Have you found any software comparable to Livecycle Designer?

[Former Community Member]

I am curious to know if there is any software out there that is able to create dynamic pdf forms like Designer.  I know there are a lot of pdf creators but I am curious to know if there is anything that is able to layout forms with all the different field types that Designer does?  I am just curious as my employer is asking about what options we have for an upcoming project.

[TundraSteve]

Is there a specific reason you don't want to use LiveCycle Designer (xfa forms) ?

[Former Community Member]

Livecycle has several bugs which have caused some issues in the past but our management team just wants to explore options and from what I can tell, there are very little except for going to a Mac and using InDesign and Acrobat Pro which is something we are going to test.

[GaryRobbins1]

Are you just using LiveCycle Designer or also a LiveCycle server component?  Depending upon your version and the bugs you are referencing, you may want to try with the latest Designer ES4.

[Former Community Member]

Hi,

There is other product called:

Ecrion XF Designer

Ecrion XF Rendering Server.

I had done some R&D on it. My personal opinion is: no other product can give you much ease as Adobe LiveCycle does. Cost should be the only factor why one should think about other products. Otherwise, Adobe LC is always the best

Thanks,

Vijay Kumar.

[poohbah100]

One issue for LiveCycle - it isn't available on a Mac

[HowardTreisman · Accepted solution]

Hi Steve

We have a product called Avoka Transact that includes both a form design tool (Composer) and a form hosting and management server (Transaction Manager).

Composer produces fully compliant XFA forms, but we think it makes the job much simpler and quicker (you can form your own opinion).

We also add some nice features such as an improved error handling and display framework, and the ability to have wizard-style forms in PDF.

Composer will also produce HTML forms from the same form design that run on both desktop and tablet/smartphone devices, using responsive layout rules.

If you'd like more information, please check out our web site at: http://www.avoka.com or contact me directly at htreisman-at-avoka-dot-com.

Regards,

Howard

[georgew42079760]

Your site is confusing at best. I cannot find any of the things you mentioned. There is no mention anywhere in the site that I can find regarding forms design.

What is the price of your LiveCyce Designer ES4 alternative and where can I buy it?

[mouslander]

There may be other form design tools out there. It all depends on what you want to do with them. If you want to create Adobe PDF Forms your options are AcroForms - the are Forms that are designed pretty much any way you want to i.e. InDesign, Illustrator, Word etc. You would convert them to PDF then overlay form fields on them. This has been around since the mid 1990's and works well. One benefit is that the form can be displayed on a hand held device such as a smart phone or a tablet. Where there is scripting capability it is still more restrictive. Without knowing what your end goal is I cannot say whether it will meet your needs

The second Adobe option is Adobe LiveCycle Designer. This tool can create a more advanced PDF Form. You can use the tool to design the form from scratch but can also import a form from other applications as a starting point. For this you would still need to convert to PDF first then import. LC Forms are much more robust and can take advantage of much greater capability. You can have Dynamic forms - meaning a form that can add/remove rows and flow from page to page something that Acro Forms cannot do. You can also attach it to back end systems as well as webservices, data etc.

If PDF Forms are not that important to you then there are other options but they would all pretty much require a tool to fill them out for example some people create a form in MS Excel. If your user has Excel they can fill in the form. Same with Word.

One note, I have used LC Designer for years and yes it is not the most perfect tool but for designing intelligent PDF Forms it is the best currently available. I am happy to answer other questions.