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