Adobe® Acrobat® 9 PDF Bible

Chapter 34. Understanding Acrobat Form Tools

In the last chapter, I covered creating forms using Adobe LiveCycle Designer. Unfortunately, Adobe Designer is one of the only features covered in this book that isn't available to Mac people. If you're a Mac person, you may have felt left out while reading Chapter 33. But don't despair. There are plenty of forms features still available for both Macintosh and Windows users in Acrobat 9.

Adobe PDF forms can be created in Acrobat Standard (Windows), Acrobat Pro, and Acrobat Pro Extended (Windows) using the form tools and many commands for creating a different kind of form. XML forms are created in Adobe Designer and Acrobat PDF forms are created in Acrobat (Standard, Pro, and Pro Extended). In some cases, an Acrobat PDF form might be preferred over an XML form. These two form types are distinctive in both the creation process and the intended use.

Before you delve into this chapter, realize that creating both Acrobat forms and Adobe LiveCycle Designer forms covers as much territory as the complete Adobe Acrobat 9 PDF Bible. As a matter of fact, I've written a book titled PDF Forms Using Adobe Acrobat and LiveCycle Designer Bible (Wiley Publishing 2008). That book equals the size of the Adobe Acrobat 9 PDF Bible. Therefore, all I can hope to do in this chapter is give you a brief introduction to creating PDF forms. If your primary work is creating forms, look to other sources for a comprehensive coverage of creating forms in both Acrobat ...