I would very much like to add forms in the article content area. My idea is to
expand and collapse various criteria options which are shown as combo boxes, text boxes and buttons. Can this be done? We need to activate a search button. The next content area would need to contain check boxes but
also uses the same search button.

I am very new to Joomla so I am still unsure of how to do things in Joomla but have tons of web development experience.