PFN kit (Personal Fields Names)

It was a sample provided by Adobe to show how with careful planning, field naming, ans some scripting one could have the parts of certain type of data fields at a low part level and then have an file that could complete forms with various variations of the gathered data. For example an individual's name could have a prefix, first name, middle initial, last name, suffix, and nick name. If one were to gather these name parts in individual fields, then with an interesting document level script to generate some of the variations of the name like the full name (prefix, first, MI, last, suffix), name with prefix (prefix, first, mi, last), or name only (first, MI, last).

The document level script will combine up to 3 fields with an optional separator character and adjust the spacing and separator character use for null field values. The function is also a good example for the use of binary numbers to set a condition code based on multiple possible inputs and then selecting the processing steps to be performed based upon the provided null input values.

You do not need to save the FDF file and PDF forms in the exchange folder. You have always been able to save them in any folder, but the end user may need to navigate to the folders.

The sample input form also shows the use of hierarchical field names.

PFN was really just a scheme that used standardized field names for commonly encountered fields, such as names, addresses, etc. It's not obsolete in the sense that it won't work, but it can be considered obsolete since very few seem to have adopted the proposed field naming convention.

George & George : thanks for your reply (replies ?)*, it was exactly what I guessed about PFN.
:-)

Did someone ever seen the PFN logo on a PDF form ?


* (Please, be lenient since english is not my native language...)

I can't remember any form in the wild which had that logo. Of course, the convention is so straightforward and logical that many forms creators actually used it (or something in that range). However, PFN has never been "pushed"; neither by Adobe, nor by professional organizations, such as the BFMA, nor by the (at the time) most important form client of Adobe (the USAn IRS). Actually, for the latest one, PFN was too smart, and the tax form fill outers had (and have) a very strong lobby, preventing the IRS from doing smart forms.

With the time, Adobe butchered away features making use of PFN, such as manually importing FDFs into a document in Reader. And with Acrobat 6, the intrinsic support of reasonable field names got dropped as well.

Hope this can help.

Max Wyss.

Add-on rant:

However, if you as a forms designer have only a little bit of brain, you will continue to use the PFN concepts in your form, and you will be consistent with your field naming, maybe even put up internal conventions for field naming.

For sure, I'm a user of the field naming convention for years.
I usually use something close to PFN but my "custom PFN" use french names for naming fields.

That's why I'm asking about, I wanted to be sure to not miss a current standard.

Thanks Max.