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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Editing pdf software

jverschu - Oct 23, 2007 - 10:23 pm

Dear MacOSX support member,

Running Tiger, I need to create a .pdf document in which people can enter data, in certain textboxes in a way that they cannot alter the rest of the .pdf. Is there a good alternative to Adobe's Acrobat Distiller for this.
Thanks beforehand.
Jan

Natobasso - Oct 24, 2007 - 11:57 am

Adobe Acrobat gives you fillable form options:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acroba...eate_form.html

jverschu - Oct 24, 2007 - 8:23 pm

Hi Natobasso,
Yes I am aware of Adobe´s Acrobat capability of doing this, as mentioned in the question... I was hoping for a less costly alternative for just making a fillable form. Abobe´s full program runs into the hundreds of dollars...
Thanks beforehand,
Jan

Natobasso - Oct 24, 2007 - 10:16 pm

Yes, but you mentioned Distiller which doesn't have the functionality you described.

Another tech tells me that there's a website called http://www.pdf-office.com with a free demo to download; but I can't say I've used it.

jverschu - Oct 25, 2007 - 10:52 pm

Hi Natobasso,

Sorry for the confusion as I thought that Distiller = the full Acrobat program (not just the free reader) and would have the capability of making fillable forms among other things. But sorry for my second remark here beforehand but when you or "the other tech" have a free download for a program that you at least have no experience with... Is it possible to forward this question on to somebody who is familiar with different pdf creating programs and can help me better?
Thanks
Jan

Natobasso - Oct 26, 2007 - 1:22 am

Jan, I will open this ticket up to other techs. I did a search and came up with lots of options, but not all of them mac based.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=pdf...=UTF-8&fr=moz2

Good luck!

leonard.leotech - Oct 27, 2007 - 8:10 am

Jan-

Welcome to Macosx.com! I see that Natobasso opened up this ticket for other technicians.

I found PDFpen from Smile on my Mac (http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/index.html). Here are a list of features from the site:

-Replace text in original PDF with editable text blocks
-Move, resize, copy and delete images in original PDF
-Copy and paste rich text; retain fonts and formatting when copying from PDFs
-Select and copy text across multiple columns
-Overlay text and images onto PDF (for example, sign purchase orders by applying signature image)
-Show PDFs in single, facing-page, multi-page, and multiple facing-page views
-Insert and remove pages; re-order pages in a PDF by drag & drop
-Fill out and save PDF forms
-Create cross-platform fillable PDF forms (requires PDFpenPro)
-Scribble your signature or anything else directly onto a PDF document
-Use with PageSender for a complete fax turn-around solution
-Automate PDF manipulations with AppleScript

Although it is a bit pricey at $50 USD, but you can try before you buy. If you need this for your work, your company might pay for it .

Let me know if this was what you were looking for. If it wasn't, let me know and I'll find something else.

Keep in touch,

Leonard Slutsky
Macosx.com Tech