Report to user editable PDF form

[John]

Hi

We have a report that is sent to clients via email. They then print it out,
scribble info by hand on printed copy and then either have it scanned and
emailed or fax it to us.

Is there anyway to printout the report into a user editable PDF form so they
can edit online and email back to avoid manual steps?

Thanks

Regards

 

[James A. Fortune]

Hi

We have a report that is sent to clients via email. They then print it out,
scribble info by hand on printed copy and then either have it scanned and
emailed or fax it to us.

Is there anyway to printout the report into a user editable PDF form so they
can edit online and email back to avoid manual steps?

Thanks

Regards

I would first investigate to see if PDF Forms is what you're looking
for. For example:

http://www.techdocs.ku.edu/docs/acrobat_5_forms.pdf

Post back if PDF Forms is not sufficient for your needs. There are many
other things that can be done, including some that somehow involve the
Access database program . Also, IMO, Access should not be used as a
back end for web data.

James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)

 

[John]

Hi James

PDF form is fine and I did one manually that works fine. We are happy to
email such a form to clients once it is created from access report.

By online I meant received via email by clients, for them to fill on their
machine and email back.

Thanks

Regards

 

[James A. Fortune]

Hi James

PDF form is fine and I did one manually that works fine. We are happy to
email such a form to clients once it is created from access report.

By online I meant received via email by clients, for them to fill on their
machine and email back.

Thanks

Regards

Perhaps you misunderstood my suggestion. By PDF Forms I don't mean an
ordinary PDF document. Adobe has created a special kind of PDF document
that will accept input from users who are presented with a PDF interface.

JAF
(e-mail address removed)

 

[John]

James, that is what I need. Is it possible to create an acrobat form from
access data some how?

Thanks

Regards

 

[James A. Fortune]

James, that is what I need. Is it possible to create an acrobat form from
access data some how?

Thanks

Regards

I don't know for sure. I often create PDF documents from Access using
Access data to populate the document, but I've never created a PDF Forms
document from Access. I'll have to look into this further to see if
Adobe's PDF Reference documentation includes any information about how
to create a PDF object that gives a field (tagged?) that capability.

The Adobe document:

http://www.adobe.com/education/instruction/acrobat/pdfs/acr8_forms_primer.pdf

seems to indicate that Acrobat Professional (with LiveCycle Designer
included) has everything necessary to create PDF Forms. It also
suggests that an XML page can be used as storage for the fields on the
PDF form. I think I used a PDF Forms file from the IRS site to do my
taxes the last few years and I liked how it worked.

James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)

 

[James A. Fortune]

I'll have to look into this further to see if
Adobe's PDF Reference documentation includes any information about how
to create a PDF object that gives a field (tagged?) that capability.

Some possibilities:

Forms Data Format (FDF from the PDF Reference version 1.7, p. 710):

"FDF is used when submitting form data to a server, receiving the
response, and incorporating it into the interactive form. It can also
be used to export form data to stand-alone files that can be stored,
transmitted electronically, and imported back into the corresponding PDF
interactive form."

The FDF seems to allow JavaScript also.

Adobe XML Forms Architecture (XFA from the PDF Reference version 1.7, p.
722):

"PDF 1.5 introduces support for interactive forms based on the Adobe XML
Forms Architecture (XFA). The XFA entry in the interactive forms
dictionary (see Table 8.67) specifies an XFA resource, which is an XML
stream that contains the form information. The format of an XFA resource
is described in the XML Data Package (XDP) Specification (see the
Bibliography)."

The XML Forms Architecture (XFA) Specification is 1345 pages! I had no
idea how much capability Adobe put into XFA. It's going to take me a
while to determine what can and should be done from Access. Maybe
Acrobat Professional is your best bet for quickly getting interactive
PDF Forms up and running. One plus for Access is that any PDF created
from Access is the initial one as specified for FDF and therefore Access
does not have to deal with the logic required to implement incremental
changes to PDF objects or files. Tagged PDF might even allow a PDF Form
to display and work on something like an iPhone.

James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)