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HTML form items NOT recognized by Form Wizard

Forum Index > Forms: Acrobat > HTML form items NOT recognized by Form Wizard
2009-02-24 13:55:07
jeynon
Registered: Feb 24 2009
Posts: 7

I am creating a standard online form that is connecting to no back end. It is to be used in Thailand on local machines and printed for use. The form is very cleanly built and contains checkboxes and open ended text areas. All are labeled properly.

I thought that we might be able to give them the ability to store some of this data (acrobat.com account) by converting the form to a Word file (which it does very cleanly) and then bring the word file into Acrobat and let the form wizard do its thing. I can't make the form in Acrobat to start with because they are choosing which items they want on the form and javascript is writing out there specific form elements. No one will be the same. There are 100's of options.

When I save the form as a word file and import it into PDF and try the wizard, it does not understand ANY form item on the page. Not even simple text boxes. It just has pictures of all of them. Does the form wizard not understand ALREADY existing form items?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Jon Eynon, Indiana University.

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.0, Windows
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2009-02-24 15:12:00
#1
nixopax
Registered: Feb 6 2009
Posts: 105
Out of curiosity, have you tried importing the .htm files directly into Acrobat, rather than converting them to .doc first?
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2009-02-25 05:40:18
#2
jeynon
Registered: Feb 24 2009
Posts: 7
I have thought about it but I have a problem with pulling just the html. The form is being created in an interface using a SPRY tab framwork. The first 4 tabs have their choices of what form items they want, and the fifth tab contains the form based on what they chose in the other tabs. I am using a script that is copying everything within a div tag and having the user paste it into word. The styles come with it as well in the word paste so it works well. How could I have someone save just a section of the page to a new HTM page, with the stylesheet still attached?

Thanks for your response. You certainly have me thinking a different direction.
Jon
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2009-02-25 09:43:27
#3
nixopax
Registered: Feb 6 2009
Posts: 105
I've not used the SPRY framework, but in terms of tabs, could the 5th tab have an iframe in it and still maintain its functionality? That way, the iframe can be right clicked, "Save Page As" would only save the iframe, and you could have a stylesheet assigned with the iframe page. If iframes won't work, then your script that copies everything within the div tag could be submitted to a server side page(PHP, JSP, ASP, etc.) and echo/println/write the ...Form items within a blank html page which can then be saved.Another way you could do this is right inside a PDF itself. Have all the form items to select which ones they want, just like your html file, and click submit. It sends all the values chosen to a server side page, and it can then create a custom PDF file. You can even assign an FDF file to populate form fields at the same time. I know that PHP has libraries to do this, and I'm sure other server side technologies as well.

If you're familiar with PHP, then you should look into [url=http://ca3.php.net/manual/en/ref.fdf.php]FDF functions[/url] and [url=http://ca3.php.net/manual/en/book.pdf.php]PDF functions for PHP[/url] as it can create PDF's that have more than just form fields, but also functionality. I'm not certain how the PDFs are going to be used though. Just for printing out, or interactivity, but hey, it's all possible. =)
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2009-02-25 10:08:41
#4
jeynon
Registered: Feb 24 2009
Posts: 7
Thanks for thinking more about this with me. Your option of an iFrame is a good one indeed. I could have the JavaScript just write to that frame. I will test and see how PDF Form Convertor does with that. It seems to not like the radio button groups.

I would love to do it in php, asp. aspx etc except a requirement of this project is that it must be able to run locally. It is being sent to schools in Thailand so we can't use any server side languages. The client themselves are happy if they can just paste it into Word and be done with it. It does that just great. I was trying to think of a use for it here at the university in the states and thought about converting to a PDF form so we can collect the information via acrobat.com. Different departments would choose different form items so they could collect there own dataset. You are right, maybe I just need to look at having the form builder create the form and send it server side to create a pdf. But for this low tech solution, I might look into the iFrame and see if it likes that better.

Thanks again for all your help,
Jon
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