Hey there,
I am putting together a 3 page form in Acrobat Professional 7.0 with various fields that need to completed by individuals using Acrobat Reader.
My problem is that I cant figure out how to save the form in such a way that the individuals completing the form in Reader can save the data they have entered and email the completed form on to a 3rd party.
Currently the form can be filled in but then it has to be printed. It cant be saved.
What's the solution?
Also is there a way to ensure that the completed form once saved and emailed can no longer be altered?
Thanks for the help!!!
Cheers,
JJ
You cannot enable a PDF form to be saved in the free Reader using any version of Acrobat, Acrobat Standard, or Acrobat Professional previous to version Acrobat 8 Professional. BUT using Acrobat 7 Pro you can capture data - recommendation follows:
After having created the form you need to add an email submit button.
NOTE: These instructions have been mostly lifted from the Acrobat 7 help file.In particular the chapter 'Creating Adobe PDF forms> Making Adobe PDF forms web-ready. For more help on creating the rest of the form, read the other sections of the 'Creating Adobe PDF form' chapter.To create a submit button:
1. On the Forms toolbar, select the Button tool, and create a button.
2. Double-click the button to open the Button Properties dialog box.
3. Click the Actions tab, and select Mouse Up from the Select Trigger menu.
4.Select Submit a Form from the Select Action menu, and then click Add.
5.In the Submit Form Selections dialog box, do the following in the Enter A URL For This Link box:
To send the form data to an email address, enter mailto: followed by the email address. For example, mailto:nobody [at] adobe [dot] com.6. Select an Export Format option:
There are quite a few options to choose from here. To keep things simple stick to FDF. DO NOT choose PDF, as this will submit the entire pdf which is not possible when using the Reader to fill out and submit the form.
7.For Field Selection, do one of the following:
- To export all form fields even if the form fields do not contain values, select All Fields.
- To export only specific form fields, select Only These. Click Select Fields, and then indicate the form fields to include, and whether you want to include empty fields.
8.Select Convert Dates To Standard Format to export all form dates in a single format, no matter how they are entered in the form.
9. Click OK to accept the selections.
10.Click another tab in the Button Properties dialog box to continue defining properties for the button, or click Close.
So now the form is complete and it can be distributed to your users. What will they see when they fill out and submit the form? It is a good idea to give the form a test-run in Reader yourself at this point. So open the form in Reader 7.0.x fill it out and click the submit button.
Info for the recipient:
To submit a PDF form with a desktop email application:
1. After you've filled in the PDF form, click the submit or return form button on the PDF form.
2. In the Select Email Client dialog box, select Desktop Email Application; then click OK.
3. In the Send Data File dialog box, click Print Form if you want a copy of the filled-in form; then click Send Data File.
Your default email application displays a new email message with the To, Subject, Body, and Attachment fields automatically filled in.
4. Use your email application to send the email.
5. Click Close in the Email Confirmation dialog box in Acrobat.