Can PDF's be filled in online and emailed to website owner?

Question

Hi, I have a client who wants pdf's on their website to be filled in online and sent directly to the website owner. Is this possible?
Cheers

Answer 1

It's possible. In order for it to work with Reader, the document has to be Reader-enabled, either with Acrobat or LiveCycle Reader Extensions. If using Acrobat, you are limited by the Acrobat License Agreement to using data from no more than 500 instances of a form (including hard copies) that has been returned. LiveCycle Reader Extensions is somewhat expensive and requires that you install it on a server that you set up. Note that you cannot Reader-enable the form for a client using your licensed copy of Acrobat. The client will have to do this himself using his licensed copy. This is another licensing restriction.
In Acrobat, you can set up a button to email or submit the entire PDF document to an email address. If you need digital signatures on the form and want to use Acrobat, you will have to use Acrobat Pro, as opposed to Standard.
Another option is to set up the form to submit just the form data, which can be used in Acrobat to populate a blank form. In this case, there are no licensing restrictions on the number of submits you can use. Post on one of the Acrobat forums if you need more information.
Regardless of which option you use, if you need it to be secure you should set up the form to submit to a web server, as opposed to via email. Email is generally not secure and it's relatively easy to use HTTPS/SSL with a web sever. Submitting via email is also not nearly as reliable as submitting to a web server, but this involves additional work.