Acrobat 7 Pro - form won't submit via email, and data won't submit either

Question

Hi. I am trying to create a form for end users at my website to be able to open the form in Reader, enter their data in the form, and click on the "Submit" button to email it back to me (or any other way it can come back would be okay... as long as I can get the data).
In doing some research on program software needed to do this, I came to the conclusion I needed to have the Adobe suite (Acrobat Pro 7, Distiller 7, and Designer 7), and so I spent a lot of money obtaining this software. I also have just downloaded Reader 9.0 (the most recent).
Here are some particulars:
1. Following directions Ive found on Adobe online, and the Help files as well as in this forum, in the form (in Designer), I have the Submit button going to a URL of mailto:[email protected].
2. I've saved the form as a Static PDF Form File in Designer. Things are going well.
3. The form works great in PDF Preview all form fields are setup and act correctly. Super!
4. I FTP my file to the appropriate website, where once the link to the form is clicked the form opens (in Reader) for my users. Perfect!
5. The user then opens the form, and before they start to fill it out, a popup shows this:
Sending Data Fields By Email. Please note: This form contains an email submit button. Clicking this button will email a data file containing data you type into this form. However, the form itself will not be sent. Remember, you cannot save a completed copy of this form with Adobe Reader 9
Then you have the option to Dont show again and a button to Close.
6. After clicking Close, the user is then able to fill in the fields. These fields are standard fields, nothing exceptional, nothing fancy, just text.
7. At the end of the form is the Submit button. When a user clicks this, NOTHING happens. Even when you try to do the File/Send thing, the form will send, but none of the data. Im not so happy right now L
8. In this forum, I now see directions to Reader Enable in Adobe Pro (I do have Adobe Pro). The directions say Advanced/Enable Reader (as in one of the above posts is stated, 'Advanced > Enable Usage Rights in Adobe Reader'). However, I do not have an Enable Usage Rights in Adobe Reader under my Advanced tab. So, continuing to read in other similar posts, I find others dont have this option either so, one question is, where is it??? ;-)
9. Now I see what appears to be another piece of Adobe software that I need, that is LiveCycle? I think Im getting in over my head, as I dont understand
I am new to all this, and am doing my best, but now Im totally confused. All I want to do is have my measly little form open up and have people fill it in and email it back to me so that I can take that data and work with it.
I run (or am trying to run) a non-profit (i.e., Im paying 100% of the bill) website for local Humane Societies who can facilitate offering online Adoption Applications (this is the form Im trying to make happen). I got the form made, and its fillable its just not being able to be submitted online; and when it DID get submitted (first try or so), it came through with no data, and the .xml file data wouldnt populate.
Bottom line question: Is this, what Im trying to do, feasible or not? Im just a simple soul trying to help out some animals. Im not a programmer, so if thats what it takes I guess Im gonna have to give up and forget it. I only wanted to help make things easer for folks to adopt a pet.
Any help by anyone would be totally and gratefully appreciated. Thank you.
keywords: empty form, form not submitting, can't email form, data not transferring, no data in form, can't submit form, can't submit data

Answer 1

Hi, and thank you for the reply.
I've already spent several hundred dollars on getting Adobe Acrobat software, and was hoping there was some work-around on this? What did people do before LiveCycle for instance when they needed to get data from submitted forms via email?
Please don't misunderstand, but as in my example described above, what can a 3rd party do for me (to enable more 'robust rights') that I can't do myself? I'm trying to figure out if I have the software to do it, paid for the software that is "supposed" to do it, why then I need to pay more money to someone else to make the software do what it's supposed to? I sure don't want to have to pay someone to fix it each time I need to make a change in my form for instance...
I'm confused I guess - I suppose the purpose of my asking on the forum here was to hopefully gain some know-how as how to go about doing this myself vs. paying someone else to do it for me. I want to learn, but just don't know where to start. Or, maybe the software I have just doesn't do what I believed it was capable of doing?
Guidance and/or suggestions from all on this point would be very appreciated. Thank you.