I have downloaded a couple of PDF forms that I want to fill out
electronically (they are not set up to expect data - just set up to
print out as blank forms).

Purchasing a $250 Adobe Acrobat 5.0 licence just to edit a PDF file
seems a bit of an overkill.  Is there any cheaper and easier way of
editing PDF files?

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Request for Question Clarification by robertskelton-ga on 10 Sep 2002 20:11 PDT

There are three types of PDF forms - do you know which yours is?

Analog forms are sometimes scanned and saved in PDF format as a
scanned image. These forms are static and intended for the end user to
print the file, fill it in, and fax it back to the forms provider or
route it through an organization.

The second type of PDF form is a document authored in some
application, then converted to PDF. The appearance of the form is
often better than a scanned document, but the means of completion and
routing is the same as above.

The third kind of form is much more dynamic. An authoring application
document is converted to PDF; the form’s content, such as field boxes,
menus, signature fields, and more, is created from within Adobe
Acrobat. These forms enable users to fill in and route data
electronically.
http://www.wiley.com/cda/cover/0,,0764536907|excerpt,00.pdf

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Clarification of Question by dogbreath-ga on 10 Sep 2002 21:10 PDT

Thanks - good point.  I think they seem to be the second type of PDF
form.  This is because I can click on the text button and then copy
text to clipboard, but there dont seem to be any interactive data
fields.

Howdy!

The free version of Acrobat Reader 5.0 will edit and submit forms just
fine. I believe 4.0 will also.

However, unless the document was built with field editing ability you
won't be able to edit it no matter what version of Acrobat you have.
Even if you have the full Acrobat tools and can edit PDFs, it won't
help if the author has secured the document. Unfortunately, in my
personal experience, many of the forms available for download on the
Internet simply are not set up to be editable.

There are several different methods for extracting the text from a PDF
if you want to edit it electronically in another application before
you print it out.

1. If you don't care what the presentation looks like, from the
Acrobat File menu select Export Document to Text. This will save the
contents of the PDF as a text only file on your hard drive that you
can edit in Notepad or your favorite text editor. This technique will
only work if the PDF file contains embedded text, and is not merely
one big scanned image.

If your version of Acrobat does not have the Export Document to Text
feature, you can still export it to text anyway using a text-only
printer driver on FILE. This is a great trick for any type of document
with embedded text that won't let you extract it. To do this trick,
you need to install a text-only printer driver. You do NOT need to own
a real text-only printer, you just need the driver. If you are running
Windows, this driver is included under the "Generic" category in the
Add Printer wizard. Create a new local printer and select the
text-only driver. When you are asked what port the printer is
connected to, select FILE. FILE is a special virtual port that causes
a printer driver to make files on disk instead of print. After you
have installed the text-only printer driver, return to your PDF file
and choose File: Print. Select the text-only driver and print as you
normally would. You will be prompted for a file name. Enter the file
name you want to save as and click Ok. The file will contain the
contents of the PDF as plain text.

Variations of this trick will also work on other operating systems,
including the Macintosh. As always, back up your system first anytime
you install new drivers.

2. If the PDF does not contain "real" text and is a scanned image
instead, or if it does contain text but presentation matters, you can
export the document to EPS instead of text. To do this, use the same
trick as the text-only printer driver, however, select a print driver
that will export an EPS with preview instead, such as the Apple Laser
Writer 8. You will need a graphics program that can open EPS files,
such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. After you open the EPS file
in your graphics program, you can just write on top of it with the
standard text tools.

3. The third method is useful if presentation matters and you don't
want to install new print drivers. Open a paint program, such as Adobe
PhotoShop or even Windows Paint. Create a new image that is the same
dimensions as the PDF document. Open the PDF document and press the
Print Screen button on your keyboard. Tab to your paint program and
click Paste. An image of the PDF will be pasted. Unless your display
is set to very high resolution, you will probably need to paste the
top and bottom of the PDF page in two passes. Use the Crop tool to
chop off anything you don't want. Save the image, and now you can edit
it in your paint program with the standard text tools.


I have used all of these methods myself, and they all work. If you are
not experienced with installing operating system components or setting
up print drivers, then you will probably want to use method three.

Hope this helps!



Which Acrobat Product is Right for You?
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/products.html

Help for Application for Funds
http://www.l2l.org/itwd/app.html

Search Strategy:
editable PDF
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=editable+PDF

Manually reviewed Adobe Acrobat Site
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

Many thanks indeed for this excellent answer. I am an experienced user
of notebook PCs for the last 10 years, but you have given me some new
tricks here that are very useful indeed.  I continue to be hugely
impressed by the quality of answers available in Google Answers.

Using the “print to FILE with a generic text only print driver”
technique, I was able to print to a text file from the PDF file, which
was interesting as I had not come across this technique before, but
not of use as I needed the formatting of the original PDF.  I tried
using the EPS method, but I do not have anything that seems to be able
to read eps files, so I found the print screen the easiest solution.

I found it easiest to do “cntl L” in Adobe Acrobat Reader to get full
screen display before pressing “PrtSc” button on my PC.  Then I saved
the file into MS Powerpoint (since I am familiar with this
application), cropped the picture a bit more,  and added text boxes
where I needed to fill things in on the forms.