--- You wrote:
>Unfortunately, some are forms with graphics, and have to
be
>filled out as they are. Otherwise, that would be a good idea.
>That's why
it has to be readable to a word processor.
--- end of quote ---
Acrobat
Exchange/Distiller, whatever they call it, has the ability to create fill-in
form fields in a PDF without having access to the source document. The fields
should be printable, or can be used as a web form, from what I've read, but I
haven't done these things because with the version I played with you could
only manually drag out areas for the form elements - it didn't even seem to
have any way to snap to lines already on the page. Another big drawback would
be if there was a new revision to the form released, all the entry fields
would have to be created all over again.
The limited editing of the form
itself with the Acrobat Exchange consisted of changing the text of
pre-existing text objects (maybe adding new ones, but I'm not sure of that)
and simple lines/boxes/shapes IIRC.
In general, I've seen a need for a method
to distribute forms in a way that can be filled in on-screen and either
printed or sent electronicly to others. MS Word has form-fields that can be
inserted into documents, but that method has three main drawbacks that I know
of: 1) MS platform only 2) text box form elements are able to grow, allowing
the form to be screwed up by entering one more line of text than the form
designer intended and 3) even if #2 doesn't get you, Word prints things
differently on different printers, so the form could print on two pages
instead of 1 even if it wasn't filled out (this is one of the problems PDF
files are supposed to fix).
Anyone know of any e-forms system that works
better? If none exist, perhaps a proposal on one of the online colaboration
sites would be in order? I would guess from my limited knowledge in these
areas that XML would be usefull in such an project...
---
Adam
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