What Product to Create Fill in Blank Forms for Everyone to Save?

[Al_Franz@adobeforums.com]

New to Acrobat and trying to figure out what product I would need to...

Create a PDF document for which end user could fill in the blanks on their PC? What would they need on their end? Only Adobe Reader?

Also I see some PDF files that you can fill in the blank but the end user can not save the document with their data entered into the form. Does this depend on the product the creator of the form/document uses? Depends on the Reader version they have?

[Garrett_Cobarr@adobeforums.com]

Reader will not save. Standard has a limited save and Pro has all save abilities.

I think this answers your second question but sometimes those forms you see are intended to submit the data through an internet connection to a database.

For experienced Acrobat users one of the most sought features would be the ability save form fields while in Reader. Alas, sigh.

[Ian_Mellors@adobeforums.com]

<http://www.adobe.com/products/server/readerextensions/overview.html>

but it ain't cheap!

[W_T_Allen@adobeforums.com]

Standard has a limited save and Pro has all save abilities




That is not true. Standard has fewer editing capabilities than Pro, but it doesn't have anything like a "limited save." What would that even be?

[rcbob@adobeforums.com]

What good is it to create forms in PRO when the end user cannot save them. I cant't see buying the Standard or Pro for all my sales force just to do a save. I guess i wasted my money.

[W_T_Allen@adobeforums.com]

Reader can print the filled-out forms or submit the data.

[George_Johnson@adobeforums.com]

What good is it to create forms in PRO when the end user cannot save them...




Reader users can save a filled-in form, but you as the form creator must pay for that ability by using the above mentioned Reader Extensions server.

George

[Garrett_Cobarr@adobeforums.com]

George what I meant by a limited save was my assumption that Standard replaced the original Approval. What I actually meant was it had a more limited ability to edit changes to save.

Yikes, I have got to stop responding to posts at 2:30 in the morning.

[Garrett_Cobarr@adobeforums.com]

"What good is it to create forms in PRO when the end user cannot save
them?"




rcBob, there are many who would agree. The user argument has been: make the Reader end savable so that they then can be emailed back or saved as a record. This would increase the value, and thus sales of Acrobat, because the Reader user still could not create a PDF.

But Adobe has taken the position that making the Reader able to save would undermine sales of Acrobat itself. Myself and everybody I talk to disagrees with this notion.

Despite this, the ability for a user to download a form fill it out and submit it on-line or print it is very valuable. But even in this case the user is left with no permanent copy, except in the later case of making a copy.

There is a lot of confusion by users over what the differences between Reader and Acrobat really are but it is not unlike making a Flash project in the Flash application which is much more complicated and memory large than the Flash player/plug-in which simply runs the final project for the user.

[Eljon Greene]

You need a third-party program to process the submitted data from Adobe
Reader. The most flexible are web-based ones because it allows users to
access the documents outside of the office (if that's what you desire)...If
you are not a programmer you might want to consider a product like
formGenie. To view a demo, visit [url]www.form-genie.com[/url].


<Al_Franz@adobeforums.com> wrote in message
news:3bb3ce77.-1@webx.la2eafNXanI...

> New to Acrobat and trying to figure out what product I would need to...
>
> Create a PDF document for which end user could fill in the blanks on their

PC? What would they need on their end? Only Adobe Reader?

>
> Also I see some PDF files that you can fill in the blank but the end user

can not save the document with their data entered into the form. Does this
depend on the product the creator of the form/document uses? Depends on the
Reader version they have?

[Ian_Mellors@adobeforums.com]

Garrett,

Adobe would like us all the think that 6.0 STD replaces Approval, and so would their shareholders!

[Garrett_Cobarr@adobeforums.com]

Ian, do you you know much about Standard?

It appeared, to me, reading the features highlites that it was for people on Windows who used Word or Visio to make PDFs directly.

Last year I did a project for a client who wanted some of their sales staff to be able to save updated versions of prices in their PDFs. They, of coarse, did not want 300 copies of Acrobat, not so much for money reasons, but because it was just too much for the general user who just wanted to update a few items and resave the PDF.

This was the primary purpose of Approval which was response to the general demand for a savable Reader, a demand that has not gone away. But Standard seems different. any thoughts? Have you worked with it?

[W_T_Allen@adobeforums.com]

Adobe has allowed content producers to shift the cost from the end users to themselves. They can spend $75K or so and allow their end users to save PDFs.

Has anybody ever seen one of these PDFs? I haven't.

[Larry_Tilley@adobeforums.com]

Acrobat Approval will do the trick for you.

[George_Johnson@adobeforums.com]

Has anybody ever seen one of these PDFs? I haven't.




Outside of the ones Adobe has made available on their web site, no.

George

[Garrett_Cobarr@adobeforums.com]

WT I am sorry but what is the context of your comment? I did not understand to what you are refering to.

Larry, are you answering me? You are aware that Approval is no longer available and they have moved to Standard, more or less.

[George_Johnson@adobeforums.com]

But Standard seems different. any thoughts? Have you worked with it?




Approval is just a viewer application, and has no commenting capabilities. It is not used to convert files to PDF. Acrobat 6 Standard allows you to convert files to PDF and do commenting.

George

[W_T_Allen@adobeforums.com]

My comment was in response to:

This was the primary purpose of Approval which was response to the general
demand for a savable Reader, a demand that has not gone away.




There is a savable Reader, it just costs the content producer money, not the end user (like it used to).

[Susan_Engwall@adobeforums.com]

How can youy cofigure it so that the end user can submit the data?

[W_T_Allen@adobeforums.com]

Submitting the data is simple, just set up a submit button on the form and point it to the script on your server that handles PDF form data.