Where to purchase LiveCycle / AEM Forms Designer? | Community
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kellya94424178
kellya94424178
Level 1
April 12, 2019
Solved

Where to purchase LiveCycle / AEM Forms Designer?

  • April 12, 2019
  • 16 replies
  • 32434 views

Okay, so every so often when I am editing a form ((MAINLY FORM 8821, from the IRS)) I get a message that my form cannot be edited in Adobe & that it needs to be edited in LiveCycle Designer... But where & How do I do this. I can't info on LiveCycle Designer anywhere! And so when I ask adobe for tech support I am told that adobe does not offer support for livecycle any longer!

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    Best answer by altrue990

    It can be bought standalone, although they have increased the cost. Adobe Checkout

    16 replies

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    J
    joflo723
    Level 4
    November 19, 2019

    charlesp65418926​ I am in the same boat. I have been trying since Oct 1 to purchase a standalone copy of AEM Forms Designer. I have been pushed back and forth from Adobe to 4Point (their 3rd party retailer) more times that I can count. I sat on hold with Adobe one day for literally 2 HOURS and no one ever picked up the line. I finally got an email from Adobe yesterday telling me that they no longer sell single user licenses for AEM Forms Designer, and that my only option was to purchase a 10-pack, which is only sold through 4Point and costs $3500 PER YEAR! Unreal!!

    altrue990
    altrue990
    Level 4
    November 19, 2019

    I have a theory that Adobe is actively discouraging the sales of this product because it perpetuates the use of the PDF 2.0 non compliant XFA format (You can technically make a standard PDF with LiveCycle / AEM Forms, but not easily). However, they are willing to keep it going for those who bought into it as part of the server suite of products. I can't explain their behavior any other way.

    J
    joflo723
    Level 4
    November 21, 2019

    Thanks for that insight. So what then are small businesses who rely on XFA forms typically doing now? I‘m curious to know what the replacement is. We purchased Livecycle years ago for a fraction of what the cost is now for AEM Forms Designer. I’m happy to move on to the latest and greatest, but I have yet to figure out what that is.

    radzmar
    radzmar
    Level 10
    November 21, 2019

    There no big difference in LiveCycle Designer ES4 and AEM Forms Designer, just a few optimizations but no new features. You can still use LiveCycle to develop your XFA forms for your business.

    You can download a trial of AEM Forms Designer here.

    LiveCycle Blog: AEM Forms Designer Demoversion//AEM Forms Designer Trial

    altrue990
    altrue990
    Level 4
    November 21, 2019

    Well with Acrobat XI they replaced LiveCycle with FormsCentral, which used LiveCycle internally but ultimately produced AcroForms. After XI, they removed a form generation product altogether in Acrobat, suggesting SMBs use a third party product, or look at AEM Forms. AFAIK, there are no drop in replacements for the creation of XFA forms outside of AEM Designer.

    J
    joflo723
    Level 4
    November 22, 2019

    Well yes, and I’ve been continuing to use Livecycle for a few years now. Here’s my problem though. My copy of Adobe Pro & Livecycle came bundled with Adobe Design & Web Premium CS6 which includes a lot of the Adobe graphics applications (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc) that I use on a daily basis. However, due to it being older software now, I often get graphics files that I cannot open because of versioning issues. I thought it would be a simple matter of installing the newer Creative Cloud software; however, when I do that it removes the Design Suite software bundle, which includes Livecycle. And you can’t install ONLY Adobe Pro or Livecycle from this bundle. So I’m either stuck with 1) outdated graphical design software, or 2) no Livecycle Designer. Both of which I need.

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