A photo of the behind-the-scenes penguin encounter sells it better than three sentences of text. So does a short clip of the summer camp, or a bulleted list of what each membership level includes. When the program goes on sale through an Altru web form, though, the description area often gives you far less room to show it than you’d like.
This article covers what you can reasonably expect from Altru web form descriptions, how to test what yours will accept, and the approaches that work when the answer is “not much.”
Start by finding out what your forms actually render
Blackbaud’s web forms are built to collect a transaction cleanly, not to act as a page builder. Description fields on programs, events, membership levels and donation forms are generally treated as text. Whether a given field will render HTML, strip it, or display the raw tags to the buyer can differ by form type and can change between Altru releases, so don’t take anyone’s word for it, including ours. Test it.
A safe way to check:
- Use a test item, not a live one. Create a throwaway program or membership level, or use your sandbox if you have one. A broken description on a live ticket form is a bad way to find out.
- Try one simple tag at a time. Start with bold text, then a line break, then a link, then an image tag pointing to an image already hosted on your website. Save after each and view the form as a visitor would.
- Look in every place that text appears. The same description may show up somewhere other than the web form, such as staff-facing screens, confirmation messages or receipts. Markup that renders on the form can appear as literal angle brackets elsewhere.
- Check on a phone. Even when an image renders, it may not resize to fit a narrow screen inside the form’s layout.
If you’re still unsure after testing, ask Blackbaud support directly which description fields support formatting on your current version. Write the answer down for whoever maintains the forms next.
About embedded video
Video is the least likely to work. Embedding a player usually means an iframe or script, and form tools commonly strip those for security reasons. Even if one slipped through, a video inside a checkout step tends to distract from the purchase. A plain-text link that says “Watch a 60-second preview” is a reasonable fallback if links are allowed.
Put the rich content on the page around the form
The most reliable fix is to stop asking the form to do the selling. Your website already handles images, video and layout well, so let it.
- Build a landing page for each program or offer. Photos, a short video, the schedule, age ranges, what to bring, accessibility notes, FAQs. The “Buy tickets” or “Register” button sends people to the Altru form only once they’ve decided.
- If the form is embedded on your site, add content above it. Many organizations place the form on a page in their CMS. Anything you put above or beside the embed is ordinary web content and can be as rich as you like.
- Keep the in-form description short and factual. Date, time, price notes, age limits, and one line pointing back to the full details page. Buyers who are already on the form mostly want to confirm they picked the right thing.
One caution with this approach: when the details live on your website and the price or capacity lives in Altru, they can drift apart. Whoever updates a program in Altru should also own its landing page, or at least get a checklist reminder to review it.
Membership levels deserve special attention
Membership is where rich descriptions matter most, because buyers are comparing levels. A comparison table with benefits in rows and levels in columns is hard to fit into individual level descriptions, even if formatting works. Build that table on your membership page, and make each level’s form description a single line that matches the table’s wording exactly. When the two say different things, members will quote the one that favors them at the front desk.
Formatting habits that hold up
- Avoid pasting from Word or Google Docs. Hidden formatting can come along and break the display. Paste as plain text, then add any formatting you’ve confirmed works.
- Host images on your own site, not on a staff member’s personal drive or a temporary link that may expire.
- Write alt-text-style wording even in plain text. If an image ever fails to load, the description should still make sense.
- Keep a simple document of every live description, so you can restore them if a form is rebuilt or copied.
When the form itself is the bottleneck
Some organizations reach the point where the landing-page workaround is fine for information but the purchase step still feels disconnected from the rest of the site. That’s the situation Checkouts is built for: a branded, mobile-friendly checkout that replaces Altru web forms for tickets, memberships and donations, with transactions written back to Altru. Since it sits on your own site, the content around the purchase is under your team’s control rather than the form’s.
Quick answers
Can I add a YouTube video to an Altru web form description?
Don’t count on it. Embedded players are usually stripped from form fields. Put the video on the page around the form, or link to it.
Will HTML I add now keep working after an Altru update?
Not guaranteed. If you rely on formatting in descriptions, recheck your key forms after each release.
