Customer Reviews

PDF Forms Using Acrobat and LiveCycle Designer Bible

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've spent the last couple months using the PDF Forms Bible and have found it to be an invaluable resource for creating e-forms with Acrobat and LiveCycle Designer. I highly recommend this book for anyone from beginners to advanced users of Acrobat who are creating interactive forms. This book covers A to Z just about all the topics, features, and issues you'll come across while creating and deploying your form. I especially like that both PDF forms technologies (AcroForms and XFA Forms) are covered and explained, as this has been a source of great confusion in the Acrobat community. If you are a PDF forms designer or want/need to become one for your work, this is a MUST have book in your toolkit. The ROI for this reference will be almost immediate.

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The first half of the book is about Acrobat AcroForms and the second is about LiveCycle Designer XFA forms. Both halves cover their respective subject in excellent detail with a good balance of tutorial, step-by-step procedures, illustrations, and sample files on the CD to supplement the text. The two authors set out to publish a comprehensive book about PDF forms, and that's exactly what they have accomplished. See the Table of Contents.

Kudos, also, to the copy and other editors. They obviously put in some work, which is why this book reads like English with familiar spelling and grammar. The sample files on the CD are indispensable and the PDF copy of the book enabled me to read it in huge typeface so that I didn't have to squint like I was searching for molecules.

I would gladly have paid $100 for this book. For this novice, it reads like Agatha Christie and this review has distracted me long enough. Excuse me...

I've used (or at least tried to use) a couple of other books on form design using Acrobat. Wish I had started with this one - it is excellent.

The book is very well organized with extensive cross references. You can skip to whatever section/topic you need help with and have the benefit of clear cross references to past sections for background info that would be helpful. Both traditional AcroForms and LiveCycle Designer forms are covered.

The Java examples are excellent - they alone are worth the price of the book. After trying in vain to get a handle on writing scripts using the Adobe materials, I finally get how to do it! The included CD-ROM is also a major help since it has the actual forms/code/examples explored in the text.

The writing is clear and easy to understand without being overly simplistic or redundant. The book emphasizes a step-by-step approach so even the most complex tasks get distilled down to manageable chunks.

My only quibble is the font size in the book. My aging eyes are not compatible with such a small font. It would also be helpful if it was a large format publication that was bound in a way that you could keep it open to a page while working on the PC without having to do major damage to the spine.

But, the content is why you'd purchase this publication, and along those lines, it easily deserves five stars.

This book has been a lifesaver in the learning process of Acrobat Professional at work. I am creating form fields and am amazed at what the program has to offer and the book leads you into that learning of the program. Well worth the investment. Thank you

I'm a basic Acrobat user, probably intermediate. A project came up that is complex and has to support a few thousand users and included 10 forms. I purchased this book expecting it to be a compilation of info I could find on line. Happily wrong. It's an incredible resource for anyone using Pro or higher. It's laid out clearly, comes with a CD of examples that you can study and apply to your situation. And even better, it tells you what you can't do. In my case, stay away from more than 300 responses to 1 form. I can't begin to praise the author for all of the work he has put into this book. It's not just the info, but the clarity of how he has laid out the information chapter by chapter. He recognizes that the purchaser may only have use for specific info relating to his project, so the form of his book makes it easy to go immediately to the subject and solution that you may be looking for. I'm Cisco certified and MS Certified so I'm used to reading technical material. Again, I believe it's the only book you will need on this subject. I'd give it 10 Stars if there was that option.

While I am running the 64 bit version of CS3. My Acrobat is version 9 and LiveCycle is version 8.2....None of the fields displayed in the book matched what my software shows. To me the book was pretty useless.

Excellent book... Need more examples, and hands on, but real good. came quickly and in excellent condition. Live Cyce is a bit beyond why I wanted the book, but it is noce to have incase I get more into it

I bought this book to learn to fix the java code in some forms I have to use. On page 515 it shows the calculation adding three numbers. The total is wrong. I need a simple subtract field which is not in the calculations tab and so I have to write the code. This book tells you to look at codes in other documents to see how java code should be written. This book s too complex for most people and at the same time doesn't give me the information I need.