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How To Create And Distribute interactive PDF Forms
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Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional can be used, among many other things, for creating and distributing interactive forms and keeping track of peoples' responses as they are sent back to the form's originator.
The PDF format is a great choice for forms since it will allow the user to see the form exactly as it was created. Web forms, by contrast, can vary depending on the operating system and browser software being used.
There is also immediacy and flexibility of delivery. The form can be emailed to a group of users at the same time. The delivery of the form then becomes a single operation. PDF forms can also be distributed via CDs and DVDs.
Forms have been a feature of Acrobat since version 3. However, the forms features available in Acrobat 8 are a significant improvement on anything available in previous versions.
Acrobat has traditionally been a "magpie" application, relying on other applications to create all of its content. Now, however, forms can be created in Acrobat based on a wide variety of pre-created templates: invoices, timesheet, expenses etc.
As before, you can use forms made in other software such as Word or QuarkXPress. However, now Acrobat has a feature for automatically recognising where fields need to be inserted and creating them for you.
You can also use a printed form as the basis for an interactive PDF form. Just choose the Scan From Paper option when creating your new form.
After you have created the basic form and perhaps had Acrobat automatically generate your text fields, you can add all the usual form controls, such as check-boxes, radio buttons and combo boxes. Then, to complete the form, you can add a submit button.
The advanced menu in Acrobat 8 Professional contains a new feature ("Enable Usage Rights in Acrobat Reader") which allows Acrobat Reader users to fill out your form and then save the form data. Normally, this can only be done with a full version of Acrobat Professional.
You can send your interactive PDF form to any number of users by clicking on the "Form" menu and choosing "Distribute Form". You can select a series of emails from an Outlook address book or just enter recipients manually.
Returned forms are saved in a special Acrobat file called a dataset. When users complete the form and email it back to you, you simply double-click on the attached form. Acrobat opens a special window marked " Add Completed Form to Data Set".
To complete your project, after you have received back all the forms you distributed, you simply open the Acrobat dataset and click on the export button to save it as a .csv file. You can then import this file into Microsoft Excel or Access for storage and/or analysis.
About the Author
The The writer of this article is a trainer and developer with Macresource Computer Solutions, a UK IT training company offering Adobe Acrobat Classes at their central London training centre.
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