Interactive pdf file based on filtered information, is it possible?

[thaong]

Hi everyone,

I work for an Apprenticeship provider in the UK and I am trying to move away from printing too many documents to digital ones.

We have something called a start pack with repetitive information like start date, learner name, employer…However, each start pack have a few different pages such as standards, learner journey depending on what apprenticeship the learner undertakes. To make it even more complicated, the learner journey is different if the company is a big corporation or an SME and if the learner is from 16-18 years old or older learners.

I have managed to create different fillable forms where I only have to fill in the name once and other fields of the same info automatically filled in and the dates as well based on a calculation (for i.e Business Admin end date is 15 months from start date). I name them along the line of Business Admin-young learners-Levy or Business Admin-existing employee-nonlevy. So imagine that I have like 15 files for one apprenticeship and we are doing like 5 apprenticeships altogether and in 2020 we are planning to provide more standards.

Now I want to go a step further to make it more user-friendly (I know which form to use, but the coaches won’t. So now I still have to fill in the information and print it out for them).  Ideally, only if I can just put all the information I have in one big pdf file and the first page is the information and as I filter the information, corresponding pages are visible only, which sounds very impossible for me. That’s why I think of the 2nd option:

Preferably, I want to have one page with checkboxes or combobox where they pick the programme (business admin, management, procurement…) and the type of company (levy company, non-levy company) and the age of the learner (existing employee or young learners) and a button. When people click the button, it will open the corresponding form that I already made.

Can you tell me what kind of code I need to put behind the button for this to work? Thank you everyone in advance.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

Both things are possible, but the former is more complicated, especially if the file is not used exclusively in Acrobat.

The latter basically just requires an if-else hierarchy to determine which file to open, so it's easier.

You need to use something like this (this is pseudo-code):

if (FieldA=="1" && FieldB=="3" && FieldC=="5") OPEN FILE X.pdf;

else if (FieldA=="1" && FieldB=="2" && FieldC=="5") OPEN FILE Y.pdf;

else if (FieldA=="3" && FieldB=="3" && FieldC=="3") OPEN FILE Z.pdf;

etc.

[thaong]

Hi try67,

Everyone in the office has Acrobat but only a few people have the Pro version. I made it so it can be saved and signed by learner and coach and then send to employer to sign. Now I print the pack out, the coaches do the signups and I have to scan everything back in, which takes lots of time. That's why I want to introduce everyone to the interactive one to reduce the amount of papers we use and also to save myself time.

Do you mind giving me a rough idea about the first option to see if it's worth pursuing? I am not very very good at coding (what you explained to me I can do, to give you a rough idea) but I also see this as a sort of challenge and I just can't get it off of my mind.

Thanks

[try67]

Do you mean they have Acrobat Standard, or are you talking about Acrobat Reader (the free version)? Because it will only work with the former. The latter will require a much more complex solution.

[thaong]

The free version I am afraid. Oh well, the button should do for now. Thanks for your support 🙂