Fillable Forms and VBA - Seeking Alternative to Acrobat Object

[HKDebbieP]

I am currently using Adobe Acrobat Pro 2017 and have created several Fillable Forms which our dealers use for various purposes.  Once the Fillable Forms are received back to our Order Entry or Customer Service departments, I would like them to be able to pull the data from the form(s) into an Excel spreadsheet or Access database.  I have been successful in using the Acrobat object in VBA to pull the data from each of the form fields and insert the data into a spreadsheet or database as needed.  However, most of my users (20+) have only Adobe Reader.  The Acrobat object is not installed or accessible with this version of Adobe.  I am looking for other options to pull form field data and populate a Microsoft Office spreadsheet or database.  I have not found an object such as Acrobat which my users with Adobe Reader would have access to.  Is there one that I am missing?  Should I be using something other than VBA with which I can access the fillable form fields?

Thank you so much.  I look forward to some guidance as I've spent many hours trying to find a solution for this.

Debbie Poirier

[Test Screen Name]

The Acrobat SDK is designed to sell more copies of Acrobat, so tbis is a deliberate omission from the free Reader. Developers also are refused a license to extend Reader in this way. 

[HKDebbieP]

Have you had success with other methods outside of using the Acrobat object?

Thanks,

Debbie

[Thom Parker]

If by users you mean workers that are processing form data, then they need to have a real tool for doing this, such as Acrobat Pro or Standard. Reader is for reading and filling forms, not for processing documents/forms.

[HKDebbieP]

Thanks, Thom.  Many of our fillable forms are used outside of our primary systems, but offer dealers a way to request customizations, etc.  Also, many of these forms are used outside of the company.  Making the decision to use Reader or Adobe Professional is a business decision/case for each of these companies that I do not have control over.  So, my question is - what are some alternatives to using the Acrobat object?

Thanks!

Debbie

[Thom Parker]

There are ways to extract data from a PDF other than Acrobat Pro/Standard (When you talk about the "Acrobat Object" you're talking about Acrobat Professional and Standard).  All of these other methods cost money because they are all commercial products. Such as other PDF viewers like Nuance, Nitro, and PDF Tracker. Or server/library tools such as PDFBox.  There are many, many other  tools you can use to extract data from a PDF. Just google it. The hard fact is that Acrobat Reader is not a production tool. If you want to do production work you need a production tool.

Given that, there is one way to get form data out of a PDF with Reader, which is to submit it. But you need something to receive the submit and process the data, which is pretty much a custom job.

[George_Johnson · Accepted solution]

Another option with Reader is to use JavaScript to format the data in some way (e.g., tab delimited, CSV, JSON) and present it to the user in some way that they can copy & paste to some other software can read and process it. An example would be to use tab delimited format, write the data to a multiline text field, and the user could copy & paste into a spreadsheet. You can do better with a custom dialog. So while it's not entirely automated, it is about the best you can do with Reader.

[HKDebbieP]

Thank you for the tip, George.  Sometimes you just need some new light on the subject.  I used a variation of your idea.  I was able to create a dialog box using JavaScript which has a text field populated with the data needed for the Access database.  My users can copy this into a field in Access and I will use VBA to parse it.

Debbie

[Test Screen Name]

If I read correctly the external company can fill and send the form, or form data, or submit the form; then your own Order Entry or Customer Service departments would process the data.