FormsCentral now allows you to create, distribute and collect data using fillable PDF forms. When you distribute your form as a PDF respondents will be able to:
The new Page View mode in the design tab shows how the form will be laid out across pages when saved to PDF. You can access the page view mode by selecting it in the lower right corner of the UI:
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Based on the paper size chosen (File menu -> Form Setup), page view mode will automatically break the fields up into pages.
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You can also define your own custom page breaks within page view by clicking the new page button on the item toolbar.
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Page breaks created in the Web View do not show up in Page View – each view has its own independent page breaks. This allows you to better optimize your form pagination based on the form type (web vs PDF)
Once you have setup your form go to the Distribute tab to distribute the PDF form.
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Save Submission-Enabled PDF - This will save out a fillable PDF form that contains a Submit button at the bottom of the form. Respondents can fill out the form, click submit and all of their data will appear in the response table.
If you want to save out a fillable PDF form that does not contain a Submit button (the data will not be collected using FormsCentral) then go to the File menu and select the Save as PDF Form menu item. You will be asked if you want to collect responses or not using FormsCentral. Select "Don't Collect Responses" - this option is focused at users who just want a PDF form that can be sent around in email, filled out and then managed like a document.
The fillable PDF forms created using FormsCentral allow Adobe Reader users to fill out the form, save the file locally and submit their data. Your respondents only need Reader or Acrobat version 8, 9 or X.
You can also distribute both a web form and fillable PDF form at the same time - the options are not mutually exclusive. All of the submitted data from both will appear in the response table.
PDF forms do have a couple of limitations that prevent some of the FormsCentral features from working with them. PDF forms do not support these features (click here for more info):
This feature is part of our Basic and Plus plans.
Please send us your feedback on this feature. Enjoy!
I can build a ColdFusion web app that grabs inputed form data and generates a custom-layout PDF with that data, it'd seem like Adobe FormsCentral would also have that capability... or is there just a much simpler, scaled down version in the new Acrobat X? If not, I'll just build the CF app to do it. Thanks!
Hi Randy. This new feature is AWESOME. We are using it extensively. The only problem we are finding is that some "users" who want to fill out the form get the message "you cannot save data typed into this form" and they don't get a submit button. This is with a PDF form created to be saved back to FormsCentral. This is only happening to a few people -- for the others, things work perfectly. How do we help these few? What needs to be done to correct this? Thank you!
AcheiveTheDream's question about "you cannot save data typed into this form" has been answered here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1015216?tstart=0
In response to at.georgieva,
When you create your fillable PDF files with Adobe FormsCentral, they include a "Submit" button that sends responses automatically back to FormsCentral. Respondents need only click the button to submit and no explicit uploading is involved. As the author, you log in to FormsCentral to view a table or reports based on all submitted responses.
Thanks!
Shannon
Can i import a list of contacts from Excel to send my fillable PDF form?
or
if i want to use the link for my customer to click on the link and complete the form, do they need to sign in to their adobe account?
also,
if i need to received copy of the form signed back or with initials? is that okay? will it do it?
Hi,
FormsCentral does not distribute your forms directly - you have to email them yourself, or post the form to a website. Because of this, there's no customer/contact management feature in FormsCentral, and therefore no import contacts feature.
Your customers do *not* need an Adobe account to fill out the form. Whoever you send the PDF (or HTML link) to, can fill it out.
Unfortunately at this time, we do not offer any kind of signing feature for our forms.
Thanks,
Todd
I can already create a fillable PDF form with (or without) a Submit button using Adobe Acrobat Pro, then distribute it and collect the responses in a file on my computer. The only advantage I can think of for doing this through FormsCentral instead is the ability to access the data from anywhere and the ease of sharing the data with others. Am I missing anything? (The reason we chose FormsCentral was for the form logic it offers, which sadly isn't possible in the PDF version.)
I want to have a PDF but then let the user select options and based on those it will add a transparent image to the PDF for printing, is this possible?
I have a CD Label and they need to change the image and text before printing it, and so I thought I could create all the custom images in PNG Transparent and then if there was a way to allow them to pick and add it to the PDF it would save a lot of time, plus it would be easier to update the background main image. Otherwise I have to create a separate PDF for each one...
any help? Thanks
I work for a large organization. We use Livecycle ES. Our custom application uses an HTML front end to capture the data (via XML BLOB within a Oracle DB). One of our biggest challanges is creating front end forms. Currently we create the form and bind the fields, we do the same for the PDF in Designer. We do not have a tool that does that as simple as this AdobeForms Central does it. My question is do you offer an enterprise version for large corporations that would want to use this tool to create an HTML form, with an ability to review answers and sign the backend PDF form? If not any plans to incorporate this to a future release?
Thx
Hi Randy,
is it possible for the same respondent to complete the " same" form a number of times offline. In order to submit all responses when they are online again.
i am using forms on Android tabs and Ipads , submitting through 3G connections.
the signal in the area is really bad and it is difficult to complete a survey without this facility.
the only solution I have found is to email the form and then delete the last response and start again.
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