Acrobat Pro and Forms

I would first suggest that if you have a form and want to convert it, or if you simply want to star anew - use Adobe LiveCycle Designer. I believe it comes for free with Acrobat Professional.

Perhaps you have it, and do not know it !

in Acrobat Pro - > Advanced > Form > Make new form.If all you have is Reader, you need to at least buy Adobe LiveCycle Designer.

http://www.adobe.com/products/livecycle/designer/

$349.00

You absolutely do not have to start all over when you need to make changes to the source document. Simply make your modifications to the source document and convert it to PDF. Then open the PDF that contains your fields, links, bookmarks, etc., and select "Document > Replace Pages" and replace the old pages with the new. Any fields, links, etc. will be retained and the old page contents will be replaced with the new.Regarding your first issue, a user's viewing preferences (Edit > Preferences > Display > Smooth Line Art) can certainly have effect, as can the thickness of the lines.George

The first concern is actually a result of the way Acrobat renders lines, and there can be issues with thin lines and small zoom factors. A workaround for this is mentioned in another message (switch on line smoothing (which is actually on in newer Acrobat/Reader version)). Another workaround is to make sure that the lines are at least 1.5 pt wide (you might experiment a little bit witt thicknesses around that value; make sure that the line is narrow enough to not be rounded up to 2 points, but wide enough to always be visible at 1 point.

The second concern has been addressed by George, and knowing that procedure is worth a lot.

It may get "religious", but not knowing more about the way your forms are used, it is not really advisable to jump to Designer, as its shortcomings (particulalry when it comes to presentation (fonts etc.)) are well known ... although the very newest versions shoe improvements.

Hope this can help.

Max Wyss.

I have Acrobat Pro with Designer included, but am not sure what the advantages are of using that over simply inserting fields and java calcs with Acrobat Pro itself. I am utilizing a pdf and adding fields etc to it. My thought was that 'Designer" was more for designing the whole form itself. I don't really understand why Pro gives you both options for forms (Designer and Pro itself) if one is clearly better than the other. Thanks for the tip about "replacing pages".. That will save a of time.

I have a patient history form (done in word using tables) that was originally meant to be handwritten, but now I want to convert it to pdf for online data entry. Completed forms will be e-mailed as attachment to be added to record and printed as needed. Several fields incorporate date calculations.

I like designing the forms with word as I'm quite comfortable with that, but frequently utilized small/thick lines and shading to separate questions and responses. I was dismayed when I used word to convert to pdf, that many lines were displaying incorrectly on low zoom. Once again, it's fine on high zoom or when printed. I don't want users to have to modify their "reader". I simply want it displayed well at 100% in pdf.

What I have been doing is using my Mac to open the pdf in "preview" (looks perfect at low resolution), save it as jpeg, and the save that as pdf. This results in an exact copy of lines etc at 100% resolution in reader. However, it's obviously more like a scan so larger file. I find that 1.5 point i quite a thick line, but if that's all that works, I'll redesign my forms in word using that. Any other suggestions.

If you are happy with using Acrobat to create your form, then there's no need to consider Designer.

George