be updated.

[[Image:AdminGuide_ProcessForPreparingReportTemplate.png|center|500px|''Process for Preparing and Maintaining Data Entry Form Templates'']]

Several important principles of template design assist information managers in building effective templates. These include using data elements for one item per template, creating one template for each step of the workflow, including standard data elements on all templates, allowing only cosmetic changes to text labels, removing unnecessary elements from templates and using the text tool for instructions and versioning. Following these principles, information managers can achieve the correct balance of usability and data quality necessary for a well functioning programme.

While the Data Entry Form Template Designer allows information managers to include data elements from more than one item on a single template (for example, land data elements and activity data elements), it is recommended to have data elements from only one item per template. Limiting the type of information collected on each template reduces the complexity of the reconciliation and approval process and helps ensure data quality and integrity. If a programme, for example, wants to use a general survey that collects information about land areas, activities and accidents, it is advisable to consider creating three independent general survey templates–General Survey-Land, General Survey-Activity and General Survey-Accidents–rather than creating one comprehensive template for all aspects of the general survey.

Additionally, although a useful data element may exist for one item, avoid taking shortcuts and using that data element on a template for another item. Instead, consider creating a CDF for the second item rather than mixing and matching data elements from other items.

As discussed above, each template should be reserved for one purpose to reduce the complexity and length of the template. In addition to using data elements for one item per template, information mangers should create one template for each item subcategory in a workflow. For example, an activity workflow could include separate templates for the different items, including a CHA and minefield, and activities such as a technical survey, clearance, progress report and completion survey.

Information managers should also consider creating a template designed to update the status of each item when administrative changes to items may be required. For example, in a typical land workflow, a completion survey may be submitted that creates an activity to mark the end of clearance operations on a land. In this case, it is necessary to update the status of the land from “Worked On” to “Closed.” By using a template with only a handful of fields for status updates (like Local ID, Date of Report and State), an information manager can ensure that all items of a customised workflow are updated properly and with minimal effort.

Some data elements should always appear on Data Entry Form templates to preserve data integrity and searchability. By standardising these data elements, information managers ensure that the elements at a minimum can be used to find data within IMSMA^NG.

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Like the Data Inventory Manager, the Data Entry Form Template Designer provides the capability to modify the text of existing data elements. This includes creating and editing labels, changing fonts and sizes and editing pick list values. This functionality can be used to ensure templates are laid out correctly and represent a programme’s data needs. Using this functionality in the Data Entry Form Template Designer, however, should be limited to performing cosmetic changes only, and should not be used to change the meaning or substance of a text element. Cosmetic changes include:

Any substantive change to a data element should instead be made in the Data Inventory Manager, either by editing an existing data element or by creating a new CDF.

By removing unnecessary or invalid choices from forms, information managers can improve the quality of data collected and entered into IMSMA^NG. For example, if a form is designed to be a Minefield form, then there is no need to keep other possible values for the “Mine Action Area Type” that are not “Minefield.” In this case, values such as “SHA,” “Dangerous Area” and “Other” can be removed from the form, leaving “Minefield” as the only possible choice. This helps improve data quality while reducing the size and complexity of data entry forms.

Using the Text Tool in the Data Entry Form Template Designer, information managers can add text to data entry forms independently of other data elements. This allows information managers to add additional instructions to Data Entry Form templates to help improve the quality of data entry. These instructions can include simple statements such as “Choose only one” or longer sentences such as “If the reported date occurs before January 2010, enter the following...” The Data Entry Form Template Designer even supports paragraphs or lists of instructions as needed.

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When the Data Entry Form templates are designed, information managers can publish them for use. The publication process includes choosing an organisation that the template belongs to and providing a version number. When an individual template is designed to support the needs of a specific organisation, information managers can select the organisation as the owner of the template. For example, if organisation XYZ uses a specific template to collect information, the template can be assigned to XYZ when it is published. Note that setting the owner of the template does not restrict data entry personnel from using the template. The template that is published and assigned to XYZ is accessible to all IMSMA^NG users, not just XYZ personnel. Also, if a template is for general use or not designed to support a specific organisation, the owner of the template can be set to “IMSMA” or any other organisation created in IMSMA^NG.

To ensure the most recent and useful templates are available for data entry, information managers should periodically review the status of the published templates and deactivate or delete any templates no longer needed. If a template has already been used to enter data into IMSMA^NG, the template cannot be deleted from the system. But, information managers can deactivate the template so it cannot be used for data entry. Templates that have not already been used can be deleted.

When running IMSMA^NG in a multilingual environment where different users run IMSMA^NG in different languages, information managers have two options for creating templates:

Either approach works successfully and gives users of multiple languages full access to IMSMA^NG data.

Using this approach, information managers can create a single template with multiple languages in it. Each data element label has two or more translations, as shown below. This option lets all users read the same template without any modification.

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An alternative approach to template design is to create a separate version of the same template for each language. Benefits of this approach include reduced form size since each piece of text is only represented once and simplified template creation since users can change their locale settings and begin designing templates that take advantage of the translations already provided in IMSMA^NG.

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