Hi !
First post here. I'm an intermediate Acrobat user, and I've spent the past two days trying to figure out a way to do this.
I have several documents published internally. These documents are test checklists. For reasons of formatting consistency, internal security and confidentiality, we do not want users accessing the source documents (Word and/or Excel). We therefore publish them in pdf format, read only, with security settings preventing mods and copying.
I have two information items (Customer Name and Project number) that users need to add to the document prior to printing it. The source documents have two boxes on the front page where users can write the information required.
My goal is to have users open the published pdf and use Reader to complete the two values on the front page (using text fields). I then want the values of these two fields added to the footer of page 2 onwards. The document will then be printed, and not saved.
As an added feature, it would be nice to force the user to input the values for the fields before being permitted to print.
I know I could add fields on each page and get the values from the fields on the front page, but some of these documents are 50-80 pages long and I have upwards of 300 of them to manage and each of the source documents is updated on a regular basis to boot.
Any ideas ?
If the fields used for the footer have the same names as the input fields, the values will automatically copy.
Regarding preventing printing, you cannot absolutely prevent it, but you can set up a Print button on the document that only works if the fields have been filled by the user.
George