pdf with editable fields

[mwenz]

Mike, could you name one or two that are not too expensive (reasonable price for a one time project)?

I use Acrobat. I've just seen some with the capability. I did a Google search and in the top hits saw this page. I suspect there are others as well. Take the word "free" in the title with a grain of salt.

https://pdf.iskysoft.com/pdf-form/fr...m-creator.html

Mike

[mwenz]

Why not Mike? Just curious.

For a few reasons, really.

The idea of a PDF form is the collection of data. Filling a form and having the data collection easy is something that a web page can do, regardless of the form factor (desktop, tablet, phone). A PDF is absolutely a fixed size sort of thing. Scrolling around on a mobile device (many don't have a tab key) and "clicking" into a form's field sucks. A well-designed web page that is at least adaptive for size if not responsive in nature makes the form filling easier. Many mobile devices cannot deal with a PDF form.

And as well, how does one get that data? One can usually get to the data via email (easier on a desktop), but then what? what does one then do with the info? Then there is the security issues. There has been a tightening of security and capability for PDF forms that has made it near impossible to use one's own server for processing and most/many mobiles will barf at sending the data properly.

The list goes on. PDF forms are just an inefficient means of data collection and further processing.

If one want to, they can buy PagePlus for $20 or so. You can make PDF forms with it. Even ID cannot deal with certain form issues and no matter what is used to create the PDF, it nearly always needs post manipulation in an editor. And while PP can include JavaScript actions attached to various form fields, it nearly always needs edited in Acrobat or whatever. And again, mobile devices don't like the running of JavaScript in a PDF.

It is faster and more assured to just build web pages. Hopefully in something that makes it easy to adapt to the user's device.

[gwpriester]

Thanks Mike.

[siran]

Thanks Mike. Have bookmarked it and will work through it later.