Adobe Acrobat 7 TIPS and TRICKS THE 100150 BEST [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

TIP 63: Getting Started with Forms

Like many things in life, planning ahead is the key to designing a good form in Acrobat. Forms are made up of a number of components, which can include:

• Graphic and image content, such as backgrounds or logos

  See What You've Got Sometimes forms are so beautifully designed that it is difficult to see the actual fields you need to fill in. You can set preferences or, on a form-by-form basis, use the options in the Document Message Bar, the yellow bar that displays automatically above the Document pane when a form PDF is opened: Click Highlight Fields to make all fields light yellow. If the designer has set a color for the fields you can't highlight them, but a highlight isn't necessary as you can clearly see a colored field. To show required fields, which must be filled in for you to submit the form, click Highlight Required Fields. Any required fields on the form are framed with a red outline.

• Form fields such as text entry fields, radio buttons, pull-down lists, and more

• Document structure information such as tags and alternate text

• Programming used for calculations, form data transmittal, and so on

If you are starting a new form:

• Define what sorts of data you need to collect, and decide what type of fields can be used. For example, do you want your users to type "Yes" or "No"? If so, adding Yes/No radio buttons may be a simpler choice.

• Decide if you are creating a single form, or if it is to be part of a suite of forms. If you are building a number of forms for your company, such as personnel records, vacation records, sick forms, and so on, plan ahead. If you use the same naming structure for all the forms, your users can import and export data into and out of forms quickly, saving everyone time.

• Decide how large or small the form should be. If your form is designed for onscreen use, a form that fits well and reads clearly at 800 x 600 ppi resolution works for the majority of users. If the intent is to print the form as well, decide how many pages and what size margins are required for a logical print size.

• Decide if you want to create the form field's appearance in the source program or in Acrobatthis choice defines whether you add tables and cells in your source program, or leave sufficient space to add the fields in Acrobat (Figure 63a).

  Figure 63a. Do you want to create the field appearance in your source program or in Acrobat?

  
  

  

  Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose You may have a number of forms in use that are paper-based. You can repurpose these forms for use as PDF forms without having to re-create them from scratch. If you only have paper versions of your forms, scan them into Acrobat (Chapter 4 shows you how to create PDF documents from scanned documents or source files). Once you have a PDF version of your form, use the forms tools or Adobe Designer's tools to make the fields in your static form interactive.

• Create the basic structural components in a source program and then convert it to PDF. It's simpler to lay out labels, graphics, and other visual elements beforehand. Be sure to consider the font size you intend to use once your form is converted to a PDF form (Figure 63b).

  Figure 63b. Be sure to consider details such as the font size you want to use for text fields when designing the layout of the form.

  
  

  

Convert the source file to a PDF document; you can then add and configure the form fields in Acrobat Professional 7.

If you are working in Windows, and using Adobe Designer 7, you have several options for forms design (check out Tip 72). Of course, you still have to plan the required data and the form appearance in advance.