Populating Data fields in other programs? Please Help a Rookie!

[Former Community Member]

Is it possible to create a form using LiveCycle Designer, so as to allow customers to fill in the appropriate data using Acrobat Reader then submit the data via email to me and then(here's the kicker) allow me to retrieve the data and automatically populate an excel spreadsheet with thier selections. It seems that is would be possible given that the information is converted to an xml file for my retrieval.

Thank you very much in advance for your advice.

[Former Community Member]

Is it the "automatically" that is stopping you or just loading it into Excel from the xml files? If it is the later then I can help.



I have Adobe Acrobat Professional version 7.0.7 (it worked the same with older versions of 7.0)



Start Acrobat Professional 7.0

Click File / Form Data / Create Spreadsheet from data files

then click Add files (browse to where you saved your .xml files)

The rest is pretty straight forward but if you still have issues let me know and I'll give you a detail example.

[Former Community Member]

I, too, have a problem with this. The data comes into the spreadsheet fine; however, there are a couple of things: (1) the data is not importing in the same order as the layout in the form (i.e., data at the bottom of the form is imported starting beginning with colA in the spreadsheet); and (2) data for each form is all on one line. This means I have to really "clean up" the spreadsheet and put all the data in order.



Is there any way to manipulate the output to obtain a cleaner import?



Thanks much.

[Former Community Member]

Regarding the order of the data, I discovered that the order of the records as they imported to the EXCEL file was related to the names of the Designer files. It put them in alphabetic order. When I named my Designer files so that they would alphabetically come out in the order I wanted, I got better results. That may not be the best way and others may tell me otherwise, but it worked for me. (Actually, I'm glad I read this thread, because I'm creating a new form and I totally forgot about this. I was getting them out of order and didn't remember I went thru this before.)



As to the data being all on one line, that worked for me, but in order to create a cleaner spreadsheet I formated one with headings and column widths the way I wanted them. Then I would import the records to that file as new ones came in.



So when email records come in, I save them to a special file. Then when I am ready to import them, I open Acrobat and create a spreadsheet with the new records. It is basically a raw spreadsheet, unedited. I then move those records into my formatted spreadsheet.



I don't know if this is the way it SHOULD be done, it's just the way I was able to work it out. If anyone can tell me a simpler approach, I would be all ears.



Deb

[Former Community Member]

Thanks Deb. I got the part about the data coming in alphabetically, but I'm still a bit confused about the other part. Are you saying you create a second Acrobat form or spreadsheet?



Thanks.