Forms/Distribution Acrobat X Professional Acrobat is becoming a standard tool for people and businesses to use in order to replicate forms and have them available electronically. If a form is converted or scanned to a PDF document, then its default behavior will just be a static form. The end user will have the capability to view the form online and print it as if it were an original. The originator of the form can take a few extra steps and add forms fields to the document and make it interactive. Once the form is interactive online, then the user can view the page and fill it out online. Depending on how the form is set up, it can then be printed or the data can be submitted. One way to help in the creation of forms is to use this website as a guide; http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/designing-forms-auto-field-detection-adobe-acrobat Using the Forms Wizard There are a couple ways to create your form, you can do it manually, or you can use the Forms Wizard to create the form for you. To use the Wizard, go to Create under the Forms Panel. This process will automatically detect your form information, but it may not be 100% accurate. We can change and or edit the incorrect fields after the wizard has created the fields. When you click on Create, you will have to option to an existing file, Scan a form, or create an Online form. Make sure the Use an existing file is selected, click Next. On the next Window, if your current document is already opened in Acrobat, make sure Use the current document is selected, then click Next. You may also browse to a document on your computer. Acrobat will now create the form fields for you, based on what type of fields it believes you want in your form. Check to make sure all of the fields are correct as you want them. Check boxes are check boxes, radio buttons are radio buttons. Sometimes Acrobat does not get these fields correct, so you may have to re-enter the fields. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 1 of 18
If Acrobat does not find a field, or if you have to change a field, you have to be in the Forms Editing Panel. To activate this, go to the Tools Panel on the right side of the screen, click on Forms, Edit. This will place the Forms Toolbar on the Toolbar menu on the top of the screen As well as in the Panels on the right side of the screen. Tip: You will have to click on the Close Form Editing link in order to get out of the forms Tool. Testing your form You can test your form by clicking on the Preview button on the top of the screen. This is an easy way to see if you form is working as you had intended. Deleting Existing Fields If some of the fields are incorrect, you will have to right click on the field and delete it. You will then have to put in the correct field type. You may also delete a field by clicking on it and hitting the Delete key on your keyboard. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 2 of 18
Adding new Fields To add a new field, you may use the Forms Toolbar on the top of the screen or in the Forms Panel on the right side of the screen. Select the type of Tool that you need by clicking on it. Then move your mouse into the location where you want to place this Tool, left click and hold, then drag your mouse to get your desired size. You may have to zoom into the document to get your field to fit exactly where you want it. The type of field you select, depends on what you need in return; Text box (text and numbers) Radio Button (option button, it will either be A or B not both) Check Box (check all that apply) Combo Box (select an item from a list) List Box (select an item from a list) Buttons (create buttons to reset or print the form) If you aren t sure which type of field you need to use. Move your mouse over the form fields, there will be a popup information window that will explain what the field is best used for. Tip: If you are creating a Check box or radio button and want to keep the field symmetrical, hold down your Shift key while you are dragging your mouse. Each field must contain a unique form field name. The name cannot have any spaces and is case sensitive. Exception: When using Radio Button form fields, the field names must be identical. Radio Buttons form fields imply that you choose one or the other and not both or all. Tip: Form fields can be deleted, resized or moved at any time when they are selected. Tip: Form fields can be copied, but don t forget to modify the field name. All form fields should have a unique name. An exception to unique field names is the radio button form field Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 3 of 18
Form field Properties Form field properties can be accessed at any time by double-clicking with the mouse on the form field. General Tab Properties Once you have placed your new field into your document, click on the All Properties link. You may also see all properties by double clicking on the field. Most of the fields will have different property options, but the General Tab is always the same. Name: Name of the field Read Only: Is this field Read Only and no text can be entered. Tooltip: What will be displayed when the mouse is over the field Form Field: How do you want this field to display the content, visible, hidden, etc Orientation: How will the text in the field display. Vertically, Horizontally, etc Required: Is this field required? If there is no information entered into this field, Acrobat will not allow the form to be completed. Appearance Tab Properties The Appearance Tab is that same for each type of form field. In the Appearance Tab, you have the option to set the border color, fill color, line thickness and line Style. You also have the option to set the Font Size, color and Font being used. You will typically use the font settings when you are using Text boxes, or if you are allowing the end user to enter in any data. The Auto font size will shrink the inputted text automatically if the text is too large for the field. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 4 of 18
Text Box Properties Along with the General and Appearance tab properties that all fields have, text boxes have some unique properties. Under the options tab, you are able to set the alignment of the text box. You may set a default value to the text box that will appear and allow for the end user to type over it. You may allow for the end user to enter in Multiple lines, scroll long text, or limit the amount of characters. If you do have the Scroll long text box checked, acrobat will automatically add scroll bars to your text field if the data is larger than the actual text box. Under the Format tab, you can set your text box to a specific type of formatting to allow only a specific type of data to be entered into the text box. Under the Calculate, you can have Acrobat automatically calculate a couple of text fields for you. Acrobat can Add, Multiple, Give an Average, the Maximum or the Minimum. To add the fields in that you want to be used in the Calculation, make sure to click on the Value is the radio button, select the type of calculation, then click on the Pick Box. You will select the text boxes based on their name, so make sure you are naming your text boxes so you know what they are. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 5 of 18
Dropdown Menu Properties One unique property to the Dropdown menu is the Options tab, which allows you to enter in the options that the user has to select from. To add in the data, Type the name into the Item textbox, and then click on the Add button. You may enter in as many choices as you would like. You can move your added data by clicking on the Up or Down buttons. The Item that will display by default in the Dropdown field is the item that is highlighted in the Item List. If you do not want a selection by default, click anyplace within the Item List that is blank, so none of the items are highlighted. The Sort items will sort all of the choices alphabetically. If you want the user to enter in text, make sure you check the Allow user to enter custom text checkbox. Dropdown fields can also have the Format and Calculate Tabs, just as textboxes do. List Box Properties List box properties will have the same Options Tab as the Dropdown menu where you enter in the options that the end user will have to select from. There are a couple little differences between these two fields. In List boxes, you can allow your user to select more than one item, if you check the Multiple selection check box. In order for the user to make multiple selections, they will have to hold down their Ctrl key while clicking their choice with their mouse. Another difference is if your choices do not fit in the size of field that you have made, Acrobat will put in scroll bars so the user can see all options. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 6 of 18
Button Properties Buttons are a little different than any of the other field options that we have talked about so far. You can place a button anyplace within your document and allow the user to click on the button to execute some type of command. The most common are Print, Save, Clear Form, but there are many many options. On the options tab you are able to change the Layout of the button, which will change what is shown on the button itself, if you want an icon, and icon and a label, just a label, etc. The Label, is the text that will appear on the button. You can also change how the button behaves when it is clicked by changing the Behavior dropdown On the Action tab, you add the action that the clicking of the button will execute. To add an action, click on the Add button and you will be given several options that the button can execute. I have highlighted a few of the most common. Another button that you may want to consider is a Submit button. This will allow the end users to fill out the form, then click Submit and have the information from the form, or the entire form, emailed to you. To do this, make sure you are in the Forms Tool, click Edit, then select the Button field from the Forms Toolbar, or from the Add New Field dropdown. Left click on the location in your document where you want to place the Submit button, typically on the bottom of the form. Double click on the button, give the button a unique name, provide a tooltip for the end users(in the General Tab) label the button as Submit(in the Options Tab), then click on the Action Tab. Click on the Select Action dropdown and scroll all the way to the bottom of the selection and click on Submit a form. Click Add. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 7 of 18
The next window is the Submit Form Selections. The first line is where you can put a URL to have the information sent to. If you want it mailed to a certain email address, enter mailto: followed by the email address. E.g. mailto:nick.leinen@colostate.edu You also have options as to how you want the information sent to you. The default is the field data. This will just be the information that is filled out by the end user and the field name. This is why you want to make sure your field names make sense and the output provided by check boxes and radio buttons are descriptive. You may also have the entire PDF sent back to you. To learn more about Form Distribution, click here. Check Box and Radio Button Properties Check Boxes and Radio Buttons are very similar in properties. With each one, you are able to select the shape of the buttons/boxes and also the Export Value. The Export Value, or Radio Button Choice, is the value that is outputted when that particular button or box is checked. You want to make sure you have these values labeled so you know what is being selected. Each style will have an option to have a particular button/box checked by default. Typically, Radio Buttons are used when the end user can only make one choice. If that is the case, the names of each radio button for a particular choice MUST HAVE the same name, and their Export Values should be unique. Check Boxes are used when the end user can make 1 or several choices. In this case, each check box must have a unique name. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 8 of 18
Setting Fields to the Same Size If you have fields that all have to be the same size, you may create one field, get it to the size that you need, then copy and paste that same button. You may do this with any type of field, but you will have to change the name of each individual field if you want them to act separately. You can also set the fields to the same size by creating multiple fields, give them unique names, then selecting them all by clicking on the field while holding the Ctrl key. Make sure the last field you select is the field that has the correct sizing. Right click on one of the fields, select Set Fields to Same Size, then select the Height, Width, or Both. Alignment If you have a set of fields that have to be aligned, select all of the fields that you want to align. You can do this by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking on the fields. Tip: The last field that you select is the field that will be used for aligning the other fields. Make sure you have this field properly aligned before using it as your Master. Once you have all of your fields selected, right click on one of the fields, and go to Align, Distribute or Center, then select how you would like the fields to be aligned. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 9 of 18
Set Tab Order As you build a form and add form fields there may be times when the tab order gets out of sequence. To set the tab order, look at the Fields Panel on the right hand side of the page. Make sure the Sort By is set to Tab order. As you click on each Field name, the appropriate field with be selected on the document. To change the location of a field in the tab order, left click, hold and drag the Field Name into the correct location. Another way to make sure the tab order is set the way that you want it is to switch to Preview View, click on the first field and hit the Tab key on your keyboard to make sure the form is going to the correct fields in the order that you want them to display. Saving the form for use with Acrobat Reader New to Acrobat X Pro is the ability to Save a form for use in Acrobat Reader. There are some extra steps that have to be taken in order to achieve this, but it does make distributing forms produced in Acrobat a lot more functional. To Enable users with Acrobat Reader to Save form data that has been entered in Reader. If you do not enable this feature, users who do not have Acrobat Reader will not be able to Save their form. To do this, Go to File, Save As, Reader Extended PDF, Enable Additional Features. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 10 of 18
Notice the features that will become available when you Enable this feature. Also, notice that there are some functions of this document that will be restricted. It is recommended that you Save this file as a different name, so you know which file is your original and which file is Saved for use in Adobe Reader. Form Distribution Once a form is completed, it can be emailed to individuals for completion. If you have saved the form as a Reader Extended PDF, anyone with Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Pro will be able to fill out and save the form. If you have not, only individuals with Acrobat Pro will be able to Save the form after they have completed it. If the Form creator added a submit button on the form, then the idea is that form data can be submitted to the creator and dropped in a database or into a Tracker Summary tool. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 11 of 18
Distribute Form To distribute your form, make sure you are in the Forms Pane and Select Distribute. On the Distribute Forms Window, you will see a couple of options on how you may distribute your form. You may use the Acrobat.com option, but all of you users will have to have an Acrobat.com user account. This is free, but it may be a little cumbersome for your end users. Select the drop-down menu at the top of the window for options. For this class, we will focus on the email option. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 12 of 18
Select when the email should be sent. Add email addresses to the To field. Note, if you are connected to the CSU Global Address Book, when you click on the To button, you can search the CSU directory. More than one email can be selected and added to the To field. Click on the Send button when finished. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 13 of 18
At this point, you should see a message on the screen saying creating response file. This response file will be available in the Form Distribution Tracker. A link to the original form will be in the tracker, a list of individuals the form was emailed to, the response file, and a summary window for the form distributor to see who has submitted the form and who hasn t. The tracker even provides an easy way to nudge a user via email to complete the distributed form. In addition to the response file be generated, an email will be sent to the end user with instructions on how to complete the form. End User Completing the Form Once the end user receives the email regarding the form, they will need to open the file attachment and complete the form and submit the form/data back to the originator. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 14 of 18
Submitted Data Once for the form data has been submitted by the end user, the originator will receive an email saying the user submitted the form data. The actual form with the responses will be added to the response summary in the tracker. Access the Tracker by going into the Tools Pane, Forms, Track. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 15 of 18
View Responses From the Response screen or summary screen, the form originator can view each individual response submitted by the end user. Select the PDF icon in the Form column. Exporting Data Once all the form responses have been received, the data can then be exported into a.csv file and imported in Access and/or Excel. Select the file and choose Export from the tools in the left navigation pane. You are now able to open this.csv file in Excel. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 16 of 18
Security Security can be added to a document to lock it down so that text can t be selected, extracted, printed, form fields completed, et cetera. Security can be added from the File, Properties menu or from the Tools, Protection, More Protection Panel. All security options added to a document require a permissions password in order to add or modify the security options. 1. Select the Permissions Use a Password option. 2. Type in the password 3. Select the printing options 4. Select the Changes Allowed options 5. Deselect enable copy of text 6. Enable text access for screen readers 7. Press the OK button when finished. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 17 of 18
Acrobat will follow up by asking you to retype your password, verify the security options, and ask you to save the document to hold all new security options. Once the document has been saved, close it down and reopen it to view the restrictions. Depending on the security, some tools will be grayed out and will not be available for use. The padlock in the upper left corner of the Panes tab indicates security has been applied to the document. Modify security settings by left-clicking on the padlock, and clicking on the Permission Details Link. Select the Change Settings button from the Document Security dialog box. Acrobat will require the Permissions password in order to modify the security settings. Make all the security changes and remember to save your document when finished. Tip: Document Security can also be viewed by selecting the File menu, Document Properties, Security option. Acrobat X Pro Forms Page 18 of 18