Creating Forms Word or Adobe Acrobat? Presenter: Judy Borsher, CPA, MBA, CITP SCG Training & Consulting Don't use fill in the blank hard copy forms anymore. Make your hard work shine using professional forms in Word or in Adobe. What you need to see about both options. The topics covered in this focused session include: • Understand form fields in both a Word document and an Adobe PDF file. • Compare and contrast form features in both programs. • Convert a Word document to an Adobe Acrobat PDF fill-in form. • Convert an IRS or other government PDF form with fields into an Adobe Acrobat fill-in format. • Add features to make the fill-in form usable in either Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat.

Create forms in Word 2007 You can create a form in Microsoft Office Word 2007 by starting with a template and adding content controls, including text boxes, date pickers, and drop-down lists. Other people can use Office Word 2007 to fill out the form on their computer. In an advanced scenario, any content controls that you add to a form can also be linked to data. You can also create a form by starting with a sample template. Many are available on the Microsoft Office Online Web site. Note You can print a form that was created by using content controls in Office Word 2007, but the boxes around the content controls will not be printed. Create a form Step 1: Set up Word for creating forms 1. Click the Microsoft Office Button

, and then click Word Options.

2. Click Popular. 3. Select the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon check box, and then click OK. Step 2: Open a template or a document on which to base the form 1. Click the Microsoft Office Button

, and then click New.

2. Under Templates, click My templates. 3. Double-click Normal, and then click Template or Document under Create New. 4. Click the Microsoft Office Button

, and then click Save As.

5. In the Save As dialog box, give the new template or document a file name, and then click Save.

Step 3: Add content controls to the form Design the form by sketching a layout first, or use an existing form as a guide. In your form, you can add content controls, tables, and other graphics elements. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Design Mode, and then click where you want to insert a control.

Do any of the following: Insert a text control where users can enter text 1. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click the Rich Text control or the Text control . Insert a text fill-in field Important Spell Check will not flag any errors that are typed in the text form field. If you want to run Spell Check, use the Rich Text control or the Text control. 1. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Legacy Tools. 2. Click Text Form Field. 3. In the Controls group, click Design Mode, and then do any of the following: 

To add a line under the field, select the field, and then click Underline in the Font group on the Home tab.



To limit the amount of information a person can type in the field, set a maximum width by selecting the field, clicking Properties in the Controls group, and entering a value under Maximum length.

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To make the field look as long as its maximum length, add instructional text by clicking Properties in the Controls group, and typing text, such as Type your first name here, under Default text.

Insert a drop-down list that restricts available choices to those you specify 1. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click the Drop-Down List control . 2. Select the content control, and then on the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Properties.

3. To create a list of choices, under Drop-Down List Properties, click Add. 4. Type a choice in the Display Name box, such as Yes, No, or Maybe. Repeat this step until all of the choices are in the drop-down list. Insert a check box 1. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Legacy Tools. 2. Click Check Box Form Field. 3. Type a space, and then type a label for the check box. 4. To remove the shading from the check box, click Legacy Tools, and then click Shading. Note You won't be able to select or clear the check box until you protect the form.

Step 4: Set or change properties for content controls Each content control has properties that you can set or change. For example, the Date Picker control offers options for the format you want to use to display the date. 1. Right-click the content control that you want to change. 2. Click Properties, and change the properties that you want. Step 5: Add instructional text to the form Instructional text can enhance the usability of the form you create and distribute. You can change the default instructional text in content controls. To customize the default instructional text for your form users, do the following: 1. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Design Mode.

2. Click the content control where you want to revise the placeholder instructional text. 3. Edit the placeholder text and format it any way you want. 4. If you want the content control to disappear when someone types in their own content to replace your instructions in a Rich Text control or a Text control, click Properties in the Controls group, and then select the Remove content control when contents are edited check box. 5. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Design Mode to turn off the design feature and save the instructional text. Note Do not select the Contents cannot be edited check box if you want form users to replace the instructional text with their own text.

Add protection to a form and prepare it for distribution You can protect individual content controls in a form template to help prevent someone from deleting or editing a particular content control or group of controls, or you can prepare a form to be distributed and filled out by locking it. You can help protect all of the form template content with a password. Tip If you want, you can test the form prior to distributing it. Open the form, fill it out as the user would, and then save a copy in a location that you want. Protect parts of a form 1. Open the form that you want to protect. 2. Select the content control or the group of controls to which you want to restrict changes. To group several controls, select the controls by pressing SHIFT and clicking each control that you want to group. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Group, and then click Group. 3. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Properties.

4. In the Content Control Properties dialog box, under Locking, do either of the following: 

Select the Content control cannot be deleted check box, which allows the content of the control to be edited but the control itself cannot be deleted from the template or a document that is based on the template.



Select the Contents cannot be edited check box, which allows you to delete the control but does not allow you to edit the content in the control.

Note This option is not available for all controls. Prepare a form to be filled out 1. Open the form that you want to lock so that it can be filled out. 2. On the Developer tab, in the Protect group, click Protect Document, and then click Restrict Formatting and Editing. 3. In the Protect Document task pane, under Editing restrictions, select the Allow only this type of editing in the document check box. 4. In the list of editing restrictions, select Filling in forms. 5. Under Start enforcement, click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection. 6. To assign a password to the document so that only reviewers who know the password can remove the protection, type a password in the Enter new password (optional) box, and then confirm the password. Important If you choose not to use a password, anyone can change your editing restrictions. Use strong passwords that combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Weak passwords don't mix these elements. Strong password: Y6dh!et5. Weak password: House27. Passwords should be 8 or more characters in length. A pass phrase that uses 14 or more characters is better. For more information, see Help protect your personal information with strong passwords. It is critical that you remember your password. If you forget your password, Microsoft cannot retrieve it. Store the passwords that you write down in a secure place away from the information that they help protect.

See it in action http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100307461033.aspx The following videos show you the basics of how to create a Word 2007 form and prepare it for distribution. Show the Developer tab and create a template Play Demo See how to prepare a document before adding form controls.

Add controls to the form Play Demo Watch an overview of how to add form controls and set their properties.

Protect the form and prepare for distribution

Play Demo Watch an overview of how to add protection to the form and prepare it for distribution.

Create Forms with Adobe Acrobat 9 •

Easily create electronic forms

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Make your electronic forms look just like existing paper forms

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Make static forms interactive by adding text fields, check boxes, and dropdown menus

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Allow virtually anyone to fill in and save PDF forms using free Adobe Reader® software1

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Export data to spreadsheets for analysis and reporting

Create and reliably share: •

Expense reports

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Invoices

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Purchase orders

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Request forms

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Registration forms

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Surveys and questionnaires

Create Fill In PDF Forms

Typewriter Tool The Typewriter tool allows users to type across PDF documents just as with a typewriter and a paper document. Acrobat improves the functionality of the Typewriter Tool by allowing a user to select the font and font size desired. This is very useful for "filling" forms that are not click-and-fill. Plus, each typed element

can be moved as a separate object. If the text doesn't line up just right with the form, just click and reposition it accordingly.

The Typewriter tool is accessible from the menu under Tools, Typewriter, Typewriter or from the Typewriter toolbar. If you are going to use the Typewriter tool for creating Tick Marks and other review annotations, turn on the toolbar.

Create a PDF Form In Acrobat Standard, users can now create PDF forms, distribute forms, collect form data and track forms on Acrobat.com. All of the forms creating capabilities formerly found only in Acrobat Professional are available to Acrobat Standard users, including creating form fields, writing JavaScript, distributing forms and collecting data.

Forms can originate from existing electronic documents, existing paper forms, or no existing form.

Select Forms and Start Form Wizard from the menu.

Choose An existing electronic document from the Create or Edit Form dialog box. Select the file for conversion and click Next to start the conversion process.

Acrobat analyzes the document for potential form fields and automatically converts those fields to fill-in fields in the PDF form.

Add Form Fields

From Add New Field drop-down list, select the type of field and click on the form. NOTE: One consideration used to create forms is that of whether users of Acrobat Reader should be able to save the data entered into the forms. While all users of Acrobat Reader can fill in data, users can save data with Reader only if the form designer enables those rights in Acrobat Standard, Pro, or Pro Extended. To enable these rights, from the Advanced menu, select Extend Usage Rights in Reader and click the Save Now button.

Convert a pdf to other program Select File / Export to a Word document.