Adobe Acrobat X: Forms. Part 1: Designing the Form Connect session 9/2012

Transcription

1 Adobe Acrobat X: Forms Part 1: Designing the Form Connect session 9/2012

2 Do You Need a PDF Form? You might be locked into using PDFs However. Google Docs Forms is a much easier way to do this Form is online, writes to an online Excel-like database in real time Easier, faster, fewer moving parts to break Easy to edit on the fly Tutorials here:

3 PDFs Form needs to originate in another program Word, Illustrator, InDesign After you create the form, you import it into Acrobat Add fields (place to put answers) and buttons (Submit, Reset) Distribute form Via Via Acrobat.com Via website Via mail - respondent can download form from web, write in or enter data (it CAN be saved) and mail it back Collect data Combination of methods: mail back, back, collect via Acrobat.com

4 Import the form Again: use Word, Illustrator, InDesign Open it in Acrobat You ll need to set file type to All Files Open Tools pane>forms>create Acrobat will turn doc into a PDF It will try to intuit where your fields should go Reasonably accurate, far from perfect Doesn t save you that much work, since you need to fine-tune field anyway

5 Text Fields For text or numbers Choose Text Field type, drag it to desired spot Resize using sizing boxes Right-click>Properties General tab>name give field a descriptive name General tab>tooltip give instructions to enduser General tab>required option Options tab>multi line, scrolling, spellcheck available here Format tab>specific numeric options Special for zip code, phone, etc.

6 Text Fields: Arbitrary Mask Right-click>Properties>Format tab>special>arbitrary mask Case-sensitive! A - Accepts only letters (A Z, a-z) X - Accepts most printable characters O - Accepts letters, numbers (A Z, a-z, and 0 9) 9 - Accepts only numbers (0 9) Example: lx-321 would be AA-999

7 Checkboxes Allows for multiple answers Choose Check Box Field type, drag it to desired spot Resize using sizing boxes Right-click>Properties General tab>name give field a descriptive name General tab>tooltip give instructions to end-user Options tab>checkbox style display checkmarks, X, etc. Options tab>export value - give choice a numeric value

8 Radio Buttons Allows only one answer choice Choose Radio Button Field type, drag it to desired spot Resize using sizing boxes IMPORTANT: All answer choices within same question must have same Field name Answers are differentiated by Choice1, Choice2, etc. Right-click>Properties General tab>name give all answer choices same descriptive name General tab>tooltip give instructions to end-user

9 Buttons Performs an action when clicked Choose Button, drag it to desired spot Resize using sizing boxes Right-click>Properties General tab>name give button a descriptive name General tab>tooltip give instructions to end-user Options tab>label only adds text to button Various Icon options lets you use your own button image Actions tab>select trigger and action Trigger: typically mouse up Action: Reset form, go to a URL, open a document, play media IMPORTANT: Click Add, then Close

10 Tab Order Tab takes end-user through each field in the form Top to bottom Multi-column: left to right Default is the order in which you create them To modify, use the Fields pane, just below Tasks pane Drag them up and down to reorder them

11 Submit Buttons You DON T need a Submit button Let Acrobat supply one for you when you click Distribute Acrobat looks for a Submit button, and will add one if you don t have one It will be in upper right corner Automatically configured for distribution (either through Acrobat.com or via ) You can alert respondent of where it is in text of document **CLICK DISTRIBUTE**

12 Manually Extending Adobe Reader Automatically done when you click Distribute Acrobat v.9 or 10 Allows respondent to save data, add comments, signatures, text boxes