1. Apparatus for automatically building an electronic form for presentation to a user during a data capture process, comprising: means for generating a self-contained platform-independent data capture definition file specifying data elements required during data capture, each data element having a type specification and a logical relationship relative to other data elements in a hierarchical structure defined in the data capture definition file, the means for generating the data capture definition file further including means for enabling automatic building of portions of said data capture definition file according to a form definition standard; and means for receiving as input the self contained platform-independent data capture definition file and automatically generating a plurality of visual displays for presentation to a user during execution of a data capture process, each visual display having an automatically determined form layout comprising a plurality of user input areas corresponding to the data elements, in which the form layout and physical positioning of the user input areas on each display are determined, during runtime of the data capture process from information in the data capture definition file, in a manner corresponding to the defined logical hierarchical structure.