Making the most of PDF forms

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Copyright 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe confidential. 1
Making the most of PDF
Forms
Samartha Vashishtha
Vikrant Rai

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Workshop Outline
 Introduction
 Some real-world applications
 Prerequisites
 Workflow
 Creating the form
 Distributing the form
 Managing responses
 Using scripting for conditional fields
 Analysis and reporting possibilities
 Further reading
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Getting Started
 Acrobat 7 Pro or later
 LiveCycle Designer
 http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/
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Introduction
 Portable Document Format (PDF)
is an open standard for document
exchange.
 PDF is the ISO standard 32000-1
 Forms were introduced in the
PDF 1.2 format. PDF Forms
permit using objects (text boxes,
radio buttons, etc.) and some
code (JavaScript/FormCalc).
 Alongside the standard PDF
action types, Interactive forms
support submitting, resetting, and
importing data.
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Real World Applications
 Customer satisfaction surveys
 Help desk requests
 Feedback on products or services
 Purchase orders
 Quotes
 Request for Quotes
 Status reports
 Editorial checklists
 Handoff checklists
 Performance appraisals
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Advantages of using PDF Forms
 Easily create electronic forms all by yourself — no need for assistance
from IT or a designer
 Make your electronic forms look just like existing paper forms
 Make static forms interactive by adding text fields, check boxes, and
drop-down menus
 Create customized experiences with interactive forms that change
based on user input
 Allow virtually anyone to fill in and save PDF forms using free Adobe
Reader® software
 Track the status of forms to find out who completed them
 Export data to spreadsheets and XML for analysis and reporting
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Two ways to create forms
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Workflow
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Use Acrobat Forms Editor
1. Convert the form to PDF
 Scan and OCR a paper form as PDF
 Convert a document to PDF
 Form in native application
2. In Acrobat, choose Forms > Start Forms Wizard.
3. Choose An Existing Electronic Document and click Next.
4. Browse to the file and click OK.
5. Acrobat creates a form.
6. Tweak the form and fix issues.
7. Save.
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Setting Field Properties
 General
 Appearance
 Options
 Actions
 Format
 Validate
 Calculate
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Field types
 Barcodes Encode the input from selected fields and display it as a visual pattern
that can be interpreted by decoding software or hardware (available separately).
 Buttons Initiate a change on the user’s computer, such as opening a file, playing a
sound, or submitting data to a web server. These buttons can be customized with
images, text, and visual changes
 Check boxes Present yes-or-no choices for individual items.
 Combo boxes Let the user either choose an item from a pop-up menu or type a
value.
 Digital signature field Lets the user electronically sign a PDF document with a
digital signature.
 List boxes Display a list of options the user can
 Radio buttons Present a group of choices from which the user can select only one
item. All radio buttons with the same name work together as a group.
 Text fields Let the user type text, such as name, address, or phone number.
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Create a form using LiveCycle Designer ES
1. In Acrobat 9, select Form > Form Wizard.
2. Select No Existing Form in the Create Or Edit Form dialog box.
3. Click Next. Acrobat launches LiveCycle Designer in a separate
window.
4. In the New Form Assistant, select one of the following options:
 Select Use A Blank Form if you want to create a form from scratch.
 If you want to customize an available form template according to your requirements,
select Based On A Template.
5. Click Next.
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Using LiveCycle Designer
1. Finish the New Form Assistant wizard by specifying the additional
information requested. If you chose to model your form after a
template, you’ll be asked to pick one of the many available templates.
If you chose to create your form from scratch, specify page settings
and the basic buttons that you’d want to add to it.
2. Once you’ve completed the New Form Assistant wizard, you can use
intuitive, easy-to-use building blocks – such as text fields, numeric
fields, text areas, drop-down lists, list boxes, and radio buttons – to
design your form further.
 You can also tweak the look and feel of the form on the master page.
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Understanding form design
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Key considerations
 Include instructions for completing and submitting the form.
 Include tool-tips for fields.
 Assign a unique, easy-to-remember Name to each field on the Object >
Binding page.
 To make a field mandatory for users to fill-in, select User Entered -
Required for the field from the Type drop-down menu on the Object - Value
page.
 You can specify available options for drop-down lists and list boxes on the
Object - Field page.
 Radio buttons are added to the form in mutually-exclusive groups to provide
“one out of many” choices to the user.
 When you add two radio buttons to the form consecutively, they are
automatically added to the same radio group.
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Preview the form
 While you are designing a form, you can quickly preview the results in
the Preview tab.
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Ensure compatibility with older versions of Adobe Reader
1. In LiveCycle Designer, click File > Form Properties > Defaults.
2. Choose Acrobat And Adobe Reader 7.0.5 or later from the Choose
Version To Run Form In drop-down menu.
3. Click OK.
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Tea Break
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Advanced: Use scripts for Conditional Fields
Thoughtful use of scripting
goes a long way when you’re
creating PDF forms. While
LiveCycle Designer offers
extensive scripting capabilities
for power users, even users
new to programming can
leverage simple JavaScript and
FormCalc constructs to build
intelligence into their forms.
In particular, we find the ability
to create conditional fields –
fields that accept input or
become mandatory fields
based on the selection in a
radio button group – very
useful.
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Different methods of distribution
 Automatically with
Acrobat.com
 Automatically with
an Internal Server
– a network folder
or a Sharepoint
workspace
 Manually using
Email
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Distributing the form
1. Copy the PDF form file to a dedicated folder. This folder should be retained all
through until the registration drive for the conference is complete.
2. Use Adobe Acrobat to open the PDF form from the folder.
3. In Acrobat, click Forms > Distribute Form.
4. Choose Manually Collect Responses In My Email Inbox from the How Do You
Want To Collect Responses drop-down menu. Click Next.
5. Choose Save A Local Copy And Manually Send It Later and click Next.
6. Click Finish on the Distribute Forms screen. You’ll now have the following
additional PDF files in the folder where you copied the PDF file:
 [form name]_distributed.pdf
 [form name]_responses.pdf
These two files, together with the PDF form file, should be retained all through the registration drive.
Responses that you receive will be added to the [form name] _responses.pdf file and will also
be visible through the Adobe Tracker.
7. Upload the [form name]_distributed.pdf file to the conference website, so that it is
available to users for download and submission.
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Adobe Tracker
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Adding responses
1. Double-click the attachment
from the email and wait for
Adobe Acrobat to open it.
2. In the Add Completed Form
to Responses File dialog
box, ensure that the correct
[form_name]_responses.pdf
file is selected and click OK.
Acrobat will add the
response and open Adobe
Tracker to display all
responses received so far.
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Managing & archiving responses
 Whenever required, you can use
the Archive in the Adobe Tracker
to create a consolidated archive
PDF ([form name]_archive.pdf)
containing all received
responses. You can also use the
Export option in the Adobe
Tracker to export the responses
in one of the following formats:
 A CSV spreadsheet that can be
edited using spreadsheet
applications
 An XML file that can be
manipulated further.
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Adobe Community Help
Acrobat Help: http://www.adobe.com/support/acrobat/
Make your documentation better!
See this blog post to know how!
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About the presenters
Samartha Vashishtha
 The Doc Fox: blogs.adobe.com/samartha
 @samarthav
 samartha@adobe.com
Vikrant Rai
 Caveat Lector: blogs.adobe.com/vikrant
 @vikrantrai
 Vikrant.Rai@adobe.com
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Making the most of PDF forms

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