OK - here goes...

ll pdf documents can be made into interactive forms using the "full"
version of Acrobat.  In Acrobat 6.0 this is "Acrobat Professional."  In
previous versions of Acrobat, it was called Acrobat Exchange or just Adobe
Acrobat.  The free version is and was Acrobat Reader. One draws in the form
fields using the form tool (standard PC or MAC tool bar type) and your
mouse and then gives the field data characteristics - everything from font
size and color to restricting the number of characters or allowing only
numerical data.  In addition, one can add formulas and scripts to do
calculations, call information from other fields into which data has
already been entered, etc.  Once can also insert default information such
as your institution's name or DUNS which will be populated when the form is
opened.

In a form with many fields this is labor intensive, e.g., the NSF budget
forms of "yesteryear."  However, most forms change very little from version
to version.  The OMB Form 424 suite of forms is an example.  It is
possible, and quite easy, to update the new form version by simply copying
the fields from the old version to the new version and "tweaking" to move
the fields slightly or increase the size.  This is done with a simple
Copy/Paste command after you highlight the fields with your mouse.  It is
even possible to copy all of the fields on a single page with one "select
all" command from the menu.

All in all, creating these forms isn't difficult. It does take a little
planning and some post creation testing to make sure calculations and the
like work as you wanted them to.  Updating them is relatively easy since
fields can be copied intact and carried from document to document just like
paragraphs or graphics in word processing software.

About saving the forms with the information (data) which was entered.  To
do this you need the "full" Acrobat Package.  You can complete them and
print them with the free Reader but when you save them, the data
disappears.  A work around if you don't want to edit the form at some
future date - simply keep a record - is to do a screen print to a document
in your word processing application.  If you may want to edit at some
future time, you must get the full software package.

If anyone is interested, I still have (somewhere on my hard drive) my
handouts from several sessions I taught at various NCURA meetings (ERA,
regional, national, whatever).  This is a pdf file.  The instructions are
pretty "cookbook" and, while they were written for Acrobat 5, will allow
almost anyone to turn a pdf document into an iPDF with the correct Acrobat
software.  The basics of forms haven't changed all that much.  There are
just more bells and whistles from which to choose.  Contact me off list and
I will send the file to you.

Ghostscript does not support forms.

Rosemary

>I was wrong about the above.  The "adobe PDF" printer option doesn't get
>installed in Acrobat Reader, only in the full version of Acrobat.  Does
>anyone know if the free CutePDF (aka Ghostscript
>-  http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp) will save the
>fill-in contents with the file?
>
>- Randy.
>
>
>======================================================================
>Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
>subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
>via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
>======================================================================

Rosemary H. Ruff, Director
Research Support & Sponsored Programs
120 Ozark Hall
University of Arkansas
Phone (479) 575-3845
FAX (479) 575-3846

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================