As a programmer, probably none of that occurs to you, you figure it just gets pasted in where someone wants it. But I just set up a site for some folks, if they were told that, would look at each other then ask if there is something easier they could use. Finding the right file to edit, then finding the right place in the file to paste it, then making any changes needed in the CSS to get it looking right? Not going to happen.

I didn’t know that you could program it so that it would handle things without the javascript. That would certainly be a help, since it would eliminate one step for users, having to create some kind of backup.

That Themeroller is neat. I could play with it for a long time, even though I have no use for it. Even a simplified version of that for styling would make up for a lot of the set up effort. Although I think easier installation would give you a wider audience.

Did I explain where I was coming from clearly enough? I am happy to give feedback, especially since I will not have to try to make any of it work.

I’m curious what “hacking” you were having to do in PHP? Did you want additional or different form elements? Are you talking about having to add the CSS class or the smcf() function?

I agree about the non-JS users. My eventual plan is to have SMCF handle both situations. Just have to find the time

I’d also like to make the styling easier and have considered using something like ThemeRoller.

I am glad you liked the write up. I certainly know what you mean about issues caused by other plugins. On an earlier post I mentioned 3 I can’t run at the same time, because it messes with my dashboard. On my test site, I can run all of them, which means it is a fourth plugin that is messing up those 3. Still haven’t figured out which one.

I did not really think that the options you offer are too limited. You went with a simple contact form, and the options to CC the sender, along with behind the scenes user information that can be sent, are fairly nice.

The problem is with the installation. Having to hack a php file can be intimidating for non-programmers. I have been messing around with html and CSS for over a decade, but php is mostly a mystery to me and I try to avoid hacking the files when possible. Even just doing a copy & paste, I could end up messing up another function. Having to do that, and still have another contact form available in case the reader doesn’t allow javascript, is a lot of trouble for a simple form, even a nice looking one like yours.

I have to admit, I do not know what options you have to handle this. Giving people the option to place it by hacking is good, but something that the technophobe can do easily like placing a widget is very nice. I don’t know enough about php to give a realistic idea of what is possible.

As for the look, you can see I have blue for a background color on my site. I like it, and tend to use it for a lot of things. By digging through your stylesheet and experimenting, I could make some changes to the colors, but the header and footer gifs are black, so I would be stuck with that unless I made my own and uploaded them. And because you made provisions for readers changing sizes of your text and box (Nicely done, I hate doing that with CSS.) it is not easy digging through the stylesheet.

If you wanted to give your users options for changing that kind of thing easily, I see a couple of options. You could set up a couple of different color boxes, the black you have now and one in a lighter color, then put a dropdown menu on the option page so the user can choose whichever works better for their theme. The cforms II plugin does something like this with their CSS. You could start with a couple, then add in more as you do updates of the plugin until you have a nice library of them for the user.

Or you could put input boxes on the option page where they can place the color code they want, and drop those values into the stylesheet. That is how the theme designer for this theme did the background and border colors. This method would mean either dropping the header and footer gifs or giving the user the choice between a couple of colors to drop in.

I hope I have explained what I mean clearly and it is of some help. Frankly, the installation is the biggest stumbling block. If you could figure out a way to make that more painless, it would really add to its value.

Let me know if you want to know anything else.

I wanted to thank you for your write-up on SimpleModal Contact Form. Unfortunately, I don’t receive much feedback, so it was nice to read some honest, constructive, criticism.

There is a big problem in the WordPress community with understanding how to property use scripts – I’ve made every effort to follow the standards, but that doesn’t prevent issues caused by others (as you mentioned).

The options are definitely limited – something that was originally done to simplify the animation effects. There are a number of improvements I would like to make and I’d love to hear any additional input you might have.

As for changing the look and feel…what other ways do you have in mind? Would you want to see some more style options in the admin section?

Again, I appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing from you.

-Eric