Allowing users to fill out PDF and save them

[Former Community Member]

I'm trying to get someone w/just Adobe Reader version 7, to be able to take a form I created, fill it out, and save it.



I downloaded the Adobe professional Tryout which I plan on buying as soon as I can get this to work.



I am a little confused. Adobe Acrobat Professional 7.1 includes Forms Designer LiveCycle. I saw an earlier message that you need to extend the reader with liveCycle extensions. What does that mean? Additional Software?



I created a form, added a text box, dropped a submit button on it and it works fine on my PC. On the other PC it says you cant save, etc.



Doesn't Acrobat Professional 7.1 have Live Cycle built in? When I start up Acrobat Designer it says Adobe Live Cycle Designer.



I would love to get a 'hello world' example going!



all I have is a text field and an email submit button. When you press submit on my pc, it works like it should (becuase I have professional). But the other pc does not.



Any advice? I'm sure this has been asked a million, ok a million and one times.



Thanks!!!

[Former Community Member]

I just read on the previous post :



"Please note that for people using Adobe Reader the save will not include any data they may have entered into the form unless the form has been Reader Extended to allow saving of form data. "



How does one modify the form so it is Reader Extended?



Thanks!!

[_Aandi_Inston_]

Actually, you would probably find it more cost effective to just buy

Acrobat for your end users, unless they are in the thousands.



Aandi Inston

[Former Community Member]

There are a suite of products with the LiveCycle brand, not just one. LiveCycle Designer is for designing forms. LiveCycle Reader Extensions is for adding special usage rights to a PDF to unlock Acrobat like functionality in the free Reader (ie: saving a PDF with the data).



http://www.adobe.com/products/server/readerextensions/main.html



Chris

Adobe Enteprise Developer Support

[Former Community Member]

Hi Chris:



Thanks for the reply. Do I have this right?



1. Purchase Adobe Acrobat Professional, and that includes LiveCycle Forms Designer.



2. Purchase "LiveCycle Reader Extensions". Is that a single product? I'm having a really tough time finding just that product.



3. Install them both and then I can create forms that my students can fill out and email them back to me. I don't think having my students purchase Adobe professional is an option. I'm sure they'll only be running Reader.



I really want them to be able to fill out a form, and just email me back a filled out form.



So what to I buy in addition to Adobe Professional ? I'm currently using the Tryout and can't seem to get the files to save on another machine w/just reader.



thanks!

[_Aandi_Inston_]

>1. Purchase Adobe Acrobat Professional, and that includes LiveCycle Forms Designer.



Confusingly, it's just called LiveCycle Designer, but yes.

>

>2. Purchase "LiveCycle Reader Extensions". Is that a single product? I'm having a really tough time finding just that product.



Did you try to Google for "LiveCycle Reader Extensions"? Or see

http://www.adobe.com/products/server/readerextensions/main.html



> I don't think having my students purchase Adobe professional is an option. I'm sure they'll only be running Reader.



Acrobat Standard would be sufficient.

>

>I really want them to be able to fill out a form, and just email me back a filled out form.



This isn't a "just", though it might seem that way. You want to

achieve a very major project, and it has big expenditure implications.



Aandi Inston

[Former Community Member]

Hi,



1) Yes

2) Yes, it's a single product.

3) Yes, you'd create the PDF in Designer and use the Reader Extensions web client to apply the extra rights that allow it to be saved from Reader.



Things to keep in mind:

- Reader Extensions is a J2EE server application, not a windows client application like Acrobat and Designer, so installing it requires some knowledge of J2EE application servers.

- Reader Extensions is server application targetted at enterprise level organizations and priced accordingly. If your project only includes 1 form and a limited number of users it may be out of your budget. For an exact quote you'd have to speak with a sales rep.



Other options:

- You could design the form to email you back the XML data, and then import that data back into the PDF on your side using Acrobat and then save the PDF with the data. It's a bit more work for you, but it doesn't require paying anything extra.

- There are partners who provide a Reader Extensions service on a PDF by PDF basis. If purchasing your own copy of Reader Extensions is too costly this may be a better option. FormRouter is one such partner: http://www.formrouter.com/pdf/readerextensions.htm . You'd have to contact them for details.



Chris

Adobe Enterprise Developer Support

[Former Community Member]

Chris:



Thank you for the update. I don't see any problem w/the students submitting the file as an emailed XML file.



I did what you said in LiveCycle Designer. I have 3 text fields and an email submit button. I'm using the latest tryout version.



I'm testing this w/one of my students. He is running Adobe Reader 7.0.7 As you indicated, the message he gets when opening my form is:



===========

Please Note: This form contains an email submit button.



Clicking this button will email a data file containing data you ....snip....

=============



That sounded like great news. He dismissed the message, filled out the form then pressed the email button. The error he received was "Operation not Permitted"



We've attempted 4 or 5 different things. I hope I'm doing the right thing!

[Former Community Member]

That's odd, it sounds like the email submit button is configured to submit a PDF, but by default the button should be submitting XML. Try checking the property in the xml.. in the body pages tab select the email submit button. Then click the XML Source tab. If you don't see that tab then you can open it from View->XML Source. This will show you the xml for the button, scroll down to the <submit> tab and make sure the format attribute is set to "xml" and not "pdf".<br /><br />Chris<br />Adobe Enterprise Developer Support

[Former Community Member]

Chris:



Thanks it's working now!

[vab_nig]

+1

[Former Community Member]

What do I need to do to submit the pdf online instead of having being sent as an attachment? Url's or ideas?



Thank you,



Levi Guillory

[Former Community Member]

I have set up a form that I need to send out to people. Initially the submit button was coming back with 'this operation is not permitted' on other computers. I read this forum and changed it to submit XML. It submits and now I dont know how to get the information back on the original form. Do I need Acrobat professional 7 to do this or am I able to do it with professional 6. Some of our computers run Professional 6 but others run 7. The person responsible for monitoring the return information has Professional 6 will they need an upgrade to get the information back on the form and save it? Or is there another way to get it onto the form?

[Former Community Member]

I purchased Acrobat 8 Professional. I had no idea that it came with Adobe LiveCycle Designer, which would make the forms I creat unusable in Adobe Reader. I checked the properties on my Submit button and there is no XML option. I checked all of the Menu's and saw no XML properties there either. How can I fix my form so that people with Reader can fill out the form and submit it.

[Former Community Member]

Hello,

you can do it with Adobe LiveCycle Designer 8.0, at Design view insert a Button (yes, just button!). In the Button Object properties you can see two labels: Field and Submit. Click the Submit label and you may see submit's configuration options, in which you can find the XML ones.



Get into account, that the XML will not have digital signature fields information if there some in the original pdf form. And if you want to 're-construct' the pdf from the XML as Colin D Wishart wanted; you will need a third party tool.

[Former Community Member]

I just purchased Acrobat Standard and I am now wondering if I need Acrobat Professional. I need to be able to edit pdf documents that were created in another program. By edit, I mean that I need to be able to add, delete and/or change text. Should I return Standard and purchse Professional?

[Former Community Member]

I just purchased Acrobat Standard and I am now wondering if I need Acrobat Professional. I need to be able to edit pdf documents that were created in another program. By edit, I mean that I need to be able to add, delete, and/or change text. Should I return Standard and buy Professional?

[Former Community Member]

I have created a pdf form with Acrobat Professional 8. When I click the submit email button it is sent as a xml file. How can I change this default to submit as a pdf file?



Thanks!

[Former Community Member]

here is the simple way that i have always done this. i fill out the form and then click file then print then on the name of the printer, i select adobe pdf and then it will "print" it  and allow you to save the new pdf into whatever folder that you want. you wont be able to edit afterwards but the info is saved and you didnt have to do anything extreme. i dont know if it is a certain adobe that allows me to do this but it is what i do for a lot of docs.

[EM-99]

Hi, I have a client who wants pdf's on their website to be filled in online and sent directly to the website owner. Is this possible?

Cheers

[snipes_wolf]

Found this on another site and it helped me. I have Adobe Acrobat X and others in the office have regular Adobe Reader. They can now edit the forms I create and save them.

"If you are using Adobe Acrobat X to make the form, set all the fields as you want them, then click  File, Save As, Reader Extended PDF, Enable Additional Features. The resulting PDF form can be saved when filled in, if opened in versions of Adobe Reader before XI."