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mindwaves · Jun 13, 2001, 10:46 PM

Not sure if it belongs in this forum, but it seems to fit. I have a pdf document that was orginally a .tiff picture that I converted using Preview.app in Mac OS X. What I want is to distribute this document in some form to allow others to just type in it to fill out the various forms and other stuff in there. How or what format would I need to convert this into or what program would I need or the client need to make his possible. Thanks!

Demonhood · Jun 13, 2001, 11:13 PM

you need acrobat. with acrobat you can open the pdf, insert some editable text fields, and then export it again. the only problem with editable PDFs, is that the end-user can't save them with all their data. they have to print it out or lose the stuff they typed in.

bluehz · Jun 14, 2001, 05:17 AM

I have used Acrobat/Distiller for years and I just discoverd this trick. This applies to Acrobat 5.0, although it may work in 4.0 I have not had a chance to test it. I created a form PDF, opened it with Acrobat, added text fields and a submit (e-mail) button at the end then posted on a web server. When I accessed it via IE5.0 over the web I was able to fill-in the form fields. No biggie, I expected that. What I didn't expect was that when I pushed the e-mail submit link in the PDF it actually e-mailed me a copy of the complete PDF intact with the fields filled in! The original PDF on the server remained untouched and Acrobat or Distiller never launched on my machine. It appears the newer PDFS's can self-generate new PDF's. The PDF arrived in my e-mail as an attachment with a numerical name (as opposed to the original name of the PDF form).

bluedog · Jun 14, 2001, 11:57 AM

As other's have mentioned, you can use a FORM FIELD in a PDF when you create it.

But if you want to simply edit a PDF file, as if it were a MS-WORD document or other document is not possible.

You *CAN* make minor edits to text using the full version of the Acrobat software. The free reader will not allow you to do so.

BUT since you posted in a Graphic Design forum, I thought I'd mention a few other tricks I've found when using PDFs.

Try opening the PDF within Adobe Illustrator 8 or greater (it may also work in 7.0). You can edit text, but it is chopped up according to how a postscript device would have received it. So it has a bit more flexibility that just using the full version of Acrobat.

The added benefit, you can delete and get other elements from the PDF. If someone has put protection on a file, just print to file, create a new PDF and edit away! (that is if they haven't put protection of printing of a document.

mindwaves · Jun 15, 2001, 09:03 AM

Hey, thanks everyone. One problem, I am using Acrobat and I am new to it and I would like to create a fairly large text box. Is there any way to use word wrapping? TIA.

Demonhood · Jun 15, 2001, 02:12 PM

Originally posted by mindwaves:
Hey, thanks everyone. One problem, I am using Acrobat and I am new to it and I would like to create a fairly large text box. Is there any way to use word wrapping? TIA.

when using the form tool, you should get a box full of options. click on the option that says "multi-line". you can also limit the amount of characters people can enter too (useful for telephone numbers, zip codes, etc...).

one thing you can also do, unrelated to the above, is have the pdf submit data online to you. all you'd get is a text file like with a submitted form, but some might prefer it over the printed version. we chose not to do this with the last editable PDF i made. besides, it was fun to see which applicants decided to use my online app versus the offline version.