Got root?

Recently, I had to put an application form on a website, so that folks wanting to apply could download it, print it out and fill it in. Because PDF is almost universal these days, I did the following:

1. I scanned in the application and had the scanner software create PDF output.
2. I posted the PDF onto the website.

That all worked well until one person asked if there were any way to fill in the fields in the PDF itself, instead of having someone print it off, and fill in the fields by hand.

After some research, I came up with the following method. It works for me but, as always, your mileage may vary……

1. I scanned in the application as .tif files, one per page.
2. I opened OpenOffice Writer and used the “Insert Picture” selection to input each of the two pages.
3. Then, using the “Form Controls” toolbar, I dropped text boxes onto the application.
4. After some fiddling around, I managed to resize the text boxes to an appropriate size for each field.
5. There were several checkboxes on the original application and I used a checkbox control for these, dropping them on the application the same way.
6. I then exported the document into PDF format.

When I opened the document in Adober Reader 7, it gave me the little bar that allowed me to highlight the fields. As I attempted to type in the first field, it gave me the typical warning about not being able to save my changes. I continued on and was able to print out a decent version of the application.

I hope this is helpful to anyone in the same position.