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naming files automatically? pre-populating information in fields?

christinadq
Registered: Jun 27 2007
Posts: 2

I work at a free clinic. We are trying to go paperless or get closer to it. We have several forms I am turning into PDFs. I am running into a few issues here in the details part and hope someone can help.

1) The treatment plan form is save-able on the user's hard drive and all usage rights are granted. I want to have the name of the file saved to a specific network drive with either IDnumber.pdf (input in the form) or LastNameFirstInitial.pdf as the file naming format without my people having to type it in. Is this possible and if so, how?

2) Is it possible to pre-populate the birthdate for instance on all other forms when a person's name is entered? I have a different form that requires last name, first name and then date of birth be entered. Is there a way to link or pre-populate the DOB after the name is identified by the user?

Thank you!

Christina

bryhal
Registered: Jul 26 2006
Posts: 5
I asked virtually the same question a few months ago in the Adobe forums and received this reply from Thom Parker (an illustrious member of this forum):

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Thom Parker - 5:19pm Nov 26, 06 PST (#1 of 1)

Unfortunately No, you can't do this. The JavaScript file SaveAs browser is very limited. For more information see this article:

http://www.acrobatusers.com/tech_corners/javascript_corner/tips/2006/popup_windows_part3/

However you can present the user with a modifiable save name using the "app.response()" function. Then use the "doc.saveAs()" function to save the file to the new name.

Thom Parker
WindJack Solutions
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( If you try to save the javascript file attachment he provides in his article, you may need to go to visit this link in Adobes forum if you can't save the .tmp file:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=331371&sliceId=2
)

The long and short of it is that you would have to jump through alot of hoops to make that happen, and probably not quite the way you had in mind. But it certainly would be useful if we could.

I would be interested to hear of any workarounds to this too.
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4307
What version of Acrobat are you using?

Are using LiveCycle Designer or AcroForms (Acrobat Form toolbar)?

Will your users be using Reader or the Acrobat to complete the forms?

With version 4 of Acrobat, Adobe provided and example of Personal Field Names, PFN. This series of files is still available on the Professional distribution CD-ROM.

Acrobat still supports the ADBC, Adobe Database Connection, and LiveCycle Designer has data connections. Both of which will allow the reading of and writing to SQL compatible databases, which included MS Excel and MS Access.

Be aware that saving a Rights enabled PDF removes the rights for the saved file so it can not be reedited.

George Kaiser