10 Replies Latest reply: May 17, 2013 7:19 AM by ROT2013

NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

Randy Swineford Aug 30, 2012 10:30 PM

FormsCentral now allows you to import an existing fillable PDF form and use the FormsCentral service to collect and analyze the submitted data. You no longer have to recreate your existing PDF forms within the service in order to take advantage of FormsCentral’s data collection/analysis capabilities.

You can also use popular tools like Adobe Acrobat X Pro or Adobe InDesign to create PDF forms that work with FormsCentral.

To import a PDF form go to the “My Forms” tab, click the More button on the toolbar and select “Import PDF Form.” Note: FormsCentral does not support PDF forms created using the LiveCycle Designer (XML-based forms).

Once imported the normal Design tab is replaced with an “Imported Form” tab that allows you to place a Submit button on the PDF form. You can place it on the top left or right of the first page, or place it on the bottom left or right of the last page. A thumbnail shows where the button will appear.

Click to view larger image

The Options tab shows options that are available for PDF forms (Note: PDF Forms do not support Redirect URLs or Payments so these are not shown)

Click to view larger image

The Distribute tab allows you to open the form and download the submit-enabled PDF file for distribution. The PDF file can be filled out, saved and submitted using the free Adobe Reader.

Click to view larger image

The Response and Summary Report tabs will show the data submitted from the PDF form. They function as they do for a normal form file that you created from scratch or template.

This FAQ describes what types of PDF forms can/cannot be imported and what functionality is limited within the PDF once imported:

http://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-2533

Please send us your feedback.

Randy

1. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

hrsuncountry Feb 8, 2013 9:34 AM (in response to Randy Swineford)

I am having issues with importing an existing fillable pdf form. Once imported, the fields in the Response data are completely out of order. They do not follow the tab order that was in place in the original pdf. Is my only option to spend time dragging and rearranging all my form fields?

Also - once a user has submitted their form, is there any way for me to view the data actually within the form design itself? I need to be able to generate a document that looks just like the form on the user's end as it appeared when they finished filling it out. Please advise.
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2. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

Randy Swineford Feb 8, 2013 10:41 AM (in response to hrsuncountry)

Currently we do not follow the tab order for columns, its using the order within the PDF file itself. In the future we hope to fix this issue. For now you would have to manually reorder them.

You can save the response into the original PDF by right clicking on a response.

Randy
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3. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

George Johnson Feb 8, 2013 10:45 AM (in response to hrsuncountry)

What I do is not care what order the fields appear in the responses table. You can also export the responses to Excel format and then save as a tab-delimited format. Acrobat allows you to open a blank form and select a row of data from a tab-delimited data file to populate the form. As long as you don't change the field names on the first row, this should work fine.
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4. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

hrsuncountry Feb 8, 2013 12:39 PM (in response to Randy Swineford)

Thanks, Randy. I look forward to that tab order thing being fixed. Please post when it is! Are there also plans for imported pdfs to be editable within Forms Central? If I try to recreate our entire job application in Forms Central, it will be very time-consuming, and the formatting is going to make it several pages longer than it currently is. Also, if I realize one tiny change I want to make to the form, I have to start the whole process from scratch (and will have to manually reorder all of the columns again each time).
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5. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

Randy Swineford Feb 9, 2013 2:39 PM (in response to hrsuncountry)

Sorry, we don't have plans to support editing of existing PDF forms within FormsCentral.
Randy
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6. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

ROT2013 Mar 18, 2013 12:03 PM (in response to Randy Swineford)

I followed this process to import my PDF form. The link I have on my web page is displaying an error from FormsCentral. The link works but the web page is confusing to customers. The message is:
An error has occurred.
The form does not exist. Please re-enter the web address as the link may be misspelled.
When I saved the submission-enabled PDF, I could only save it to my computer. I then had to upload it to the web site server and created a link on my web page to point to that URL.
How can I get rid of the Adobe FormsCentral message on the web page?
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7. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

Genevieve Laroche Mar 18, 2013 4:33 PM (in response to ROT2013)

Hi ROT2013,

Can you please point me to your website with the link to the form. I would like to see what you are experiencing.
You can email me directly at glaroche@adobe.com.

Gen
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8. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

Genevieve Laroche Mar 19, 2013 4:24 PM (in response to Genevieve Laroche)

To give an update on this "An Error Occured" problem.
The error message was showing up on the website becase the page contained an old embeded snippet (the form had been deleted since then).
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9. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

LeddyGee May 17, 2013 7:04 AM (in response to Genevieve Laroche)

Hello, Can you elaborate more on the solution since I am having the same issue. Are you saying that the OP's PDF form contained embedded code that needs to be removed? I created my PDF Form in Acrobat 10 and uploaded but get the same error message when I try to view it from Test Form Now link. Thanks in advance.
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10. Re: NEW! Import Fillable PDF Form and Collect Responses

ROT2013 May 17, 2013 7:19 AM (in response to LeddyGee)

I had to go to the html code to see the embeded snippet. Once I deleted that code, the error went away.
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