Customer Reviews

Creating Adobe Acrobat Forms with CDROM

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book reveals one of the best kept secrets of Acrobat 5.0 - easy to create forms handling and workflow. Actually the features aren't secret, but the Adobe documentation is so confusing that only the most technically inclined users made use of it. The author clearly explains how to create forms and employ them as business solutions.

What I like is the way you're introduced to all of the features of Acrobat, including products that are only available through direct purchase from Adobe, that places forms development into the context of the much larger picture of Acrobat's features and capabilities. The book then proceeds to systematically step you through creating basic forms (dynamic and static), and all of the associated details, such as field types and properties, calculating data and workflow considerations.

After you've mastered the basics the book shows how to use Javascript to create sophisticated forms and handling applications. In this section of the book the author does not assume any knowledge of Javascript on the part of the reader. The tutorial is clearly written and explains the basics of Javascript, but unless you have prior programming experience you may want to skip this section. On the other hand, if you understand the basics of programming or have used some of the user-oriented languages, such as SQL or Visual Basic, you should have no problem with this section of the book.

The most valuable part of the book is in Parts III and IV, which cover distributing and working with forms. The chapters in these two parts of the book show you how to apply forms to business solutions. In addition, the CD ROM contains example forms and a valuable collection of Javascript routines that you can either use as is, or modify to suit specific requirements. There are also trial versions of various Acrobat plug-ins, and the entire book reproduced in Acrobat format (plus two ebooks titled "101 Acrobat 5.0 eTips and Techniques" and "101 Acrobat 5.0 Forms eTips and Techniques").

I wish I had known that this was not going to cover Acrobat 6. The current version of acrobat does forms completely different than version 5. This is a dinosaur now.

This book is horribly outdated! If you have Acrobat 5, - fine. Or maybe not so fine... use the money you would have spent on this book and upgrade to the current Adobe version: Acrobat 7 as of Sept 2006.
..and beware of Wiley Books that don't specifiy the application version - - Wiley is notorious for this -- remember, when purchasing a Wiley book -- think twice if the version of the application is not specified..

Bottom-Line: For Adobe Version 5.0 users; Version 7.0 users need not apply.

As I stated recently in my review of Adobe Acrobat Professional version 7.0, I recently took on a new client who came to me recently with a dilemma: he needed to transform a twenty-two page home inspection template into an electronic document that he could use on his Tablet PC. The dilemma was how to convert this very busy template into a seamless and workable electronic form that he could tab fro field to field. There is only one (cost effective) solution to my client's quandary that I know of anyway: convert the document into .PDF format with Adobe's newest Acrobat product Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional, which combines the familiar Acrobat versatility and functionality with the company's Life Cycle Designer electronic forms program.

Creating the form from a template I converted from Microsoft Word was easy enough, but then it (all twenty-two pages) needed to be transformed into a workable electronic form. I held some knowledge about how to go about doing this using the program, and that coupled with the somewhat skimpy help allowed me to design and complete the form. But the help utility is no substitute for a manual full of little secrets and tidbits, on-line help utilities usually lack. So I went searching for a good book on Adobe forms, and ended up purchasing a used copy of "Creating Adobe Acrobat Forms" by acknowledged Acrobat expert John Deubert, which was published in 2002.

Clocking in at some 230 pages "Creating Adobe Acrobat Forms" is rather thin for a reference tome of such a broad subject matter, but the book is well organized for what it does cover and the illustrations are well placed and add to the learning curve.

Published in 2002 by Adobe Press, "Creating Adobe Acrobat Forms" is a good reference manual for building form under Adobe Acrobat 5.0, but not version 7.0. The publishing date alone should have warned me off the book, but I read some pretty convincing reviews of the book on Amazon.com where I purchased it, so I decided to give it a try.

From the beginning, I found the book lacking in the in-depth material I needed to design dynamic forms that incorporate XML, ODBC (database) connectivity and complex JAVA scripting. True the book does touch on XML files, but only as a vehicle for out-putting data, not as a data source for in-putting data, or pulling data into the form and populating pull-down boxes or scroll menus. The book does not even mention ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), or pulling in data from an external database such as Microsoft Access or SQL; these were precisely the subjects I was hoping to learn more about. It was not to be.

Conclusion

In short "Creating Adobe Acrobat Forms" is fine book if you are looking to design Adobe form under Acrobat Professional 5.0/6.0, but if you are looking for help with creating Adobe 7.0 forms, look elsewhere.

I expected more details from this book and frankly I wasted my money. The PDF Bible is a much better resource for forms.