Is LiveCycle the right tool for making a template-based Contract?

[Former Community Member]

Is LiveCycle the right tool for making a template-based Contract?

Here is our scenario:

We are in a large corporate environment, serving global stakeholders, and offer a fairly standard agreement (contract) that is most often printed and manually signed. It consists of:

1. a main body that includes effective date and term (years), parties, contact for notice, terms and conditions, plus a place for manual signatures
2. an attachment (exhibit) that includes standard text plus 1 or more equipment-specific paragraphs that list the different unique IDs of the equipment, plus site name, address, configuration, etc. Approximately 5 lines of text per item.
3. an optional license attachment where the terms do not change, but the variable information includes: customer name and address, agreement effective date, and the names + titles of 2-3 (or more) signatories at the end

We prefer to make this contract appear similar to a ‘click-wrap’ agreement, in that it should be laid out in such a way that indicates that the terms are not negotiable. For example, when providing a drafted document (.doc) version of the agreement, the recipients have a greater tendency to want to negotiate the terms compared with when we present them a (different) simplified form that has fill-in blanks, and then terms and conditions attached thereafter. Somehow the ability to redline a document draws in changes and opinions like moths to a lantern.

We would like to craft this agreement as a fill-in-the-blank (PDF?) form so that:

- the party names carry through to several places within the document

- if there are multiple parties (2 or more), the document expands accordingly

- signatory names and titles are entered only once

- the equipment attachment (#2) can include 1 to n items (think of rows in a subform)

- a Yes/No toggle can include or exclude the optional license (#3)

- the effective date, parties, and signatories carry over to the optional license (#3), when included

- wish: include the ability for some optional phrases that we can activate when the situation requires

- wish: the ability to display an additional language to create a side-by-side English + <other> agreement.

We currently make English only agreements, plus side-by-side agreements with Japanese, Portuguese, French, Spanish, and Italian.

We currently use Adobe Acrobat X, with LiveCycle Designer CS2

So I go back to the original question:

Is LiveCycle the right tool for making a template-based Contract, with the features that we describe above?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or guidance!

- Nat Z.

Message formatting was updated by the author

[Jono_Moore]

LiveCycle forms can definitely do all of that.

The only thing I can think of that will cause problems is the side-by-side text. Getting side-by-side columns to flow properly can be tricky but can be made to work. I've managed to avoid doing that sort of thing in LC forms I find they work better in a linear fashion in my experience.

It will require a fair bit of planning and someone with some programming knowledge (though not absolutely necessary) to make it all work. But if you have a JavaScript programmer handy it will go much better.

[Former Community Member]

Thank you, Jono. i appreciate the fast and courteous reply!

If I understand correctly, then, everything except the (big dreamy wish of the) side-by-side option for translations would be straightforward using LiveCycle? We can use other options for language translations.

Is our version ES2 sufficient to do all the other critical work?

I am a novice with this tool, and would appreciate any recommendations for training or guidance that can help us build the document properly. It seems the import from PDF (Acrobat) or MS WORD does not work well. Import from WORD does not work at all - error "Word (version XP or onwards) could not be found on the machine".  Many thanks!

[Jono_Moore]

ES2 is fine, that's what we're still using. But you might want to upgrade Designer to the latest version.

If you're company has the money I'd recommend hiring someone to do it as there is a fairly steep learning curve. There are a fair number of companies and consultants out there doing forms.

The side-by-side translation may be doable but it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish and how the form is structured.

Importing artwork from Word or PDF isn't the best way to go - you won't get a dynamic document that is able to flow and change. The best route is to layout the form in Designer from scratch.

The book Creating Dynamic Forms with Adobe LiveCycle Designer by J.P. Terry is a good place to start, it's what got me started. There is someone on Youtube doing video tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/nbru24.