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Email submit button problem Acrobat 7

Forum Index > Forms: Acrobat > Email submit button problem Acrobat 7
2009-02-19 17:09:59
nozmoking
Registered: Feb 19 2009
Posts: 8

I've created a fill-in form in Acrobat 7 with an email submit button. The machine I created it on has Outlook 2002 installed and when I complete the form and hit the email submit button a nice, handy dialog box appears with options to port directly to an email attachment, save the xml file locally and other options.

If I send the form to others that may have a later version of Adobe Reader or other email application scenarios the submit button launches whatever email application might be installed on their machine and does not give them any option to save the file or process the output in other ways. This pretty much renders the form useless for most of the intended recipients.

Other than pre-populating the subject and intended email address I can fond no other options for the email submit button, and I haven't been able to find any other functionality to deploy with a form to fix this problem.

Does anyone have an idea how I can make this form useful again or know what I am missing?

Thanks,
-nozmo

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 7.0.9, Windows
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2009-02-19 18:22:26
#1
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
With Reader, you have never been able to export data to a local file unless the form is Reader Enabled with "Save Rights". I don't know what other options you are talking about, but the action your users are seeing with Reader is standard.

The ability to enable a PDF with "Save Rights" was added to Acrobat Professional in version 8. So you could actually add the export data option yourself.

For more control over the data email process see this article:

http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/dynamically-setting-submit-e-mail-address

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

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2009-02-20 09:31:20
#2
nozmoking
Registered: Feb 19 2009
Posts: 8
That seems to make sense for the file to exhibit save rights on the machine on which it was created but not elsewhere with the Acrobat Reader. I am assuming I would either have to upgrade Acrobat Pro 7 to v8 or create a custom execute button to offer an xml save dialog to the user. However, that may not be possible in version 7...

Thanks,
-nozmo
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2009-02-20 12:28:52
#3
nozmoking
Registered: Feb 19 2009
Posts: 8
Addendum(2) - I thought I posted this but for some reason it did not show up.

The dialog with save choices is presented if the PDF is opened by Reader V7 (same version that I used to create it) but if opened with any other version of Acrobat Reader, the submit button spawns whatever email application is available on the workstation. This could just be a bug/version issue but if I am missing something any additional input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
-nozmo
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2009-02-20 16:02:25
#4
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
What exactly do you mean by "opened by Reader V7 (same version that I used to create it)"?

Adobe Reader cannot be used to create forms. In version 7, PDF forms can only be created with Acrobat Professional. Do you really mean that you used Acrobat Professional version 7 to create the form? Could it also be that when you see the other options that you are displaying the form in Acrobat 7 Pro?

No version of Reader will allow data to be exported to a local file unless the PDF has Save Rights.

Can you post a test form that has the actions you've described.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

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2009-02-20 16:26:22
#5
nozmoking
Registered: Feb 19 2009
Posts: 8
Sorry for the unclear response - what I meant was, I created the form in Acrobat Pro 7. If the form is opened on machines that have Acrobat Reader 7 installed, the "save options" dialog appears when the email submit button is clicked. If the form is opened on a machine with Acrobat Reader 8 or above the email submit button just spawns the available email application on the workstation, or the Internet connection/ email profile wizard if no email client is available on the machine.

You can grab the form here:
http://www.projecthired.org/docs/tdc_email.pdf

Thanks,
-nozmo
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2009-02-20 16:58:18
#6
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
Ok, now I see what you meant. You did not say this was a LiveCycle form.

Acrobat 7 was the first version of Acrobat to officially support LiveCycle forms. There were major changes in the LiveCycle technology between 7 and 8. Acrobat 8 and 9 will also show this same email options dialog, but only for documents that are enalbed for distribution in Acrobat 8 or 9. This unfortunate deficiency is because of the changes that were made between Acrobat 7 and 8.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

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