Chapter 9. Working with Forms in Adobe Designer

IN THIS CHAPTER:

47 About PDF Forms

48 About Adobe Designer

49 About the Designer Workspace

50 About Designing Forms

51 Create a New Form

52 Create a Form from a Template

53 Create a Form from Another Document

54 Create a Form in Acrobat

55 Send Form Data Through the Web

In this chapter, you learn how to create a PDF form both in Acrobat and in Adobe Designer, Adobe's new form creating application. Designer ships free of charge with Acrobat Pro and is available for purchase as a standalone application. Currently, Adobe Designer is available only for Windows.

There are three ways to create an Acrobat form. First, you can convert an existing form document to PDF and use Acrobat to add interactive form elements to it, such as check boxes and pop-up menus . Second, you can simply create a new form from scratch in Designer, or third, you can create a new form using one of Designer's many templates and sample forms.

KEY TERM

Form elements This refers to all the objects on a form that allow user input, such as text boxes, radio buttons , check boxes, drop-down lists, and so on.

If you are creating a PDF form based on an existing paper document, you have limited creative options. After all, the content and structure of the form are already set. However, if you are creating a new form, you have a wide variety of design options and interface elements you can use. You decide how the information will be presented, how the participants will respond, and how their responses will be delivered back to you.