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Creating a mutually editable PDF using LiveCycle ES 8.2

gap0134
Registered: Apr 13 2010
Posts: 29
Answered

Hi! New user here. I have a decent database and web programming experience. Recently my company has decided to start moving towards electronic documents. So we purchased the Adobe Acrobat Pro Suite to check out the possibilities. I have re-created and vastly improved one of our documents.

Issues:
1. This document is used and updated by multiple parties. I used to have a revision history. I promptly removed this when trying to actually do it in LiveCycle. Doesn't seem possible. However there are some features that we can't live without. Here is an example of the process being used:
-Customer fills out form, page 1.
-Customer sends the form, just page 1 filled out to my company.
-My company reviews page 1, then fills out page 2.
-My company sends the form, just page 1 and page 2 filled out to the customer.
-The customer reviews page 2. Sets up a teleconference with my company.
-We mutually review page 2 and make my company makes any adjustments.
-My company sends the updated form, just page 1 and page 2 filled out to the customer.
-The customer electronically signs the document. Locking out the document.
2. Electronic signatures in Adobe Reader don't work. They do in the Preview PDF mode of LiveCycle. They also work in Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.

Questions:
1. What can I do to facilitate this process of incrementally saving the document?
2. Any possibility of a revision history along with it?
3. What am I doing wrong with the signatures?

I would be happy to connect this form to data as well. I did the tutorials that come with the product explaining dynamic XML documents. If there is a process we can use that involves this that would be an acceptable answer as well. Would like to explore my initial questions before considering the alternatives.

My Product Information:
LiveCycle Designer, Windows
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
When you say reviewing and making changes do you mean just data entered into form fields?

One solution would be to make Page 1 & 2 separate forms. To start with just send the Page 1 form to the customer. Then when the company fills out the Page 2 form, embed them both into PDF as file attachements. You could use a portfolio for this. PDFs can also be setup, in Acrobat 9, for a live review session. Where both parties can view the PDF, and any changes on the fly. Don't know how this works with LiveCycle forms, I've only done it with regular PDFs.With a livecycle PDF You can keep a revision history of sorts. The file presave event can be used to update a form field with information about the form. For example the date the changes were made. It's tricky to catch everything that's changed on the form, but it's not impossible to trap and store some change data. On a regular PDF you can use document certification to maintain a running list of updates to the PDF, but not in LiveCycle.

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]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

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

gap0134
Registered: Apr 13 2010
Posts: 29
Thanks for that Thom. Lot's of information. First thing, we don't want to make the process "heavier". If a PDF portfolio is pretty simple and flexible I wouldn't mind taking a look. Do you know of somewhere I can run through a tutorial of PDF portfolios?

For your information, the PDF is being built in LiveCycle, but my thought is that all users will only have access to Adobe Reader. Can you perform live review sessions in Adobe Reader? Link to tutorial please?

Potential revision history seems cool. Again if you have an idea of a tutorial I can walk through about the presave event that would be nice.

Any thoughts on the Signature field issue in Adobe Reader? As you can see, I am not opposed to doing a ton of tutorial work to learn the product. I just need some nice reference to point me in the right direction. :)
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
Right here on this web site there is a bunch of great info on tutorials. The aticle by Donna Baker is the most popular by far.
http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2008/07/building_a_pdf_portfolio

But if you just do a search on Portfolios you'll find loads
http://www.acrobatusers.com/learning_center/tutorials?title=Portfolio&tid_1=All&form_build_id=form-1cf5f1cb0d9c108a3dae001a022af6ea&form_id=views_exposed_formThom 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]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

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

gap0134
Registered: Apr 13 2010
Posts: 29
Thanks for the info. Can you direct me to why the signature field is not working?
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
I'm not sure about your signature issue. Did you enable the form for Reader Signature Rights? This is the most important bit.

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]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

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

gap0134
Registered: Apr 13 2010
Posts: 29
How do I enable or validate Reader Signature Rights? For whatever reason, even if I tell my PC to open in Adobe Reader it opens in Adobe Acrobat.

All I have done is drag and drop the signature field. Save PDF. Just does not work in Adobe Reader at all. Works fine in Adobe LiveCycle >> PDF Preview and Adobe Acrobat.And actually Adobe Reader doesn't seem to handle flowable text either. I am asking someone to upgrade to Adobe Reader 9.3 to see if that resolves it.
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
LiveCycle forms only work in Acrobat/Reader 7 or later.

To enable Reader Rights on a PDF open the file in Acrobat Pro, and select the "Advanced > Enable Usage Rights in Adobe Reader" menu item. This item is only availible in Acrobat 8 and later and it has a different name in Acrobat 9.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]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

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

gap0134
Registered: Apr 13 2010
Posts: 29
Haha took me awhile but actually figured it out about the same time you posted. Ok, so it is a two step process to create the document. No problem.

Not sure if you know but this also resolved the flowable text issue as well. Not sure if versioning will come into play so I will post what we did and what versions we are running.

Open Adobe Acrobat 9.3.1
>>Open PDF document
>>Advanced
>>Extend Features in Adobe Reader
>>Save PDF document
Open Adobe Reader 9.3.1
>>Open PDF document (w/extended features)
>>Cut & paste a bunch of text into correctly setup flowable text field
>>Tab out of text fieldText field should expand to fit as configured.