PDF Forms Using Acrobat® and LiveCycle® Designer Bible

Chapter 14. Working with Data

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Distributing forms

• Using servers

• Working with Acrobat.com

• Importing and exporting data

What is missed by many forms authors, small companies, and large enterprises in regard to PDF forms is handling the form data. A PDF form is great for the form recipient who can type data on a form without having to fill in the form by hand-writing responses—then later return to a saved form to modify the data. But for the form distributor, receiving a faxed form that was printed by a form recipient isn't much better than distributing forms that are not fillable. A form recipient can use the Typewriter tool to complete a form so at least a form is legible when returned to you, but it does nothing for saving you time or making your job more efficient.

Working with data is the real value in creating fillable forms. Among other things, you don't have to type data in a data management system—you leave the task of data entry to the form recipient. And, if you use a server product to collect and route data, you are miles ahead of those who are distributing forms needing to be faxed back to the forms authors.

Acrobat provides you with several options for collecting and managing data. If you work within the licensing restrictions for enabling forms for Adobe Reader users, you're limited to collecting data on up to 500 responses per form. In real-world use, collecting data from 500 responses without using a server product is quite a bit burdensome and impractical. ...