Editable Forms?

Software
#1

I get asked this question a LOT and I was wondering if anyone had the solution:

Editable Forms. In the past I’ve designed forms for invoices, quotes, etc and the client always wants to be able to edit it and put their own text in. For simple forms like this I use the form editor on Adobe Acrobat, but sometimes people are looking for something more complicated, or want more freedom to edit.

I used to work in a corporate office and we had an internal webpage with all of our marketing materials and, using a web form, we could type in what we wanted and it would generate a PDF for us to print.

Has anyone seen anything like this or has an idea for a solution?

#2

I’m not completely clear on what it is you’re asking.

What would the solution look like? Are you looking how to create an online form that generates a pdf?

#3

I’m looking for something that I can hand to clients that they can put in their own content, without having the raw Illustrator/InDesign files… In a file form they can open - I only mention PDF because it’s so common

#4

I have a fixation on specifics… How would you hand it to them? Physically? Email? Online?

#5

Email – Something that they could then use internally with their staff to create whatever they need to create without having to hire a designer to change a date on a “Sorry we’re closed for the long weekend!” sign, as an example

#6

There are quite a few online services that provide this sort of thing. A Google search turns up installable software as well as cloud accounts. For example: https://www.smartdraw.com/

There’s a little confusion, though, on some of the sites about whether or not they’re referring to HTML forms or printable forms.

#7

Depending on the complexity needed, you can also create forms in Word, Excel and Access.

Forms are often connected to some sort of database, is this the case here?

#8

I usually do forms as PDF but from time to time clients also ask for Word format which is good if they want a bit more creative freedom. Freedom can be a dangerous thing though! Sometimes giving the wrong people too much creative freedom comes with a big headache.

#9

The problem with interactive PDF (so also PDF forms) is that they are not supported everywhere. Meaning, depending on your platform (mobile, Desktop) or browser you will either see them as static PDF, partially working or fully working.
Therefore I’d use HTML forms.