Trying to print form fields only

[cammag]

I have made a fillable form with LiveCycle Designer, it is a 2 page form that my customer will receive by email, fill out and then feeds into a regular ink jet printer to print off fields onto an already pre-printed page they have in their office (they are basically filling out their name, address, etc contact information to print onto a brochure that is pre-printed) My client will use Acrobat Reader to fill in the form. Does anyone know a way to do this? I have read about making the background non-printable, or non-visible, but my background is an already created PDF that I have imported (with the forms built on top of it in LiveCycle). Doesn't seem to work unless I import it as an EPS.

I also have Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional. Is there a different way I should be doing this instead of LiveCycle? I have tried to import the PDF background as an EPS, but the quality makes it really bad and I want the professional quality of the pdf that I already have built, as I have 10 of these to do and the PDFs are already done.

I have been trying to work this out for 2 weeks and still not getting anywhere. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[cammag]

Hi Niall,

First of all, thank you SO much for all of this help. You are the only

thing keeping me from throwing in the towel on this project!

To answer your question, the people receiving the form from me don't

really need to save their responses. They are just filling out price rates

and their contact location information. Sure it would be nice if they

didn't have to type it out each time, but that's not really my biggest

concern here. My biggest concern is that they can open it, fill it out and

then email it on to potential customers.

I actually have to create 2 forms:

1) One would be the one where they receive the form, fill out live fields,

and then print "live fields only" onto already pre-printed brochures.

(which looks like we have ironed out yesterday. A lot more steps than I

hoped for, but if it works don't fix it!). Then they would send out these

brochures with their personal info in the mail.

2) The second task is to take this form, and create it into an electronic

version where instead of sending it in the mail, they can email to

customers. So this is the one I am trying to work out now. They would

receive the form from me, fill out live fields with their info, and then

email it on to various customers. (that's why I was confused about the

distribute button as it asks your email address and I don't want it

emailed back to me.) I was able to bypass the email address thing, but

haven't tested it yet.

Not shooting the messenger at all! We at least worked out one of these

forms, that makes me happy.

If this "distribute form" thing doesn't work in Acrobat 8 Pro, I might

have to present it to my boss and see if he wants to cough up more $$ to

upgrade to v9 Standard.

I just wanted to exhaust all my options as he usually just responds with

that fact that he receives forms all the time and fills them out and sends

them back. The problem here is that I have no idea what his forms are made

from and if we even have the resources to do the same. Sounds easy, but

really isn't that easy to pull off!

Shawna

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi Shawna,

If you can omit the email address then that may get over the responses coming back to you. It has been a while since I have done that process so I can't remember exactly the steps.

You could probably get away with not enabling the first form. Nice to have - but the users could retype before printing.

The second form would need to be enabled, as the users would need to save the form before they email it to clients.

I would be inclined to enable the form through Acrobat v8 Pro and then test internally or with a franchise. If you have not provided an email address as part of the process, then the forms should not come back to you.

The Reader enabling process does not leave a mark on the form, so a user with Reader does not necessarily realise that the form is enabled. It invisibly turns on the features that are already in Reader, for that (reader enabled) form.

Good luck,

Niall

[cammag]

OK, here is my form.

'Master Brochure Email Form' is the one I tested yesterday with someone

and they were able to fill out, but not email out.

'Master Brochure Email From pub' is the one I tried today with the

distribute form you suggested. I sent it to just a yahoo address online,

and it seems to me like I can fill it out AND send it, but when I open it

up there is nothing in the live fields, this info is not saved.

Also, weird question, why does this distribute form create 2 separate

pdfs? I get one saying "dataset" and one saying "pub"?

Shawna

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi Shawna,

The Master Brochure Email Form from yesterday, which was not Reader Enabled would fail the email process. This is because the form has to be saved before it can be emailed. If the form is not enabled, then Reader cannot save it, to email out.

Acrobat creates two files as part of the distribute process:

(1) The Reader Enabled form has "_pub" added to the file name so that you will know which one to send out to users. This is the form that is Reader Enabled, not the original form.

(2) The "dataset" is a PDF that can assist you in processing returning forms. Since you are not processing data or responses, you can ignore this form.

If you are using a Mac to open the Reader Enabled form (_pub), then if the form opens in Preview, then data gets "messed up". There are a few recent threads on this topic.

Otherwise if you are using Reader to fill in the data, save and then email the completed form back - it should work. I suggest try testing again. Maybe try opening the file outside of the web interface, eg save out of Yahoo to the desktop and then open and fill out from there.

Good luck,

Niall

[cammag]

Well, I'm ready to give up on this. I used someone's comp. in office to

test this on and it just doesn't retain the information once you email it

out. You can open, fill out form, AND email back, but the receiver doesn't

get any of the forms filled. Even if it is filled out, SAVED and then

emailed out.

I'm not sure if I am getting closer or further from problem at this point!

But I just think this has to be pretty common where people with only

Reader are receiving these forms every day, filling out and sending back.

If you want to give up on my quest, I will totally understand.

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi,

If you can upload the form or send me a PM and I will have a look at it for you.

Niall

[cammag]

We have no FTP sites at work, is there somehow I can get this to you?

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Email me at ...

Message was edited by: Niall O'Donovan

[pjpowersdesign]

Thanks! You got me out of a jam with that suggestion!