Carl Young’s AcroViews

What if I were to tell you that there is a free, cross-platform PDF form design tool? One that has the capability of designing a form, inserting form fields and exporting it as a PDF?

It’s called OpenOffice, the opensource Microsoft Office replacement from the OpenOffice organization.

The Draw component includes tools for creating XForms. And like each OpenOffice component, it has a built-in PDF export function. Create an XForm in Draw with components that are supported in Acrobat, hit the export as PDF button and you have a PDF form.

The form workflow is like this: Design and insert fields in OpenOffice Draw, export as a PDF, test and then revise in Draw. Unfortunately, you cannot add JavaScript (at least as far as I can tell) in Draw. If your form needs scripting, you will have to add it in Acrobat.

So far I like what I see in OpenOffice.

So will someone explain to me why I can’t add form fields in an Adobe product, like InDesign, and export those fields to Acrobat? I don’t know of a single Adobe product that can do what OpenOffice does. InDesign, FrameMaker, Photoshop, Illustrator and other Adobe applications export PDFs, but you can’t insert form fields without resorting to some PDF hacks.

Yes, I know Adobe LiveCycle Designer ouputs forms, but only in XFA format, which isn’t editable in Acrobat.

The first product I ever used to create a PDF was FrameMaker. I remember creating PostScript print files and running them through an early version of Acrobat Distiller, and thinking that this PDF thing was a lot better than Display Postscript.

I’ve been using FrameMaker for almost 15 years, and for most of that time I have constantly heard rumors that the product was going to die.

Well, FrameMaker certainly has been in hibernation. The last major release was in 2002 when version 7 was released. Since then we only have seen dot releases with the latest being 7.2 in 2005. For a history of Frame, see this Wikipedia entry.

Most Adobe products are on an 18-month release cycle. With a five-year pause between major FrameMaker releases we Framers were feeling left out.

Well, take heart, FrameMaker users. Adobe has posted a FrameMaker FAQ that announces a “major new version” in in the first half of 2007. Let’s hope it is an 8 release, not just another dot release with some minor enhancements.

One interesting point in the FAQ is this hint that the next release will include “increased integration of rich media, such as 3D content and animation.” Isn’t that corporate speak for Acrobat 3D and Flash?

Something that amazes me is that Adobe Labs has some FrameMaker application packs for Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and S1000D. They even are asking for feedback!

After years of obscurity for FrameMaker it is nice to see Adobe getting serious about moving the product forward.

As I mentioned in an E-mail blast to past participants in PDF Conference, I am encouraging everyone to attend Adobe MAX in Las Vegas in 2006.

Jo Lou and I will be at the Acrobat User Community booth in the trade show area of the Venetian. Please stop by and say hello.

In addition, I will be blogging from the show floor for those of you who cannot attend MAX.

Let’s begin with a discussion of Acrobat resources in book form. I have quite a few suggestions to start, but I would love to hear yours.

Books

Here are some books I can recommend. I am sure there are many other good ones; these are just the ones I am familiar with.

Acrobat 7

Adobe Acrobat 7 PDF Bible by Ted Padova. The definitive reference for Acrobat.

Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Classroom in a Book. Good self study and useful for prepping for the Acrobat ACE exam.

Adobe 7 Reader Revealed by Ted Padova. Yes, it is worth $25 to find out how to get the most out of a free product.

How to Do Everything with Adobe Acrobat 7 by Doug Sahlin. Good introduction to Acrobat.

Older But Still Valuable

Acrobat and Printing

The PDF Print Production Guide by Joseph Marin and Julie Shaffer. If you are a creative pro or run a print shop, you really need this one.

The Official Adobe Print Publishing Guide. A good how-to book. I have not seen the new edition.

The Acrobat 5 Master Class by Pattie Belle Hastings, Bjorn Akselsen and Sandee Cohen. Very insightful book for creative professionals and beautifully produced.

Electronic PDFs

The Official Adobe Electronic Publishing Guide. Beautiful primer on basic electronic PDFs.

Web Publishing with Acrobat/PDF by Thomas Mertz. This is an Acrobat 3 or 4 era book, but many of its “old fashioned” methods such as inserting PostScript files and PDFMarks into documents are still very useful.

Carl Young’s Adobe Acrobat 6 includes setting standards, my definitions for what makes a good onscreen PDF, and lots of best practices. The technical editor was Shlomo Perets of Microtype.

PDF Forms

Creating Adobe Acrobat Forms by Ted Padova.

Creating Adobe Acrobat Forms by John Deubert.

In spite of having identical names, these are quite different books. Padova’s book is a reference much like his Bible series. Deubert’s book is a great guide for getting started with PDF forms. Just remember that both of these were written in the Acrobat 5 era, and are somewhat dated.

So what do you think of this list? What are your suggestions for the books that should be on every Acrobat user’s shelf?

In the next posting I will take a look at online resources.