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I'm sure there are many fine "one off" solutions for filling out a form in Linux. In a business environment one of the great advantages of the Adobe software was that we could build a form with an e-mail link, make it "distributed", and when respondents, up to 500, returned the form Acrobat would automatically strip out the data fields and collate them into a spreadsheet. Most people don't need that kind of functionality though.
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Originally Posted by jdkaye
Can you post some links to those pdf's. Not that I doubt your word but I'd like to give them a try.
Thanks,
jdk
I doubt I could scare up any actual links. The culprits seem to be marketing materials/brochures that I get in an email or download from a vendor web site. The most common problem seems to be rendering fonts and the Linux PDF readers wind up having to display text in some odd monospaced fonts, usually a tiny font and too much whitespace between characters. I chalk it up to someone generating the PDF using Adobe tools who figures everyone's got Reader on Windows, doesn't care about portability because of that, and never bothered to try reading it using anything other than Reader.
I doubt I could scare up any actual links. The culprits seem to be marketing materials/brochures that I get in an email or download from a vendor web site. The most common problem seems to be rendering fonts and the Linux PDF readers wind up having to display text in some odd monospaced fonts, usually a tiny font and too much whitespace between characters. I chalk it up to someone generating the PDF using Adobe tools who figures everyone's got Reader on Windows, doesn't care about portability because of that, and never bothered to try reading it using anything other than Reader.
--
Rick
Thanks for the info, Rick. That being the case, it's unlikely that the OP would be hindered by those type of pdf files. I have never received in an email that I ever looked at nor downloaded any pdf file that I couldn't fill out with Okular. I can fill out pdf files that aren't formatted as forms by using Xournal (I mean the ones you're supposed to print out and fill in by hand).
jdk
I installed Okular yesterday and gave it a spin with a simple form that I built a few years ago using Acrobat on Windows. One can indeed type into the text boxes and save the changes and print the form. This particular form wasn't fashioned to do that but I could easily use Acrobat to "extend", that's the term they use, those permissions to this form should I so desire.
What doesn't appear to work, at least with my experience so far, is the javascript built into the form. That's not a big deal of course for simple forms designed only to capture textual responses. For forms designed to capture more nuanced responses that might be an issue. Form fields, for example, that, depending on which field is checked change the options in the next "dropdown", etc.
I installed Okular yesterday and gave it a spin with a simple form that I built a few years ago using Acrobat on Windows. One can indeed type into the text boxes and save the changes and print the form. This particular form wasn't fashioned to do that but I could easily use Acrobat to "extend", that's the term they use, those permissions to this form should I so desire.
What doesn't appear to work, at least with my experience so far, is the javascript built into the form. That's not a big deal of course for simple forms designed only to capture textual responses. For forms designed to capture more nuanced responses that might be an issue. Form fields, for example, that, depending on which field is checked change the options in the next "dropdown", etc.
If such forms exist they are exceedingly hard to come by. I've frequently had to fill in pdf-form files but never beyond giving written information for a given field or checking a box. Again, if anyone knows a link to one of these "more nuanced" type forms, I'd love to give it a try. In practical terms, I don't think the existence of most pdf-forms is any cause to mourn the loss of Adobe Reader.
jdk
Just want to say, I too am using Adobe Reader 9. I can fill in the forms and print but not able to save it though. I still prefer it than the other Linux pdf readers available because I can magnify the document up to 6400%. It is very important for what I do and so far I haven't found any other that can do that. Speed was a factor as well. Where other readers crawl when trying to open the drawings I work on, Adobe opens them and I can navigate with ease. I am not a programmer but my guess would be because of the huge difference on program size. Adobe 9.5.5 installer is 41M while EVince for example is only 1.5M.
I am using AR 9.5 on Puppy Precise 5.7.1, FatDog64 631 and Crunchbang Waldorf
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What doesn't appear to work, at least with my experience so far, is the javascript built into the form. That's not a big deal of course for simple forms designed only to capture textual responses. For forms designed to capture more nuanced responses that might be an issue. Form fields, for example, that, depending on which field is checked change the options in the next "dropdown", etc.
Interesting. I can't say I've ever run across a PDF like that but it wouldn't surprise me that it would be a problem dealing with one of those on Linux.
I have had good luck filling in PDF forms with Okular. (Loads tons faster than Reader, too.)
Er... No thank you.
Whoops, spoke too soon. In spite of throwing up a lot of complaints the Foxit .deb package actually installed and runs. Like Adobe Reader 9 it does zoom to 6400%. Okular only zooms to 1600%. I think that's enough for me though but if you need more...
jdk
If such forms exist they are exceedingly hard to come by. I've frequently had to fill in pdf-form files but never beyond giving written information for a given field or checking a box. Again, if anyone knows a link to one of these "more nuanced" type forms, I'd love to give it a try. In practical terms, I don't think the existence of most pdf-forms is any cause to mourn the loss of Adobe Reader.
jdk
These are very simple usage examples, just now the second link, for example, worked for me with Reader but not with Okular. That being said I just installed Okular yesterday and I may be missing a setting.
These are very simple usage examples, just now the second link, for example, worked for me with Reader but not with Okular. That being said I just installed Okular yesterday and I may be missing a setting.
That's great. Thanks for that. I went to the pdfscripting site and downloaded JavaScript Popup Calendar and Bouncing Button Game. I tried each one with Adobe Reader 9, Foxit and Okular. The first two failed totally -- no sign that they even recognised that these were form-type pdfs. Okular immediately recognised them as forms and I click on the "Show Form" button the appeared. Clicking on the buttons did change things but nothing actually did anything. 2 pictures are worth 2,000 words so here they are. The first one is before I click on "Show Form" the second one is after I clcked. You can see the difference. Neither Adobe 9 Reader nor Foxit responded at all. There was nothing to click.
Conclusion? Okular Rules!!!
jdk
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