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Online PDF Form

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2008-11-12 11:46:59
lamboman
Registered: Nov 12 2008
Posts: 6

I have created a registration form in Acrobat 9.0 Pro and want to put it on our website for attendees to fill out and then print. I have created all the tabbed fields but do not want them to be able to save anything. My concern is that if they fill it out online and then can save that thier data will show up for the next person who uses the form. I have gone through the drop downs but have not been able to figure out how to make this work.
I have seen these PDF forms on government sites where you can print and save to your desktop but it does not alter the original from on the website.

Thanks

Brian

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.0, Windows
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2008-11-12 12:09:01
#1
George_Johnson
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
Are you actually experiencing a problem or are you just seeking to avoid one? Reader users would not normally be able to save a filled-in form. The document would have to have usage rights applied, either by Acrobat Pro (8/9) or LiveCycle Reader Extensions. If a user has Acrobat Standard or Pro, they would normally be able to save, but by saving, the copy of the file on the web server is not altered. It would be saved as a new file on the user's machine.

If a user reloads a form in a browser, the data from the previous use would not normally show up, even if a previous user saved a copy. The web server would serve up a blank copy each time it is requested by an online user.

Prior to Acrobat 8, form data could be temporarily cached and used to repopulate a form if the form were later reloaded. A full explanation gets a bit complicated, and there are ways to prevent this with previous versions, but this is not much of a concern anymore.

George
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2008-11-12 12:25:19
#2
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4308
I think the concern is if the participants share or use a public computer there could be a caching or auto-complete issue with the data of the previous user.

Adobe has posted "Adobe Reader 7: Minimizing Exposure of Personal Information on Public Computers", http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/ReaderOnPublicComputers.pdf, which address these issues and provides information about how to minimize the risk. You also might want to post the standard waning about clearing browser caches and temporary files.

If the from a web site and the user does not have permissions to post to the site, then the form on the site can not be modified.

George Kaiser

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2008-11-12 12:34:42
#3
lamboman
Registered: Nov 12 2008
Posts: 6
I have not experienced the problem but do want to avoid it.
If this will not be and issue in the document created in 9.0 Pro then I will go ahead and publish it on the site. I will will try it out to make sure. I guess I am trying to think of what can happen in advance. Thank you for your response.
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2008-11-12 12:50:22
#4
George_Johnson
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
FWIW, what matters is the version of Acrobat (Reader) the the user has, not the version of Acrobat that was used to create the file.

If the form is reset before it is closed, it will not be a problem, so you could add a "Reset Form" button and advise users to use it after they are done with it.

George
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