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Any plans for PDF form editing?


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3 minutes ago, wonderings said:

Not sure you can actually create the fillable forms in Indesign. If you can I have not seen it. I do not make a lot of fillable PDF forms but the few I have done I setup in Indesign. I then export as PDF, open in Acrobat Pro and then go to the "prepare form". It auto detects boxes I have and for those it does not I add them, move them where they need to be, assign parameters for the box. I do all that fillable functionality in Acrobat, the layout all done in Indesign. 

I haven't used InDesign myself, but I know people do forms with it. I'm not sure if I should link it here, so if you Google "InDesign creating forms", the first result (adobe help) tells you how to do it. Though it probably can't auto-detect as Acrobat can. I still think that it would be a simpler workflow to have it in one place. But to each their own :)

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Sure you can do forms in InDy, there is even the old way and the new way. It seem not to be optimal tool anyway..

Creating industrial strength forms is a bit an art this moment and there seem not to be really good tool for it. Thus Publisher would fill a need here if it offered such tools. On the other hand creating forms is demanding and adding features for it would not happen by allocating 2 weeks of coding time. It would take serious commitment to make forms tools right, otherwise it would be just another halfbaked toolset.

My company is in the process converting old "paper" PDF forms to electronic live PDF forms, but I can see there are problems making them really smart..

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I did see that there is some options for forms in Indesign though from what I saw it was nowhere near as powerful or easy as doing it in Acrobat. With no instruction I was able to figure out making fillable forms in Acrobat DC. As I mentioned in a previous post I do the based design in Indesign, export to PDF and finish that form part there. I will have to research more to see if Indesign has the same functionality as Acrobat for making PDF forms, but on the first initial check it does not appear so. It looked like it was more for making interactive PDF's. 

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14 minutes ago, wonderings said:

I was able to figure out making fillable forms in Acrobat DC.

18 bucks per month for Acrobat DC is a hefty price tag for those like me who are occasionally creating fillable PDF forms. Even worse, I do it in my spare time for a non-profit organization. (Also, after having been annoyed for years by Flash and AIR, I find the idea of installing whatever app from Adobe really hard to swallow.)

If you need the full range of PDF forms features including validation, submission etc, okay, go for Acrobat DC, no need to implement all this in Affinity. But IMO, most people just want to add the ability to fill out PDFs on the computer before emailing or printing them. This limited feature set should be much easier to implement, maybe even in as little as a couple of weeks.

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On 4/7/2020 at 12:19 AM, Annabella_K said:

. :( Adobe users can do it in InDesign too. 

As you say, the point of incorporating forms into the layout package is because it makes sense to edit the layout and form details in the once place, rather than manually having to recreate all the fields as a second step (and "auto-detection" isn't a solution for that). Any changes are easy and don't impact other areas of the form - you may want to keep field names the same (and meaningful) for database processing etc., and if you have hundreds or thousands of fields that's a nightmare of manual work. InDesign does have form editing features but they are bug-ridden and limited. It doesn't handle having form fields in tables*, which seems ridiculous since table layouts are essential for many types of forms (think of product or parts lists).  

* there is a work-around for this but it's not obvious and is bug-ridden - the fields in table cells aren't recognised by InDesign so you can't set the tab order, which still needs to be done in Acrobat. It also loses track of the tab order if fields move from page to page....

Windows 7 & 10 64-bit, Dual Xeon workstation(s) 64gb RAM, and single i7 laptop 32gb RAM

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  • 3 weeks later...

Serif folks, PLEASE implement a PDF form creation feature in Publisher. It looks like a lot of people have asked for one...

I want to switch from Scribus to Affinity Publisher--I've spent the past week learning Affinity and I love it--but this is a big stumbling block. Most of the products in my Etsy shop use editable forms.

Plus, considering how few programs even attempt it (and how even Adobe's design programs don't do it well) it looks like even basic functionality that works well would give you an advantage over just about everyone else. Being able to do forms in an actual design program would be amazing.

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  • 2 months later...

Currently use Serif X9 and just started the 10 day free trial of Affinity Publisher.  First thing I looked for was the PDF forms features.  Not there.  Will have to go to Adobe.  Real shame.  I loved X9 but can't use something in business that is no longer supported.  No support for PPP files plus no PDF forms features - rules Affinity out immediately.  What a shame! 

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On 4/7/2020 at 10:35 PM, AndyQ said:

As you say, the point of incorporating forms into the layout package is because it makes sense to edit the layout and form details in the once place, rather than manually having to recreate all the fields as a second step (and "auto-detection" isn't a solution for that). Any changes are easy and don't impact other areas of the form - you may want to keep field names the same (and meaningful) for database processing etc., and if you have hundreds or thousands of fields that's a nightmare of manual work. InDesign does have form editing features but they are bug-ridden and limited. It doesn't handle having form fields in tables*, which seems ridiculous since table layouts are essential for many types of forms (think of product or parts lists).  

* there is a work-around for this but it's not obvious and is bug-ridden - the fields in table cells aren't recognised by InDesign so you can't set the tab order, which still needs to be done in Acrobat. It also loses track of the tab order if fields move from page to page....

I'm not sure people got it, but the only reason I brought up InDesign is to show that Adobe incorporated form tools in their publishing software too. But if it's not that good, then that's just more opportunity for Affinity to create a solution that beats Adobe 😄 I'm using PDFill for now to make the forms, I like that you can import the fields from another project too (though I may found a bug there with calculated fields). Overall it's not bad, but I could imagine better user experience. And I like how at Affinity they think outside of the box, so I really hope they will make this 🤞

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Agreeing with this feature request. Adding PDF form creation will only enhance the reputation of Publisher giving it even more flexibility and competitive stance in the market. I know for many it would be a selling point all by itself.

I'm a daily InDesign user professionally, and I use the Affinity suite personally and for work with my nonprofit orgs. I've had to create my fair share of PDF forms using the competition. InDesign is just not that great it - I find it much easier to use Acrobat to add forms to documents. That said, I don't think Acrobat is very good at it either (so that tells you what I think of InDesign's form creation functions). The other HUGE knock at the competition is that Acrobat's interface is completely different from InDesign. I know why this is - many more people use Acrobat than use InDesign, and incorporating an InDesign-like interface into Acrobat would likely seem too intimidating for users that have never opened any Adobe creative apps previously, so they have kept Acrobat simpler.

That said, I'm sure adding this functionality to Publisher is possible, but I know it will be a challenge to implement.

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On 5/4/2020 at 12:28 AM, Ing said:

Serif folks, PLEASE implement a PDF form creation feature in Publisher. It looks like a lot of people have asked for one...

I want to switch from Scribus to Affinity Publisher--I've spent the past week learning Affinity and I love it--but this is a big stumbling block. Most of the products in my Etsy shop use editable forms.

Plus, considering how few programs even attempt it (and how even Adobe's design programs don't do it well) it looks like even basic functionality that works well would give you an advantage over just about everyone else. Being able to do forms in an actual design program would be amazing.

Here is a feature request that I posted to Adobe's Acrobat forum, and I believe it validates many of the requests here. I have purchased all three of Affinity's main apps, but still have to use Acrobat for fillable forms. As you will read, it leaves a LOT to be desired. If this functionality could be included in Publisher, I'd pay for an upgrade! Remember that the below is referring to Acrobat DC:

"

Precise placement of objects in Prepare Form and Edit Form

I would like to see a "transform" capability similar to InDesign, with a panel or set of boxes in which the actual pixel X & Y coordinates, as well as the dimensions of an object, can be precisely set. Currently, the resolution on this type of placement appears to be set at 2 points, and I would like to be able to fine-tune that to pixels or 10,000ths of an inch as I can in InDesign. That's the basic idea, but read on for rationale. 
I work mainly in InDesign to create pdf forms that I then take into Acrobat Pro to make "fillable" (Prepare Form). Often, after I have submitted a form for approval of my superiors, they come up with edits they would like to see. Many times, these edits are additions that need to be inserted precisely into the form to prevent having to recreate the form and then go through the process of making the form fillable again. Frequently, I create a text box or button, only to find I cannot move it to precisely the location required to avoid overlapping text or an object already extant in the form, i.e., the form already is "crowded," but the ability to precisely locate the new object would be acceptable in the eyes of my employer—crowded or not. 
This also comes up when I need to align a newly created line that spans the page as an "underline" for two or more text boxes. In this instance, I need the line to extend beyond the text boxes as a place to indicate a fillable text field, so the underline function of the font will not suffice. The text boxes and the line, itself, will only get too close to, or else too far apart from, each other. 
There are other instances where this would be a wonderful feature to have, but basically, I'm spoiled to the fine-tuning that InDesign allows, and would appreciate that one feature be incorporated into Acrobat Pro. 
Thanks for reading, and if you're a precision designer like me, please vote for this feature! 
Ken

"Precise placement of objects in Prepare Form and Edit Form – Share your feedback on Acrobat DC.webloc

Mac OS High Sierra (by choice—won't "upgrade" until forced to), MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018), 2.9 GHz Intel Core i9, 32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4, Radeon Pro 560X 4096 MB, Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB, two 43" 4K TVs for monitors. 

+ a 2008 Mac Desktop and a 2008 MacBook Pro 15", both of which still work great, but are just slow, comparatively.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Anything more on this by now? I was trying to use some online editors to accomplish it and got frustrated at the lack of consistency and user friendliness. It didn't help to keep thinking, "I'd know exactly how to get this to be like I wanted it to be and look professional besides if I'd be using AFPub..." 😏

Thanks for thinking about it again! 🙂

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  • 6 months later...
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Adding my voice here. I am currently making multi-page contract template and was shocked that we can't add a form field. A so simple thing as that is missing?

Sure a Affinity Publisher can be argued to be for publishing as a print medium tool, but at this digital era end when printers and scanners are more and more being left far behind the digital document management and publishing should be a high in a priority list.

 

But there are temporary solution for the problem many has. It is to use the well known Open Source publishing software "Scribus" that is as well available for OS X as for Windows. So you can at least create there the forms in it. 

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  • 5 months later...

I moved from Adobe to Affinity years ago and it is a pain I am now having to subscribe and pay them just to do interactive forms. If I am paying them, I might as well make sure I get my money’s worth and move back - even though I don’t want to.

Please sort this issue out Serif! I really want to come back.

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