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Mary Beth5C4F
Participant
November 18, 2020
Question

Teacher wants students to highlight fillable PDF

  • November 18, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 532 views

I have opened the free trial of Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020. I'm a teacher and would like to purchase this to create fillable PDFs. However, I can't figure out how to create a fillable PDF that will allow students the option to highlight the text.  
For example; I have a paragraph and I want students to highlight incorrect verb usage or improper punctuation. 

Does anyone have a solution or a work around?  Thanks in advance!

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3 replies

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
November 19, 2020

You should bear in mind that in a typical class, with young people, almost nobody will use a computer. They will be using phones and tablets. You need to test in this environment, and give clear instructions about what app to install and how to send it to them. They surely won't have any suitable apps unless you tell them. And I also emphasise you need to be very clear about the difference between highlighting and filling; different and sometimes mutually exclusive activities.

    gary_sc
    Community Expert
    gary_scCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 18, 2020

    Let me add to Thom's reply in regard to creating fillable forms.

     

    IF all you want your students to do is highlight, than you can create your exams/lessons/homework in Word and use your computer's software to create the PDF (Typically worded as "Save as PDF" which is not generated by Adobe/Acrobat and the quality can vary). However, IF you want to actually create any form, the easist way to do that is in the Adobe application called InDesign. 

     

    Using Acrobat to create a form is possible but is not necessary the easiest way to do that. At a minimum, you should start with the basic document preprepared from any text creating software (Word, Text Edit, etc.). You open this in Acrobat and start the form creating process.

     

    As a teacher, your school may already have a license for the Adobe Creative Cloud applications so you might already have access to it. Adobe does have an excellent discount for those in education (for students and teachers) for those who need to purchase a subscription.

     

    There are probably 100s of videos on how to do this so I suggest you google "Using InDesign for Building Accessible PDF Forms" and you'll see a whole bunch of them to search though. For more detailed lessons, because you are in education, you also probably have access to LinkedIn Learning (previously knows as Lynda.com) and can get great information from there.

     

    Good luck

    M
    Mary Beth5C4FAuthor
    Participant
    November 19, 2020

    Thank you! I have multiple projects going but this particular one is an 8 page pdf that I needed to make fillable. It also contained a paragraph that needed to be highlighted by the student.  I'm working with virtual students who said they could not highlight anything. I'll ask what pdf viewer they are using. It could be they are simply viewing it in Canvas and not actually downloading the file. 

    gary_sc
    Community Expert
    gary_scCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 19, 2020

    Yes, they will HAVE to download it. That has to happen if you want them to highlight anything.

     

    OK, than there can be issues, here's why: A number of years ago Adobe chose to release the PDF format to the ISO (International Standards Organzation), meaning that they do not own the PDF format anymore. This is why Apple, Microsoft, Google, and your neighbor Fred can make PDF viewers and PDF creation software. The catch is that there is no policing adgency that makes sure that any of these applications do what they are supposed to in a manner that follows ISO standards. 

     

    Becuase of this, if you really want to risk breaking a form, open it in Apple's Preview or the similar on Windows.

     

    The only way to absolutely guarentee that you will not have problems or issues is to have the students download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. And without your telling me, I can only imagine the issues with families who do not want their kids to install ANY software let alone software needed for school. And you have the issue where someone has a very very old computer and it cannot work with a new version of Reader. The list goes on.

     

    I have no demographic as to where you are and the kinds of families that your teach for. You might want to talk to your IT person (if you have one) and/or fellow teachers and find out what they are doing.

     

    But to sum this up, Adobe maintains their software to follow ISO standards. Not everyone else does and no one does to the degree that Adobe does. That notwithstanding, the simpler you make your fillable form (e.g., fewer bells and whistles), the safer you'll be. I'd also suggest that you create a sample homework/test, send it out, and see how successful students are with it.

     

    Really, good luck!!

    Thom Parker
    Community Expert
    Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 18, 2020

    Highlighting is different from form filling. Highlighting is a commenting activity. Anyone can do it by selected the Highlight tool. Highlights are a standard PDF elemement and are available in nearly all PDF viewers, even the really bad ones. 

    Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
    M
    Mary Beth5C4FAuthor
    Participant
    November 19, 2020

    I guess the problem exists on the pdf viewer on the Chromebooks the students are using. Thanks for the input. I will investigate more.

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