I’m working with InDesign CS3 and have Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.0. How can I create a form (Name, Address, and so on) where a person could type in their information, save it, and send it back instead of printing out the form, filling it out by hand, and faxing it in.
What is this type of feature called and how do I do it? I’d prefer to be able to do this in InDesign or Illustrator if possible.
Thanks
Unless the person completing the Adobe PDF web form also has the full product (and not Acrobat Reader), all they can do is complete the form and print. They cannot save an electronic copy.
You are better off to create a standard web form than use a PDF form.
Duckster is correct. I’ve built PDF forms like this, with some simple equations so that prices added up to a correct total as they checked off their chosen items (it could even take into account sales tax, aka GST). It’s not hard to figure out how to do it, but they can get a little bit complicated. I didn’t use Acrobat Pro, I used a third party product which sucked, so I can’t give you exact instructions.
However, they were made with the sole intention of being printed onto paper after that, then posted via snail mail, and not for saving as a new PDF. Acrobat Reader isn’t able to save as new files - hence the “Reader” part.
With Acrobat 8 Pro you create the form, then go to the Advanced menu and select Enable Usage Rights in Adobe Reader. People with Reader 7.0 and up can then save it. By the EULA you can only save it 500 times per form.
With Acrobat 9 Pro you can save forms to acrobat.com and people can fill them out and submit them online.
You could have them fill the form, then print it to Adobe distiller and email the results or download it in some other fashion.
If that doesn’t work, there are programmer tools that will allow you to “flatten” a PDF form to a new PDF file. Look at the Gnostice Web site. They have programmer tools that will do this, and their eDocEngine or Print2eDoc or one of their other non-programmer tools might do what you want.
If not, check out PlanetPdf. They have a lot of PDF tools. (There is another similar site, but it isn’t coming to me straight off.)
A friend mentioned that the IRS have this capability. After you click on whatever form you need you fill it out and save it to your computer (which saves it as a pdf). In fact you can download the link and it saves to your desktop as a pdf. Open it and you can still fill out information and save. How did THEY do this?
This is how I would like to have it done.
Probably by using something like this. Inexpensive, too.
Here is a link to a 1040-EZ form, if this helps.
Ultimately, the KISS Principle should prevail. If you believe using a PDF form works for you, go for it. I just think a simple web form would be easier to implement for you, and even easier for your customers. The more work you create for your customers, the easier it is for them to say, “Screw it! This isn’t worth my time.” There are several online retailers whose online ordering process is so convoluted, I shop elsewhere, even if I have to pay a few dollars more. I don’t need the aggravation that should not be there in the first place. YMMV.
I completely understand and agree. I’ve decided to just have them print it out and fax in their order. That’s what they’ve done in the past.
BUT, I still would like to know how it’s done.