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TomWhelan22
Participant
November 10, 2021
Answered

Forms in Acrobat Pro DC vs (deprecated) Forms central

  • November 10, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 1931 views

My organization has an old version of Acrobat Pro, and I've used the EOL Forms Central to create fillable forms. I have a few questions:
1. I see you can create a new form in Acrobat Pro DC. Is the new form saved on disc in PDF format?
    The form I create is localized, and the old fcdt format (an XML format) is convenient for localization.
2. Is the new form you create in Acrobat Pro DC editable - can I revise the form design if I need to?
3. Is the migration from a Forms Central file to a form in Acrobat Pro DC a matter of converting the fcdt to a PDF?

These are questions I need to answer before proposing new licensing for Acrobat Pro DC.

Thanks

Tom

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Test Screen Name

Adobe have had many goes at replacing their first clumbsy forms. But the clumbsy forms are a standard, and all other forms are just dead. Do you have any info that Acrobat will convert these files? I don't have one to see. 

once it's a PDF (quite possibly remade from scratch), it stays a PDF. Editable only in a PDF forms editor, there is no XML to edit. The Acrobat form editor has moved around but is basically the same as it always was. Its limitations are largely the limitations of PDF forms themselves. 

also there are many sound reasons to avoid PDF forms completely, and go to HTML forms. 

2 replies

nadeemh34786614
nadeemh34786614
Participating Frequently
May 16, 2024

Here we are 3 years later and Adobe once again proves that just when you thought things couldn't get worse, they can. I had held on Acrobat Pro IX for as long as I could but a few weeks ago, an uninstallation tool was deployed and now I have Acrobat DC. The Prepare Form feature is by far the worse iteration of the form creator so far. The forms I had as .fcdt files are opened as PDFs and made available for editing in the clunky editor/creator tool. 
Logically grouped items (e.g multiple choice questions with radio buttons/check boxes) composed of question, button, and button label are split apart into individual items that you need to align manually.  And get this: you can't group elements (!). Text you type will randomly get grouped regardless of whether you want it separated or not. It has the look and feel of MS Word. It feels like it was developed by a 4-year old.

I have stopped expecting anything good to come out of Adobe anymore. 

    Bernd Alheit
    Community Expert
    Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 10, 2021

    Adobe Acrobat creates forms in PDF format.

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    TomWhelan22Author
    Participant
    November 10, 2021

    Thanks for the reply. Can you comment on the workflow of editing the form in a PDF?
    I can open the Forms central fcdt file in Acrobat DC, converting it to a PDF.
    Are there issues adding a field to the PDF? PDF page formatting is not flexible.

    I have list controls with values that change from vesion to version. Is editing those values easier in PDF than in the past?

    Or can I work around those issues by recreating the form in a blank new PDF in Acrobat DC?

    T
    Test Screen NameCorrect answer
    Legend
    November 10, 2021

    Adobe have had many goes at replacing their first clumbsy forms. But the clumbsy forms are a standard, and all other forms are just dead. Do you have any info that Acrobat will convert these files? I don't have one to see. 

    once it's a PDF (quite possibly remade from scratch), it stays a PDF. Editable only in a PDF forms editor, there is no XML to edit. The Acrobat form editor has moved around but is basically the same as it always was. Its limitations are largely the limitations of PDF forms themselves. 

    also there are many sound reasons to avoid PDF forms completely, and go to HTML forms. 

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