An interesting message regarding forms in OOo exported PDF.
I though it was interesting to comment it here, especially the part
regarding the save of modified forms with Acrobad Reader 7.0.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: NoOp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Jun 13, 2006 5:36 AM
Subject: [users] Re: Export PDF with User-Editable Fields?
To: users@openoffice.org
Giuseppe Castagno wrote:
John,
On 6/9/06, John Jason Jordan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I know you can do this if you have Acrobat, but I don't. Also, I use
Linux (Ubuntu-64). What I want to do is create short documents (mostly
1-10 pages, 20 pages max) as PDF files that can be e-mailed to
students. The students (using just Adobe Reader) will fill out the
answers and e-mail it back. The goals are 1) to create a paperless
homework system and, 2) have the students "hand in" homework that the
professor can actually read, as opposed to multiple-erased, smudged,
Acrobat Reader, the free version, doesn't save filled in forms, you
can only print them. Of course if the student has a PDF printer he/she
can print the filled form and mail that back;
Acrobat Reader 7.0 does. An easy example is to download a US Government
tax form (say a Form 1040):
http://www.irs.gov/
click Form 1040 and download as a PDF
enter data in the form and do a "Save As"
Now whether you can create and save forms via OOo so that the PDF will
keep the form might be another story. I am not familiar enough with the
options for exporting to PDF:
Submit forms in format:
Select the format of submitting forms from within the PDF file.
This setting overrides the control's URL property that you set in the
document. There is only one common setting valid for the whole PDF
document: PDF (sends the whole document), FDF (sends the control
contents), HTML, and XML.
to say whether this will work or not. But I tried a test form that I
found via Google:
http://www.schlegel.li/ebXML/direct-access/ebXML-CPA-form-0.1-openoffice-2.0.2-xform-for-windows.odt
[http://makeashorterlink.com/?B2462504D]
and while the export to PDF funtion does export the form properly, it
cannot be saved due to the security settings in the form.
The PDF security setting difference between the IRS Form 1040 and the
above form (when viewed in the PDF Document Properties|Security are:
Above Form saved using OOo Extract to PDF:
Printing: Allowed
Document Assembly: Not Allowed
Content Copying or Extraction: Allowed
Content Extraction for Accessibility: Allowed
Commenting: Not Allowed
Filling of form fields: Allowed
Signing: Not Allowed
Creation of Template Pages: Not Allowed
Submitting Forms: Not Allowed
IRS Form 1040:
Printing: Allowed
Document Assembly: Not Allowed
Content Copying or Extraction: Allowed
Content Extraction for Accessibility: Allowed
Commenting: Not Allowed
Filling of form fields: Allowed
Signing: Not Allowed
Creation of Template Pages: Allowed
Submitting Forms: Allowed
The primary difference being that the Form 1040 allows:
Creation of Template Pages: Allowed
Submitting Forms: Allowed
Perhaps someone that is more familiar with the OOo PDF extraction
features can advise on how those two security settings can be changed in
OOo. Once changed, the OP should be able to create the forms, export
them to PDF using the OOo PDF function, and have the students fill out
the PDF forms (using Adobe 7.0 Reader), save them, and send them back.
The saved OOo PDF forms will accept changed data in the form field, so
the the alternative would be to fill in the form and then print as
another PDF using Ghostscript etc., but that would be somewhat
cumbersome. Note: I actually tested this without any difficulty using
PDFWriter and Acrobat 4.0; worked well, but defeats the OP's purpose of
having OOo do all the work and making it easy for his students to submit
their results.
--
Kind regards,
beppec56
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