Section 52. Create a Form from a Template | Adobe Acrobat 7 in a Snap

52. Create a Form from a Template

Before You Begin

47 About PDF Forms

48 About Adobe Designer

Although it is wonderful that Designer gives you the ability to create a PDF form from scratch, until you have some experience with PDF form creation you might find yourself at a loss as to where to begin. This is where templates come in. In fact, even for experienced form designers, templates can be extremely useful as a starting point for form creation or as an inspiration for generating design ideas. Designer comes with a variety of template types and styles, allowing you to choose the right template based on how the form will be used or how you want it to look.

1.	Select a Template With Adobe Designer open , under the File menu, select the New command. This opens the New Form Assistant window. Select Based on a Template as your form creation method for Step 1. Getting Started . Click the Next button to go to step 2.
2.	Set Up a Template Select a template in Step 2. Setup . In the middle of the New Form Assistant window is a list of available form templates. To the right is a graphical preview of what each template looks like. Select the template design you want to use. Click the Next button to continue to the next step. After selecting the template design, you need to choose a return method type in Step 3. Return Method . Form data can either be returned electronically or by fax/mail. You can enter a return email address in Step 4. Return Information .
3.	Edit a Template Now that you have chosen a template, you might choose to use the template as a guideline to create your own PDF form. Or, you can modify the template by adding, deleting, or modifying the fields to create a PDF form that works best for you. To change the properties of a field, select the field and make the necessary changes in the Object palette. You can alter how the field looks by making changes in the Border and Font palettes.
4.	View the Results To see how the PDF form will look to the user , select the PDF Preview tab. Designer displays the form as if it were a real PDF file.