Is there a Livecycle designer trial available for me to examine so as to make a recommendation to my boss. I do not understand differences between this software and making an interactive form with InDesign, Acrobat, etc.
The main difference is that InDesign is very limited in what you can do with the forms. Livecycle allows you to add javascript or formcalc logic to the form to make it do what you like. You can show and hide fields, add or remove sections with the click of a button and much much more. Indesign pales in comparison to Livecycle for creating a form.