Live Cycle for Form Creation

In ITAC / MediaVision we have the need for electronic forms. Either for AV orders, text information for the creation of video lower thirds or title slates or in house information.

I have used for the past several years a program by Adobe called Live Cycle Designer.

I will use the AV Equipment Order Form as an example.

The original form was created in Microsoft Word. This form would be filled out by the front desk person or faxed to a client who need equipment for an up coming event. Once filled out by the client it would be faxed back to our front desk person who would then place the order.

Using Live Cycle Designer, I had recreated this form with the end product being a PDF file that can be sent electronically to any client via email. The client would then fill out the form and save it as an unique name. That would then be emailed back to the person who would place the order. The client is able to tab through the form from one cell to the next.

There is a bit of a learning curve with Live Cycle but it is rather instinctive. In this sample of the AV Form, it had three columns which initially proofed tricky. Once finished I had a clean, well organized form. Originally I had set it up to include a "Total" zone. So once the form was finished it would automatically add the sum of the select items. It was decided not to enable this function in case of additional labor or last minute additions. We needed the flexibility so not to have conflict with the clients over quotes.

We also have the option to send the data via HTML and have it stripped out with excel. My experience it is better just to have the PDF from sent back as it.

I am very satisfied with Live Cycle for PDF form creation and would recommend to others.

DJ

iTunes U Welcome page set up

We have a iTunes U site for Case Western Reserve University.

We have decided on keeping some of the course pages from last year. Plus I am setting up new courses for this coming fall semester.

What I wanted to do is create a new folder (termed: Welcome) In this folder (Fall 2009), I can put in all new course pages. This way I can keep everything tidy.

Problem is that I when I created a new folder called Spring 2009 and wanted to move the existing course pages into it, I was not able to do so. I have spent a good deal of time researching this to no avail.

What it boils down to is that I must plan ahead and create these folders before creating the course pages. For now, I have removed all the Spring 2009 courses that the professors did not want saved and renamed them Spring 2009 after the name of the class.

DJ

iTunes Couseware Albums Fall 2009

These are the proofs for Case Western Reserve University's
iTunes Courseware Albums.

Lower Third Samples 08-05-09

Lower Thirds Samples
08-05-09


ABC News-03

DJ's favorite
I like the layers and the way they interact with their transparencies. Perhaps adding some drop shadows could add some depth. I especially like the rectangle behind the name and how it interacts with the colors below.


CBS Early Show-01


DJ's second favorite
This is a very nice use of layers and nice depth. I like the graphic element for the "Early" logo. This could be void of logo but reserved for the placement of our Case Sun Rise Bug. The bug is added in post production.


CNN-03

DJ's third favorite
I really like the graphic element of the top "name" area. I would have reversed the graphic so the lighter area would not interfere with the text. I also like the white text on the dark background in contrast with the black text on the white background.


USAtoday-05

I like the textured blue background. For the top area, I like how they broght in some of the same blue from the bottom. I like the addition of the top black bar. All graphic elements fade to the left. Because of the use of our Case Bug, this graphic would have to be flipped.



CNET-01

This lower tird has a very nice placement of the CNET logo. I like how the theme of the circle is carried through the design. The entire left side could be used for the Case Bug placemet.


NASCAR-03

I like the use of the graphic elements. The different layers is very nice. Also, I like the gray background to block out the bottom portion of the video, it is however transparent to allow some of the video to show through. I had created my own version of this recently.



TNT-01

This is a very simple, clean design. The font is too condensed for video however. This font could fill in or blur once encoded. I do like that the text is flus left and then place in the center of the screen.




USAtoday-01

This is a very simple clean design. I like the gradation from black to transparent. It also does not have a hard edge. I don't think the blue bullet is necessary as it fad into the black background. Also our bug would work well with this.



USAtoday-03

We can't get any simplier than this sample. This is close the the Case color blue. It fades from blue on the left to either black or transparent on the right. Our bug would work very well with this.




MSNBC-01

This is perhaps one of the busiest lower third designs around. Hoever it is very well done. It has a sliding black background for the speaker's names. The problem with that is this area must be adjusted per speaker's names length. More than likely, NBC has a program that adjusts this area automatically.