Here are some tips and tricks for filling out survey forms on Cartographer. Be sure to also check out the pages on Creating Surveys and Saving Surveys.
For the rest of this page we’ll be using a simple water quality form as an example. However, these notes apply to all survey forms on Cartographer:
Every survey contains built-in help text to help you complete each field. If you already know what you are doing you may not need this guidance, You can toggle the help text on and off by clicking Options at the top of the page:
In the Form Options popup, check/uncheck Show help text and images to show/hide the help text:
Cartographer checks your data for errors immediately as you enter it. It gives you two types of feedback if it thinks it has found a mistake:
Red Errors — These appear when Cartographer definitely can’t handle the data you entered. For example, perhaps you put text in a number field, or perhaps you entered a value that’s outside a permissible range. The Save button is disabled, preventing you saving your data, when there are red errors on the form:
Blue Hints — These appear when Cartographer thinks you’ve missed a field or made a mistake, but it can’t be sure. You typically see these when you haven’t yet filled out a field:
You may disagree with a blue hint. Perhaps you didn’t fill in a field because that data wan’t available, or maybe your observations fell outside the “normal” ranges. Hints don’t prevent you saving a survey, so you can optionally ignore them and continue as usual.
Many survey forms allow you to select your survey location on a small map. You can specify the location in three ways. First, you can simply click on the map. It will zoom in automatically to allow you to fine tune your selection:
Alternatively you can enter your location manually as a 10-digit National Grid Reference or a GPS Position. Simply type the location into the text field below the map and watch the marker update as you type:
