Customer Reviews

Creating Dynamic Forms with Adobe LiveCycle Designer

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the book that should have been included with Adobe LiveCycle Designer! It takes you step-by-step through the process of designing a and creating an interactive form and explains how to add scripts using both Adobe's Form Calc and JavaScript. First it goes through an overview of the software interface and explains the differences between different form types. Chapter 2 provides a discussion of basic design concepts and considerations for making forms readable and user-friendly. Don't skip that chapter - there's lots of great suggestions there! Next the book shows you how to create a form and incorporate all the built-in objects and tools like fill-in fields, menus, and buttons. There's also a section explaining master pages, body pages and most importantly sub-forms which are the real key to getting the most out of the software. Chapter 4 has all the basics for adding functionality with JavaScript and Form Calc. The explanation here is very straightforward and easy to follow, especially for a non-computer person like me. There are tons of examples in the text and Mr. Terry has provided a link to download all the forms he created and discusses, including several examples linked to xml data files that you can use as a starting place to make your own. In chapter 5, he shows you how to use the forms to enter and collect data, including very understandable examples of what should happen when you take various actions. Finally, the last chapter provides sample scripts for common tasks and explains how and why they work. Use this book as a workbook - go through the examples and sample files and you will be well on your way to creating very useful and functional forms. I tried using the tutorials that came with the software, but felt like I had only scratched the surface of knowing how to use LiveCycle Designer. This book filled an essential gap in my knowledge. I find a lot of computer books virtually incomprehensible, but Mr. Terry's writing style makes this book very easy to read and use. Never thought I could get excited about making a form, but the software is really pretty cool and this book helped me find that out. Highly recommended!!!

This book tells you everything you need to know to get started creating dynamic forms with Adobe LiveCycle Designer. And it tells it in a concise, succinct, and easy-to-read manner.

This book gave me all the answers I needed. I struggled with some of the instructions because I was using version 7.0 and some things did not line up with version 8.0. Scripting was a little difficult at first but after playing around I got the form to do exactly what I wanted. There was reference to a form that I never did find in either version 7.0 or 8.0.

Although a little expensive, if you want to get a form developed and in production quickly this book can help.

If you are new to smart documents and would like to get use to it, this book is for you.

The book works great with Adobe Livecycle Designer 8.0 and 7.0. It covers designing basics and a little bit of scripting knowledge.

A Programmer Prospective
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The book can be used to design Adobe Forms with all kind a controls (text boxes, check boxes etc). If you need simple fillable PDF forms and your budget does not allow you to spend $10K+ on complete Adobe package, Grab this book with a 3rd party managed API (e.g PDF4NET by O2).

This book is bad. I have been a professional software developer for over 30 years and this book told me everything I did not want to know. It was like a bad nightmare, because I really needed to know how to use LiveCycle. Unfortunately, the author makes you wade through a lot of pages and then you realize he told you nothing. I read this book several times trying and was hoping and hoping, but got so little.

This is not a good way to write a book. People want examples not a lot talk. The author could have written blah, blah, blah on half of the pages and it would have been the same book. The cover is very appropriate - a lot of smoke and it leaves you in the dark.

I was really frustrated to see a chapter on Form Design / Fonts. It seems the author had no focus. No one buys this book to learn about Form Design / Fonts. The author could have put this as an appendix, but not as chapter 2. This is not a big book and to waste pages on Form Design / Fonts was out of place. Finally at the end of the book the author includes a chapter on Scripts. It was like an after thought. This was what people are looking for. But it was tucked away at the back of the book. To me this is poor organization. He didn't keep the main thing the main thing.

LiveCycle is all about "dynamic" forms and to do very much, you need Scripts. LiveCycle can be used by people with little or now programming experience. But to really do anything, you need Scripts.

To me the 3 main topics to focus on should have been as follows:
1) Sub Forms that expand - including Sub Forms that expand as Tables or Rows of data that expand.
Expanding Sub Forms are very useful and there are numerous variations that should be addressed.
2) Scripts - can't get enough of them. LiveCycle objects are not intuitive. It would be nice to have a list of objects and how to use them.
3) XML - I don't recall if this was even mentioned. But there is a lot you can do with the XML and in some cases, you can only do it in the XML.

Someone needs to write a decent book on LiveCycle.

From the choatic organization of the book, to the step-by-step instructions, to the unreadable illustrations, this book is an example of how NOT to write a technical manual.

Unless you have a magnifying glass, you can't read the screen images so necessary to understanding this kind of material.

The author jumps from topic to topic with continual comparisons to older versions of the software and unrelated software in the middle of explanations for how to use the software it's supposed to be discussing. Buried within unrelated paragraphs are vague references to how different pieces of Adobe work together but there's no illustration or chart that says which piece to use for what.

The author identifies 5 different audiences and then gives reasons why a particular function is good for that user without actually saying how to use the function. Continually switching from audience to audience adds to the confusion and serves no purpose to the reader.

The step-by-step instructions are buried in long-winded text (paragraph form) instead of the 1,2,3 one needs in order to actually do anything. It also makes this book useless as a reference guide since it's impossible to find the critical piece of info you're looking for.

This book taught me nothing about using LiveCycle Designer. The ONLY good thing I can say about it is that the few pages that discuss how to pick a font are excellent. This is information I've been wanting for years. It's well-written and gave me real criteria for font selection.

This book is, without a doubt, the worst technical manual I've come across in my 23 years as a professional software analyst/designer, and believe me, I've read some pretty dreadful stuff.

Excellent reference for LC Designer developers. The story I am narrating here happened in Late April 2008. The first ever PDF form I was asked to develop was a Complex form that had a constant Header and a constant footer with a body that expands and shrinks based on the number of records fetched from the database. Though I have been a developer for more than a decade, I had no experience with LC designer. Had not even heard of it. The help files of LC designer that came with Adobe Professional 8.x was in its infancy. I was very badly looking out for a book that will give me the technical approach of developing this form. Using the help files I found out that the complex form I had to develop was called here as "Dyanamic Forms". I immediately used this keyword and searched..Bingo!! There the search returned only one book written under this title. Thanks to Mr.Terry. Did not think any further. Bought the book immediately on the same week. Directly went on to page 30-33 for reading some concepts on different types of forms...and then went on to read the book in page 103 where Mr.Terry mentions the title " From the Simple to the Complex". I just read pages 103 to 123 of the book and I was in complete control of developing my form requirements. I had to work on a tool I had never even heard about..all within just 15 days time. I had no time to read the book cover to cover. Customer had chosen this LC designer tool because he wanted the PDF Extension features of the form so that data can be entered and routed for signatures to different levels of the workflow. I do not know if I could have completed this 15 days assignment without reading this book. This book made my customer look good in introducing a new paradigm for the forms in the national level conference held in May 2008. My form was the first ever form that used Live Cycle designer tool for this organization. I am really thankful to Mr.Terry for writing a book which almost acts like an EXPERT in answering any question that comes to my mind - I use keyword apppraoch, go to INDEX and pick up the page and paragraph to read the concept and an implemntation strategy in a self contained manner with simplicity in the language. Writing a book like this a great talent and this book takes you beyond any training that would be given for LC designer. Thanks to Adobe Press for publishing this book. Please buy this book if you need to work with LC designer. According to me it is a must and a desk reference. The simplicity of the language, the font, readability, the graphics all come together as a great package in this book. I would rate this book exceptional.

I'm a CPA by trade and I've got to say I've never wrote a review except on JP Terry's book "Adobe LiveCycle Designer". I'm a believer is this book!!!!!

Already, the reason should be clear that I'm fascinated by the way the book takes a layman through the complexity of utilizing LiveCycle. I'm a true convert for the information within the book and will be signing up for JP Terry's Smart Doc services in order to gain a further understanding of JavaScript 1.6. I've never programmed anything as a CPA but beleive strongly in knowing what JP Terry can teach in a short concise manner.

Additionally, I must say I've never meet JP Terry or even thought about learning JavaScript but this was an eye opening experience.

If you are a layman faced with business processes that are hard to capture and put your arms around---then this is the book to use.

Thank you JP and Adobe for bringing something complex down to earth for us unsophisticated users.

When you want to create a dynamic form, what do you need instructions and guidance on?: How to create a dynamic subform or a dynamic table based on user interaction.
How many pages does the author devote to these two things?: Two.

The author describes things in detail that aren't helpful, such as why design is important. Anyone who buys the book already knows this. The author does not provide practical instructions on how to make forms dynamic based on user interaction. He just says, "Look at an example to see how its done." That is just lazy. Thanks for wasting my money. I read the whole book and still can't create a dynamic form.

I purchased this book because it was one of the few I found addressing LiveCycle Designer form creation. Although it does have some basic information, it is confusingly written and there are too many spots where the author says, basically, "Yes the functionality exists to do but it is confusing and difficult and I never use it." Much of what I have figured out about the program I have done on my own. I would not recommend this particular book as a resource.