Acrobat Fillable Forms Expert Needed

uploads/3288/SAMPLE.pdf

We are looking for an Adobe Acrobat PDF expert to help us deal with difficulties caused by recent developments in browser technologies.

 

At present we use over 100 complex, fillable, calculating PDF forms that I designed and maintain. Unfortunately, due to recent developments we now have problems with incompatibility that must be resolved as soon as possible.

 

Our forms are fairly complex (sample attached) with many features that rely on Adobe javascript and built-in actions and behaviors. As you undoubtedly know, Google has completely dropped support for legacy Adobe Reader plugins, and Chrome’s built-in PDF reader is not able to use many of the Acrobat features we rely on. As a result some of our customers who use the Chrome browser cannot place orders in the manner they are used to.

 

I realize that the recommended workaround for Chrome browsers is to download forms and open them locally with Adobe Reader – but we are dealing with a body of end users who either cannot or will not understand how to do that, no matter how hard we try to explain it. Consequently we need to come up with a way to solve the problem for them. 

 

 

DESKTOP / LAPTOP

Desktop users currently fill out forms online inside the browser window, and then email them from the browser while still online. And they expect to be able to continue to do that. So we’d like a solution that requires as little re-education of the end user as possible.

 

Presently we have advised them that if they are using Chrome, please switch to Firefox or MSIE 11 when using our order forms. They weren’t happy about it, but most have done as we asked.

 

Please take a good look at the attached form by opening it in Acrobat DC, Reader Mode and see what the end users see. Then in edit mode, examine the fields to see how the form works. Review the actions, behaviors and script-driven auto-calculations. This sample form is not the final version -- the one our customers get is Reader Extended. But it will show you the kind of features that all our forms use.

 

If you can identify the specific features we have in our forms that Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge PDF readers cannot use, perhaps we can replicate those same functions some other way?

 

With the change in plugin standards that caused the current shakeup, it seems that it is only a matter of time until no modern browsers will be able to access our order forms, and their internal PDF readers will not be adequate to meet our needs.

 

And that that will be a very serious problem for our clients who use our forms to order business apparel.

 

So for the desktop, laptop user (if you can) please recommend changes we could reasonably and quickly make to our existing forms so they can remain useful for the foreseeable future. (Note: starting over from scratch to create all new forms in some other way is not currently and acceptable option.)

 

 

TABLETS

The Adobe Reader app that is currently available for Android does not work with our forms. I don’t know about Microsoft Mobile or iOS, but I suspect it will be problematic there, also.

 

Most tablet browsers will download our forms intact and ask which installed app should be used to open them, or users can just go to their “downloads” area and open them locally. But the current Reader app for Android does not work on our forms. I’ve even tried all the third-party apps for PDF in the Play Store looking for a possible replacement for Adobe Reader with no success. Some work part way but none can complete a form as it currently stands.

 

Can you suggest a solution to this problem? As more and more users switch to tablets we expect this will eventually impact our business.

  

RFP

If you believe you can develop a solution to these two problems described above, please submit a proposal and budget directly to me. I appreciate your consideration and look forward to your reply.

 

Rainer Freytag

IAB Webmaster

r@rainer.us