How To Create And Distribute interactive PDF Forms

By: Andrew Whiteman

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.

Forms can be now be created from scratch in Acrobat. Just choose Create New Forms from the Forms menu and choose one of the built-in templates. The form is then created using a utility called Adobe Life Cycle Designer then saved as a PDF file.

When using forms created in other applications as the basis of an Acrobat form, you can now choose "Run Form Field Recognition" form the "Forms" menu and Acrobat will examine the layout of the form and create interactive form fields automatically.

If you wish to use some of your printed forms as starting points for your interactive PDF form, then Acrobat's Scan From Paper option will offer just what you need.

Once you have the basic form created, you can add in all the standard form controls. In addition to text fields, PDF forms support combo boxes, option buttons, checkboxes and, of course, submit buttons.

Traditionally, only a full version of Acrobat would allow you to fill out a PDF form and then save the form data to disk. With Acrobat 8 professional, if you click on the "Advanced" menu and choose "Enable Usage Rights in Acrobat Reader", people filling out your form with Acrobat Reader will be able to save their form data and email it back to you.

Acrobat 8 Professional will allow you to distribute the form to a number of recipients via email. This of requires that you have an email client, such as Microsoft Outlook set up on your machine.

Completed forms are emailed back to you when the user clicks on the submit button. When you open each returned form Acrobat prompts you to add it to what is termed a dataset, a repository of form data.

When you have got back all of the completed forms, you can simply open the dataset where they have all been stored and then export the data in a neutral format. Just click on the Export button and choose whether you want to export as a .csv or .xml file both of which can be imported into a variety of programs for analysis or storage.

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Author is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Solutions, an independent computer training company offering Adobe Acrobat training courses in London and throughout the UK.

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