Linking Form Fields to Spreadsheet Cells

souxsia,

I see your a lifestyle designer. I too am interested in this, but am an acroForm developer.

If possible, will this work in acrobat?

lnail

Either LiveCycle or Acrobat; I'm not going to be picky here. I'm just looking for a solution to get the form fields to automatically link to specific workbook cells. I am trying to automate the process of receiving and sorting subcontractor bids for residential construction.

About a week ago I also posted a request for info on doing this or a better way of extracting information that is collected. There was another post for something simular too.

So far all of our posts have resulted in no answers. While PDFs may be great for getting information, using it in a practical manor seems to out of it reach.

You can use ADBC in Acrobat or a DataConnection in LiveCycle Desinger to retrieve data from an Excel database using SQL.

I appreciate the input, but getting info from a workbook to a form is not the problem. I'm looking for a way to get information from a completed Acrobat form over to specific cells automatically without having to export. Is there a way to link individual form fields to specific cells in a spreadsheet?

The Data Connection works well for one page from the first row of information but that is all. Is there someway to make as many pages as there are rows?

does anyone have any idea of how to take information froma spreadsheet "map" them to a .pdf?

I just purchased TP Terry's book Creating Dynamic Forms with Adobe LiveCycle Designer and it is a wealth of information. Has a lot of info on setting up forms but also has some chapters on using outside data which I hope will answer these questions. Still trying to get through it and get it to work.

To get PDF form data into Excel, export the form data as a .txt file then open Excel and choose "Import external data."

Specifically--enter data into the PDF form. Choose "Forms>Export form" (in Professional v7) or "Forms>manage form data" (in Professional v8.) Navigate to where you want to save the data, give it a name and CHOOSE THE .TXT FORMAT and save. Now open Excel, navigate to your saved data file, and import the tab delimited data. You will get 2 rows; one with field names and one with the values. Just delete the row with the field names if you don't want it.Hints: 1. to export as .txt you must use the Forms menu; the Forms icon and the File>export route do not work. 2. The data will be exported according to the alphabetical order of the field names. So if your fields are named "Name" "Address" and "Phone" they will be exported (and go into Excel) in the order "Address" "Name" "Phone". So I name my fields "A-Name" "B-Address" and "C-phone." 3) I just import one set of form data at a time, I have not tried a batch import. That might be a nice thing to know.I hope this works for you.

Thank you guys for all of your advice. I'm going to give it a try. Will keep you posted.

souxia, I take it that it didn't work and you've given up?

I know what you're trying to do, and I don't think it can be done so specifically. I'm trying to compile info obtained by a form created in LCD, then e-mailed to me (which with the SUBMIT button, doesn't appear to allow it sent as .txt). I have no problem manipulating the submitted data into an excel file, but I'm trying to make it as user friendly for the other 8-10 computer illiterate people who have to do the same thing. Converting rows to columns in excel is a challenge in itself.

If anyone can tell me how to import .csv into columns as opposed to rows of an excel sheet, directly . . . it would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, I have kind of given up on this. If you make some significant headway, I would greatly appreciate it if you'd let me know. I wish I could tell you how to import .csv into columns, but I am unfortunately at a loss there too.