PDF

You can create interactive .pdf forms with Adobe Acrobat Professional. The retail price for a single license is $449.

The recipient can fill in the form fields using the free Adobe Reader. Alas, the recipient cannot [i]save[/i] the entered text without a copy of Acrobat.

If you surf the Internet with Google, you will find any number of Acrobat [i]wanna be[/i] applications that claim to be able to [i]save[/i] the entered text and return the document via e-mail attachment.

One such application that has received honorable mention in this Forum is Foxit:

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

Old Mycroft is an advocate of Foxit. I have never used it. I don't know if you can [i]create[/i] interactive .pdf forms with Foxit.

Please see yesterday's Forum thread on this subject:

http://tinyurl.com/3sduo2

Be sure to read my response in this thread before you make a purchase decision.

Rick/Portland, OR

http://www.cutepdf.com/

Have used it for just over a year now.

free download, makes pdf's quicker than adobe does, and they are a fairly small file.

there will be a "converter" that it will want you to install, but that is free too and it will take you to it.

I would use one of the free PDF creators and get them to FAX back the information. ;)

Here is some info for you to perouse.

http://www.nextpdf.com/answers.aspx

and it is a royal pain in the a$$.

I think we are down to 10 fax machines, but had about 30 as little as 5 years ago.

[i]djarrett[/i] asked about how to create interactive .pdf forms. Although there are many .pdf readers and converters, there are few applications that do a creditable job creating interactive .pdf forms.

All of us have been compelled to use sloppily created interactive forms, where text is misplaced or insufficient room provided. This is usually due to sloppy craftsmanship on the part of the form designer, but the application makes a difference.

For those of us old enough to remember the Brooke Shields [i]English Leather[/i] Christmas commercial, you will recall the [i]femme fatale[/i] on a tiger rug: [i]Men, if you're gonna do it, yagotta do it right[/i]. We believed her, and sales of English Leather skyrocketed.

So for those who want to create professional looking interactive .pdf forms, there is probably no realistic substitute for Adobe Acrobat Professional. I don't like their prices any more than y'all do, but they write terrific software.

Regarding [i]saving[/i] of interactive text, there is a workaround to installing [i]CutePDF[/i] (although this seems to be an excellent solution): use PrtSc to [i]copy[/i] to Clipboard, CtrV to [i]paste[/i] into MS Word. Format the mess with the Windows Picture & Fax Viewer, then attach to a return e-mail. Convoluted, but it works.

Rick/Portland, OR

How did you acquire so much computer knowledge working for companies using IBM Correcting Selectric machines?

I know - you're like Einstein, and daydreamed doing [i]gedankenexperiment[/i] calculations to while away the time...

Rick/Portland, OR

Adobe Acrobat would be the first choice if you have enough budget.

Or you could try some other payable PDF converter tools, they could also achieve such functions.