Create an interactive calculator in InDesign that works in PDF

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 1, 2019
4 replies
15795 views

I have created an interactive calculator for a few of our price list documents. To do so, I have to copy/paste the calculator created in PDF to the PDF documents. I would like to see if there is a way to do it directly from the InDesign document so it will save me time. I have 9 documents to do this to. Here is a link to what we are using: https://logiflex.ca/medias/documents/graphics-test-calculator.pdf

Correct answer Jeffrey_Smith

Indesign's form fields are basic and can not include a calculation script.

One thing you could do is create the content in Indesign. Keep a master PDF with form fields and calculation scripts. In Acrobat, merge the 2 by replacing the page in the master PDF.

TᴀW

Legend

Calculation, validation and formatting scripts, as well as keyboard and mouse-event-triggered scripts, can all be added to interactive PDFs directly in InDesign with our FormMaker add-ons: https://www.id-extras.com/products/formmaker/

For short forms there is a free version as well.

Ariel

June Rabbit

Known Participant

This looked like the solution I needed, but while watching the tutorial video in the link posted, it seems that this add-on will only work when the end user also has it installed.

Is my understanding correct, or can auto-calculating fillable PDF forms be created with this add-on so that the PDFs can be sent off and filled in (with auto calculations) by other users who don't have the add-on installed?

R

Ryan_Park

Participating Frequently

@June Rabbit @Ryan_Park Sorry, I never saw your follow-up question.

So, just to clarify, the PDFs that FormMaker creates are 100% plain-vanilla PDFs. The PDF interactivity relies 100% on Acrobat's own interactive capabilities.

What this means is that the end user does not need to have FormMaker installed. In fact, they won't even know that the PDF was created with FormMaker.

All the end user needs to get the full interactive PDF experience is the free Adobe PDF reader, on a desktop computer.

It could be that other free readers would also work, but for the most reliable experience, the desktop version of Adobe's free PDF reader is the software of choice.

@TᴀW Thanks so much for the clarification. I'll be discussing with my client the pros/cons of incurring the additional cost of the FormMaker subscription for the purposes of creating the form.

One more question. Your specific mention of a desktop computer has me slightly concerned. My client envisions filling out this order form while in front of his customer while being mobile on a tablet. I'm assuming that your description of a plain-vanilla PDF would support this use, and not actually require a desktop version of PDF?

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Correct answer

Community Expert

Indesign's form fields are basic and can not include a calculation script.

One thing you could do is create the content in Indesign. Keep a master PDF with form fields and calculation scripts. In Acrobat, merge the 2 by replacing the page in the master PDF.

B

blaurie2Author

Inspiring

Thanks, that is what I have been doing, but was hoping for a way to streamline operations. This calculator is popular where I work and there are 3 versions, US, Canda English and Canada French and it is in 3 different price lists, so an automation would have been a real time saver.