Complete Acrobat form with the Reader

[cmoke73]

Hello.

I want to create an Acrobat form to be filled out by people who only have the Reader. They are filled in individually (text and images) and send the PDF to the customer. However, the customer needs a simple PDF with no form fields.

Which one ist the best way to do this?

1.) make the forms in InDesgin

2.) make them in Acrobat pro

Again, the two difficulties I have to deal with are: the people filling out the form are not very familiar with applications like Acrobat Pro and probably have only the simple Reader, and the second is to get a plain PDF using just Acrobat Reader. As you can see, my hands are tied. 🙂

[Serene_nature15C3]

Hi Cmoke

Hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble. As described you want to create a fillable PDF form that can be used by the users to fill using Adobe Acrobat Reader DC application.

Please look at the help articles listed below to more information about creating the PDF form using Acrobat DC and filling out the forms using Acrobat Reader DC application;

1. https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/create-form.html

2. https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/filling-pdf-forms.html

Hope this information will help

Regards

Amal

[try67]

- There's no problem filling in a form in Reader. It works by itself, unless they use a very old version of Reader, in which case you'll need to save the file in a specific way so they could save it with the filled-in data in Reader, but that's not very likely.

- Reader can't flatten form fields. It can either set them as read-only (which requires using a script) or lock them, if you use a digital signature field and set it to do so when signed. The former is easier for the user, but not secure at all.

The latter requires them to set up a digital signature profile (one-time process) and sign the file using it, but then it is secured and the fields can't be edited without invalidating the signature. They can also use the Fill & Sign toolbar to achieve something similar.

[try67]

Regarding which app to use: I would recommend Acrobat. If you create the fields in InDesign you will have to edit them there only.

[JR Boulay]

"Which one ist the best way to do this?

1.) make the forms in InDesgin

2.) make them in Acrobat pro"

If you want to create simple forms that just collect information such as Name, Address, phone, etc. InDesign may be a good choice.

If you want to create complex forms with calculations, show/hide fields, show/hide layers, etc. Acrobat Pro is required.

[Test Screen Name]

Reader can't flatten fields; this is one of the value added features in Acrobat. So Adobe would be delighted if this value added feature leads to each of the people filling the form, paying for Acrobat, that was the idea. If Reader is an absolute requirement a client-side only solution is not possible, you would to develop some kind of server process to do the flattening.

[cmoke73]

Okay, thank you all.

As I can see, the Reader-problem is not that easily fixed. Well I will look for another solution.

Some users have the possibility to "print" a PDF. But not each of them.... That's awful!  😞

Regards