My father ran away from creating PDF forms awhile back for one of his clients however, it's come back. They basically want all their forms turned into PDF's so the client can fill out the form (via Acrobat) and e-mail it back. However, it's my understanding that "if" he created a form and then sets it up via Acrobat Pro that the client's client would need acrobat pro in order to fill out the form, and e-mail it back.

Am I correct on this? Because I am very capable of setting up the form for him (if he needs help). However, I'm 95% sure that his client doesn't grasp what they want.

Am I wrong?

Also, if it's doable... Will Acrobat Pro 6 do the job? or does he need Acrobat Pro 7?

Thanks for everyone's help.

Bill

I think they could fill them out and print them with reader, but they wouldn't be able to save them to e-mail back. In order for them to be saved they would need a full version of Acrobat. Or you would have to specially enable the PDF's using a server side solution called LiveCycle Extensions for Reader.

jesse

Doesn't PDFPen from Smile On My Mac do that? Isn't that the whole purpose of that software? (and is cheaper than Acrobat Pro?)

When you create an editable PDF with form fields you CAN type in your information and print or fax it to someone. However, it WILL NOT be savable if you are using just the Reader - you need the full version of Acrobat to do that.

Sucks, yes I know. Adobe surely missed a huge opportunity to lock up the digital document market. *However they do offer a special version of Acrobat for large companies who want to do this that does allow you to save when using just the Reader. Unfortunately, it costs something un-godly like $100,000.

So basically print yes, fax yes, save no.

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Ok... I did figure out "how" to setup a form that you can fill out and e-mail the form data... Works great and we will try a mockup to see if this is acceptable for the client.

Acrobat Reader 7 warns you that you can't "SAVE" the data... However, "if" you just do a simple "mailto:address@address.com" in a button at the bottom it e-mails the data... Pretty slick and it works fine...

Thanks for everyone's help... I even think if someone was smart enough, the would take this "form" data and save it somewhere for future use as long as they have the "actual" PDF saved somewhere...

Bill