Susan,

You do believe in loaded questions.  Maybe this one should go to Barnum &
Bailey or the Flying Wolendas - care and feeding of Acrobats sounds like
their bailiwick.  Completing an iPDF form and saving and printing it isn't
difficult but it is filled with frustration for some PIs.  You see, there
are only a few font sets which can be used in form fields and these sets
don't include special characters (like sub- and superscripts, Greek letters
like mu or alpha, etc.)  Try getting a PI to type "water" or "H20" and
(s)he won't be happy.  There are usually workarounds for this
limitation.  Still, the forms are platform independent - no worries about
font substitutions, pagination, etc.  You tab from field to field entering
the information, save the file, and print it.  You can edit field
information at any time and reprint it.

Creating PDF documents ranges from very simple to very complex and is
dependent upon a number of factors.  Since this discussion is about forms,
lets skip those issues.

Creating iPDF forms is a little more difficult than completing them but
builds on all of those Word and WordPerfect forms we have been using.  You
distill the word processor (or spreadsheet) document, open it in Acrobat,
and insert form fields.  Not a big deal really but unless you are creating
internal forms for use in your institution, there is little need to create
agency/sponsor forms in PDF.  They have already been done and are available
from the agencies, sponsors, TRAM, and many other institutional
websites.  Going into the form and customizing it with your institution's
information (EIN, Auth. Rep., etc.) is a breeze.

If anyone wants it, I have the handouts I've used numerous times at various
NCURA meetings on how to create iPDF forms.  I'll be happy to email them
or, if the requests are very numerous, I'll post them on my website for
download.

Rosemary

At 01:56 PM 7/12/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>I guess my next question should probably be directed to Rosemary
>Ruff....What kind
>of learning curve is needed to become expert in the care and feeding of
>Acrobats?
>
>I have, on and off, tried to familiarize myself with the program so that I
>could
>develop on-line, fillable-in forms, etc., but have found the Adobe
>documentation to
>be less-than-useful.  It seems to me that research administrators, once
>again, will
>have to take the lead in training themselves AND faculty in yet another
>software
>product (although probably many of you know the ins-and-outs of it
>already).  Does
>anyone have any training ideas?
>
>As always, thanks.
>Susan
>--
>Susan B. Burke
>Sponsored Research Information Specialist
>Office of Research Services
>The George Washington University
>2121 I Street NW, Suite 601
>Washington, DC 20052
>Telephone: 202/994-9136
>Facsimile:  202/994-9137
>
>
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Rosemary H. Ruff
Associate Director
Office of Review and Compliance
Auburn University

(334) 844-5978 (voice)
(334) 844-4391 (fax)

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