We have developed a system (in beta testing) that gathers the info
needed to submit a proposal (inc. data for PHS-398) via the web (storing
in a SQL server database). We then spent several painstaking hours
developing the forms in MSAccess report writer, so that on the
researchers request they can request the forms via the web, and a
program on the server pulls the data from the database and puts it in
the Access Report. The report is then e-mailed as a .pdf type attachment
file, or printed directly to ORA.

This works well because the researcher can make a small change in the
submission data as many times as she/he likes (i.e. effort %),
re-request the form, and it is there instantly with the new data in it
(the computer does all the work!)

While this isn't a direct interactive use of .pdf it is our solution to
the issue.

-David

BTW - This system also handles internal routing and approval via the web

David Higginson, ACMA
Administrative Director
Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute
Tel: (501) 320-3757
Fax: (501) 320-3547
Email : xxxxxx@exchange.uams.edu
WWW : http://achri.ach.uams.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Glenn Krell [mailto:xxxxxx@UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 1998 11:44 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list RESADM-L
Subject: Adobe Acrobat ERA-type question

Hello all,

Here is a general interest ERA (electronic research administration)
question.  One facet of ERA is that many of us download various agency
forms from the web using Adobe Acrobat.

Has anyone had any success making those pdf (portable document format)
forms into "interactive" forms using Acrobat 3.01?  Note that that is
the
software you pay for, as opposed to the free software available at
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html  for reading and
printing pdf files from websites (quite useful by the way).

The problem we are having is: we download and print these agency pdf
forms,
and then have to use a typewriter to fill them out.  Has anyone made
progress in this area? or is there a better method for doing this?

Many thanks in advance!
- Glenn Krell