Smart Forms
The vast majority of pdf forms are static. They have fixed locations for fields and the form is whatever you see. The first level of addition to a static form is calculation. We still don't consider that a smart form. A lot of interesting things can be done with a pdf form but people just don't ask. To get your creative juices and curiosity flowing, we'll list a few things below.
Calculations are not only for dynamic pdf forms but we'll put the information here anyway.
Basic calculations such as add, subtract, multiply and divide are no problem at all and usually included. We can go way beyond that and add all sorts of complex calculation. Just ask. We did something that looked like this.
We can also create forms where items change color based on values entered into a field or set of fields. For example, if a value is less than 120 the background would be green. If between 120 and 160, orange and if above 160, red.
Add-page: One client needed a form for entering results of an event but didn't know how many contestants would attend. They needed up to 20 pages that were all identical but didn't want 15 empty pages for smaller events. We created a form that started with one page and had an "add page" button that added an extra page whenever needed.
Add section: You aren't limited to adding pages. You can add lines or sets of line. The added portion is appended to an existing page until there isn't enough room. At that time an extra page is added. You may have multiple section types to add with a button for each.Growing text fields: You may need a narrative answer to a question and want the space to grow with the amount of text entered. We can create that capability with an expanding text field with auto-wrap. Very cool.
Forced Required Fields
Adobe provides a way to mark fields as "required" but doesn't enforce the requirement. We had an insurance broker who had extra expense to call back people who didn't provide all necessary information so he commissioned a form that would not print unless all required fields were filled. The user message provided a list of missing fields.
With savable forms, we can include the same restriction on saving.
Dual context fields
This is a cool feature we added to a quote support form. The costs were entered by field quoting staff into the form. On the form were buttons to "view estimate" and "view price" "View estimate" revealed the cost value. "view price" revealed the quoted price that was calculated with an uplift value (also a fillable field). When everything was done, the form was saved and printed (in view price mode). The buttons and uplift fields do not print. Using this approach, you have one form with everything visible and you don't need to copy data or calculate on the side. It saves them a bunch of time.
Dynamic Field Control
This feature is useful for order forms with lots of options. Do you have a problem with people selecting combinations of options that are mutually exclusive? If so, this is your solution. We are creating a form for a printer with two controlling variables. The form starts with all fields unfillable until the two controlling variables are selected. At that point, some fields are pre-filled and others are activated to allow user input. All not-applicable fields are gray and inactive. This is a lot easier than trying to write explanations on combinations are supported.
Influencing or controlling fields
There are times you want to allow selection of a topic using a drop-down list. Select an item and a number of fields are automatically filled. It saves time for the user and avoids errors.
Selection list of a drop down varies with a previous selection. An example of this is something we did for a client's report. The main drop-down list was account name (in this case a store). Once a store was selected (for example Saks), the drop down list for Branch was populated with the branch names of Saks stores.
There is too much to write or show. If you have an idea, just call.
Questions? Call us @ 1-715-204-0379 or email howard@fillablepdfforms.com