Forms from Scratch using Adobe InDesign CS3 and Acrobat 8 Professional
I was at the SMPS (Socity of Marketing Professional and Services) show last week and I was bombarded with forms questions. Mostly, just how to get started! Almost all of them where using Adobe InDesign CS 2 or 3 so I figured, what the heck, let’s run through creating a form from scratch! So Click More to read on!!
Ok, like I was saying, using InDesign CS3 is a great way to create forms. And really with the workflow I am going through here, you can use any tool to create your forms. The main feature that we are focusing on here is new function in Acrobat 8 Professional called Auto Form Field Recognition, and it takes a PDF file and automatically adds the form fields to it. Sound weird? Well, it should make a little more sense after you see it. Ok, let’s get rockin!
In Figure 1 I have my form up in InDesign, (ok, so I punted and I didn’t show you how to actually create the form in InDesign, this is “Man, I didn’t know Acrobat could do that!”), but I digress, it is a simple fax form, but it should at least show you how to do this, and open you mind to vast possibilities of your inner form geek!
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Figure 1-Fax form in InDesign |
From with in InDesign CS3, I export the form to a PDF file, you can use the standard settings that you have. They should be fine. In Figure 2 I have the exported PDF open inside of Acrobat 8 Professional.
| Figure 2 - Exported PDF open in Acrobat 8 Professional |
To start the process I go to the Forms pull down menu and select Run Form Field Recognition (see Figure 3) this will start the process of looking at the PDF and trying to find what it thinks are fields. Now for a little reality check, you should get anywhere from 60 to 100% of the fields, at the end I have a little tip and trick for you that will help you with the accuracy of your auto-recognition.
| Figure 3 |
As shown here, you will have a list of the fields that Acrobat found on the Left side of the screen. Notice you can click on the name and the field will highlight, another cool thing is if you click the field type next to the name (still in the left side pane) it will show you some things you can do with that field and let you fire off the editing from there, pretty darn cool! (See Figure 4)
| Figure 4 - Showing the new fields and the left side panel with all the info |
The long way of getting to the Forms Editing tools is show in Figure 5, go to the Tools pull down, then to the Forms flyout then select either Edit Layout or in this case I wanted to see the Forms Toolbars, so I selected Show Forms Toolbar!
| Figure 5 - Opening the Forms Toolbar |
Now that I have the Forms Tool bar up I select Edit Layout (See Figure 6)
| Figure 6 |
Here I had a field in the wrong location, See Video for how to edit this field (Figure 7)
| Figure 7 |
In Figure 8 you will see some of the options for modifying a Text Field
| Figure 8 |
Now as I said there are some tricks here that could help you see figure 9
| Figure 9 |
And that’s it, pretty cool huh! To see how to create a workflow for forms data collection see my blog entry Forms Data Collection with Acrobat 8 Professional and it will take you step by step into the world of forms workflows. Check out the Videos Page for more helpful videos, I am adding them as fast as I can! To see a video of this blog entry click here.
All righty then, it’s Friday, holiday weekend, I hope everyone has fun, and remember to put some life in your life!
Tim Huff
Acrobat-BDM
