Using SharePoint workspace to compile data from distributed form

[gman57783]

I am unable to find clear instructions on how to use SharePoint when distributing a form to collect and compile data from employees. I find information on document reviews, but that is not what I want to do.  I want to manual distribute form by email, and have respondents email completed form to an Outlook email address (eliminates need for everyone to be inside the firewall).  MS Flow will then move the attachment (form) to the appropriate SharePoint document library.  I need the "responses" file to be in the same SharePoint library to compile the results.  Any instruction, or pointers to instructions, would be terrific.  Thanks in advance.

[paulalanning]

I bumped into this today, and kind of accidentally did what you are asking.  

First set up your SharePoint server

From the tools form menu, go to  "Prepare form", and then go to "Distribute Form".  

You are then asked how you want to distribute the form Email or "Internal server".  Choose internal server.

Select "SharePoint Subsite" and add in your sharepoint server information, and select the "Choose subsite" link over on the right.  You should be prompted for a log in, and then you are presented with a list of available subsites and libraries for those sites.  Select your subsite and library you want to use for the form.     Click Next

Distributed the form

You are now asked how you want to distribute the form "Select using Adobe Acrobat"  and you can either send it as a link or an attachment in the email.     Click next and give your server settings a name.    Click Next

Now you are at the "Distribute form" pop up, and it will ask you to access your contacts.  Select yes or no on that one.  Enter in the email addresses of those you want to fill out the form, customize your message if you need to  and click Send.  Your default email client will create the email putting ALL the contact names in the BCC field.    Send the email.

User Gets the Form

Once the user gets the email they can double click the attachments or click the link in the email to open the pdf.   Once they fill out the form they will then click "Submit form"  A pop up will appear for them to enter in the "from" information, their email and name if it does not auto populate with the machine information.   They will get a log in prompt for the server and then can submit the form.

Administrative/Tracker

From the Admin side, you can go to Adobe Acrobat (I am using DC) go to the tools, and then prepare form tool, and then "Track" you can see all the info about your forms there.  Who it was sent to, who got it, and responded to.  You can resend it from here to the people who have not responded yet.   That is about as far as I got.  I literally just started looking at this this afternoon for one of our customers.

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One thing I did notice, and I have not spoken to our server guys yet, is that I can only get this to work properly on a site with anonymous access set.  If I try to use a site on the same web app that is not anonymous, it cannot create the folder in the library for the form when setting up the connection the first time.   Whether or not I am doing something wrong unsure, but I got it to work properly on an anon/public site, so we will use it that way.

I hope this helps a little.....

[Asmira]

Hello paulalanning,

thank you for the answer. I got to this point, but could not proceed on how to create the required subsites and libraries in the SharePoint. Is there any further information about how to setup the sharepoint to receive the Forms?