Allow users to save form data

[margeCC]

I am throughly confused about what I need, so I'm sorry, I'm sure this thread is a duplicate of several that are out there, but most of it seems to talk over my head.

I have a VERY old version of Adobe Acrobat (version 5.0, yes gasp in horror).  I have the VERY old version of Acrobat Distiller (version 5.0).  I have a form that was created in these versions of Acrobat.  It works perfectly, even in the new version of Reader (v9), excpet that the form data can't be saved, not a shocker.

What software do I need to purchase to get my old form to allow people to save the form data, WITHOUT them having to download any extensions for their Reader?

I hope that makes sense.

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi,

That is a restriction in Reader!!! While a user with Reader can open a form, they cannot save the data. There is a work around; you can "Reader Enable" the form to allow users with Reader to save data for that reader enabled form only.

There are two ways to reader enable. One is using Acrobat (Standard v9 or Professional if using version 8 or below). If you reader enable a form with Acrobat, then there is a licence restriction to distributing the form to no more than 500 users / 500 processes of data from the form. Check the EULA.

The other way to reader enable a form is via the LC Reader Extensions ES server suite. This is a more expensive route, but will give greater functionality.

Here is a summary of the four basic ways of deploying a form.

Hope that helps,

Niall

[margeCC]

That was a brilliant explination, thank you.  One question I have concerns the Reader Extensions question.  If I purchase that, does it just install and work with the standard Reader 9 or does that need to be upgraded as well?

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi,

LiveCycle Reader Extensions ES is part of Adobe's server product and can be very expensive. In addition to the cost of the sever component, you need to pay a fee to Adobe to apply the reader extensions to each form. It is intended for government agencies and large organisations.

The ability to reader enable a form from within Acrobat is intended for ad-hoc forms that won't be going out to a lot of people.

When you design a form in LC Designer, you can specify the target version of Acrobat/Reader (in the File/Form Properties/Defaults). This allows you to check that all of the functionality that you build into the form, will work for your users.

When you reader enable the form it will still work with the target version that you have set in LC Designer.

When you reader enable with the full LC Reader Extension ES server product, you are basically turning ON features for users with Reader.

However when you reader enable using Acrobat, you are turning ON features like allowing users to save data. But at the same time Adobe are turning OFF some features like data connections.

It really depends on how many data processes you want with the form. If it is small then stick with Acrobat. If you are a large organisation looking to improve data collection and processing then you should look at LC Reader Extensions ES.

Hope that helps,

Niall