How To: To create a basic form, all you need to do is convert your form to PDF and overlay form fields..
So you're the master of your bureaucracy, with paperwork going out into the world and coming home full of new and interesting information that needs to be processed.
The traditional paper-based workflow can be time-consuming and expensive.
Digitizing the whole process speeds up not only the sending and receiving of forms, but the processing of the information you receive.
PDF forms can be e-mailed as an attachment, saving you from printing a document, feeding the paper into a fax machine and waiting for a return receipt.
You can also post a PDF form to your Web site and make it available for download.
Users can download forms and save them to the desktop, giving them time to fill in lengthy documents rather than having to do it all in a single sitting through your site.
And, since the form is a PDF, you don't have to worry about users causally destroying your form's presentation or format.
Once you feel comfortable with the basics of manipulating PDF forms, you can automate the extraction of data into spreadsheets and databases.
This comes in handy particularly when dealing with large numbers of forms that need to be processed.
You can also apply security settings to PDF forms, controlling what the user can manipulate, and ensuring that only your intended recipient is using the form in the first place.
We'll cover these options in a subsequent article.
The most basic type of PDF form is the "print and fill."
Like traditional paper forms, these are designed to be filled out by hand, but can be found online and printed to be returned via snail mail.
Flipping that paradigm, you have "fill and print" forms. Acrobat users can save these forms after filling them out, but Adobe Reader users can only print and send the forms.
The PDF can be printed and the forms filled out the old-fashioned way, or a user can type the text into the forms, then print the completed document for submission.
Next Page: How to create a form.
How to Create a Form
The general procedure for creating a form in Acrobat 7.0 Professional is to start by creating a form document in any application, such as Microsoft Word, or converting a paper form into PDF.
If you're starting from scratch, you may want to download some of the free Microsoft Word templates.
Be sure that you are happy with the way your document looks before converting into PDF, as you won't be able to change the form layout in Acrobat.
Make a copy of your Word document to preserve the original formatting.
There are dozens of third-party programs available for converting Word documents to PDF, but you'll always want to keep an original copy of your file on hand no matter which you use.
If you have Acrobat, the simplest method for creating PDF files is to use the Adobe PDF printer:
- In Word, choose File > Print.
- Choose Adobe PDF from the Printer Name pop-up menu.
- Click OK, and specify a filename and location for the PDF file, then click
- Save.
Open your new PDF in Acrobat. If you are adding multiple forms to a document you should open the Forms Toolbar on your desktop. From the toolbar, choose Tools > Forms > Show Forms Toolbar.
To insert a text field, click the Text Field tool on your Forms Toolbar, then use the mouse to draw a marquee around the area in which you want to create a form field (such as the fill-in line for name, address, ZIP code and so forth).
Hold the left button while drawing the box, and when you release, a Text Field Properties window will appear, letting you set options. The default options are "Scroll long text" and "Check spelling." If you intend to print the document as is, you should turn off the Scroll feature, because not doing so means that you won't see any of the scrolled text when printing.
Other options include "Multi-line" for long form entries (such as comments) and "Allow Rich Text Formatting," which lets users apply text styles such as bold and italics to their entries. You can also Password protect the field for extra security.
You must designate each form field with a unique name.
From the Properties box, choose General and fill in the field name. These names will not be visible to the user, but they will be used for database connectivity (should you choose to implement that option at a later time).
Then choose the type of form field from the Type pulldown, and add a description of the field in the Short Description box.
This is used by the screen reader for vision-impaired users. Click OK to accept the default settings, and you have created your first form.
In addition to inserting a Text Field, which would be used for areas like "Name" or "Address" on a paper form, you can insert a Signature field for digitally signing the document, Radio Buttons for letting your user choose only one option from a list such as Yes/No boxes, or Combo Boxes for pulldown menus with editable text boxes.
We'll cover these options and more in our next forms article.
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