interactive PDF

[Paul Mailath]

I'm just playing around with an idea for a form. Brides could download it from the website and fill in it 'online' and then email it back

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the concept

[Chris Davis]

I love PDF forms where I can fill them out online and print them, rather than print them then fill them out by hand. That's great for stuff like IRS forms and loan applications.

However, what you have here could just as easily be made into an HTML form on a web page. It's not a form that anyone would need to print and keep a copy. While it's fun to play with technology, I think this would be confusing to some people and add an unnecessary level of complexity.

[Susanto Widjaja]

Hi Paul,

You might want to check this out!

Wufoo - HTML Form Builder - Free Contact Forms & Online Surveys

Cheers,

Santo

[Matt Barwick]

Hey Paul,

Further to the above advice, you probably won't get many clients that will be able to email it back to you without having Acrobat Pro (not just the reader). Although I have pro, it opened up by default in Acrobat reader and I get a 'cannot save form' message.

For clients without pro, it'll require a print>snail mail or a print>scan>email back to you, both of which are hardly customer friendly.

I think an online secure form is probably a better option.

[Jeff Kellam]

Paul:

It is a good idea and pretty much what I do.

After talking on the telephone, I fill out the PDF agreement with the blank completed and email it to them. They sign it and mail it back with the deposit.

Your PDF document needs the compatability increased. Did you use live cycle designer? That always has issues.

Using Acrobat Professional 7.0.0 I get the following messages:

[Paul Mailath]

that's what I woke up thinking about 2am! that's the answer - now all I have to do is work out how to embed or attach it to my flash site. Flash looks pretty.. well flash I guess is the word but it's a pain to learn for an old bloke (I have fond memories of Gopher, Archie & Veronica)

thanks guys!

[Chris Davis]

Since your site is flash, you can make flash forms. But another option would be to make the HTML form in a pop-up window.

For a sample of what I'm talking about, take a look at my old site: www.thecinematicwedding.com. Go to the "Your Wedding Video" page, then click the "?" button to the right of the video player. An HTML window will pop up.

Or you can hire a web developer... :)

[Paul Mailath]

Originally Posted by Chris Davis

Or you can hire a web developer... :)

not for those prices! - my uncle Harry has a Comodore 64 computer and he recons he can knock something up over the weekend - who needs a professional ;-)

[Chris Davis]

Here's the code on that button that opens an HTML page in flash:

on (release) {
	getURL ("javascript:NewWindow=window.open('help.html','newWin','width=400,height=300,left=0,top=0,toolbar=No,location=No,scrollbars=Yes,status=No,resizable=Yes,fullscreen=No');  NewWindow.focus();      void(0);");
}

You just need to adjust the height and width, and change the page name.

[Paul Mailath]

cheers - I'll give that a try - it will have to wait till all my end of year stuff is done - don't you love tax time

[Kees van Duijvenbode]

The pdf document has 3 typo's... "Postode" (missing c) and in the Story lines "what your felt" the r shouldn't be there and "abailable" instead of available.