I need to create a ton of custom branded forms for a healthcare institution. I currently have them created in InDesign, and export them as Interactive PDFs. I have the permissions set so the patient/user cannot change it but need to Save As. It sounds like they can open the form, fill it out, Save As. But when it is REOPENED, only half the form or none of the form is filled out anymore.
HOW are other Designers making custom interactive forms? Is there something I am missing? Adobe staff wasn’t much help, they suggested creating all forms in Acrobat utilizing the Prepare Forms feature. The problem is the customization of the branding of the form at that point. I can design a background and all, but if that design changes, how do I update JUST the background portion of the Acrobat form INSIDE of acrobat in the future??
Should I just make the forms directly inside Acrobat? Should I look at an online form making platform?
I have no idea on Acrobat and branded forms, but if you do look at an online form making platform, where this is a healthcare institution and you are talking about patient information, you need to be absolutely sure whatever you do is HIPPA compliant.
It sounds like? So, you’re getting this as feedback from users then?
Have you done any pre-deployment testing of your own?
I have a lot of experience with this, and the only way it works reliably is if every user only opens, fills, and saves the forms using the (latest version of the) stand-alone Adobe Reader.
You’ll not get reliable results if a form is opened in any other software, including/especially browser plugins.
I did to pre-depoyment testing, and didn’t have any issues. Then again, i am testing it out using Acrobat and i can’t guarantee others will be doing the same.
Do you have any suggestions for creating it in inDesign and completing in Acrobat? How is everyone getting around this? Custom branded, easily editable, interactive with fillable fields and URLs. PDF files that can be emailed back and forth and/or downloaded off of a website…not necessarily filled in online?? I don’t know.
Most of the public will not be using Acrobat. That is a pay-for program that the average person would not even consider buying, especially the subscription version. Most general public would be using a web browser.
Quite honestly? The way medical institutions are doing this now is through a web-based supposedly secure portal. Not emailed forms (not secure enough) If this is some way of pre-collecting patient information, you may want to research these portal solutions. I don’t know any names off the top of my head and some may be proprietary. I would consider all of them beyond the scope of a web/print designer unless they are well versed in internet security protocol.
I design the layout in InDesign, including any hyperlinks, (URL, intra-document, etc.), then install and configure all the form fields in Acrobat, post-export. (Over time, I came to the conclusion that InDesign’s form-field features are a waste of time; anything they do can be done in Acrobat, often with better results.)
When the native page-level InDesign stuff needs changes, I make the necessary edits in InDesign and export to PDF. Then with the live form open in Acrobat, I use the Replace Pages feature to bring in the newly-exported InDesign layout. This replaces the pre-existing layout while leaving all the form fields exactly how they were. Then if the page change precipitates form field position changes/additions/deletions, that work follows in Acrobat.
Thank you so much for your input. Our problem is that we have so many different people accessing these forms, most of them online and not on a desktop computer. I think we need to look into a form making platform.