LIVECYCLE DESIGNER ON MAC

Question

I am attempting to convince my boss to replace my mini PC with a Mac, as I primarily use Creative Suite, and this tiny little box has a lot of difficulty with it, among other problems.
My concern is that I created all of our company forms using LiveCycle Designer, and to my knowledge, this program is not available on Mac.
Is there a program for Mac that will allow me to edit these interactive forms in the same manner as LiveCycle Designer?  I have been told that Acrobat alone is capable of the same types of edits, but I am unsure of how to do it.  I've gone through the Forms on Acrobat and what I've found is not nearly as intuitive as LiveCycle Designer.
If anyone could tell me first, if Acrobat is capable of this, and second, where I might get some good information on how to do it, I would appreciate it.
If Acrobat isn't the best program to use, what could I use instead?  I need to be able to edit/create interactive pdf forms with input fields, radio buttons, drop downs, etc, and be able to set up Rich Text capable input fields as well.
Thanks!

Answer 1

So I think I have come to an understanding about Forms in Acrobat Pro 9 (both Mac & PC). I've used Acrobat 9 Pro on the PC and I must say that LiveCycle Designer ES 8 that ships with Acrobat Pro on the PC is VERY buggy. It crashed on me more than a few times (to the point of being ridiculous). I was, in all fairness, pushing it to do some fairly complicated things with layout and fields. After going through the cross-grade to the mac platform and realizing that LiveCycle does not ship with Mac AP9, I followed the suggestion of another poster who recommended this process for Mac Forms creation and it worked beutifully (it is deceptivley simple):
1) Create your form layout in Illustrator (far superior, and more stable vector layout tools to LiveCycle PC anyway), draw in your text fields with a .5 stoked box with a no fill box (white fill can cover up your text field content if it is above), save as a PDF and then simply open this new document into AP9. By the way AI CS4 Mac will place text from Microsoft Word Docs no problems - I even did this over a null modem connection directly from my PC - no complaints.
2) Go to the Forms > Add or Edit Fields... I wouldnt bother running "Start Form Wizard..." as in this process AP9 wont detect text fields anyway. Start by adding textfields directly on top of the stroked boxes you've created in the AI PDF. (it may ask you to save a copy of the document in order to Extend Acrobat Features for Reader). You will now be placed in Form editing mode.
3) Add buttons, signature fields, text fields - really everything LiveCycle Designer does only in a more streamlined and consolidated way. Once again - far more stable and predictable process. You can switch between prevewing the document and editing it very easily.
That's it basically it. Forms editing on the Mac is simply more integrated into Acrobat Pro 9. Seems like to the tools aren't there becuase no LiveCycle - but they are. If you want to give reader users the power to fill and save forms from Free Reader, go to the Advanced menu and select "Extend Features in Adobe Reader..."
Let me know if this works for you - After using this process in my opinion - who needs LiveCycle Designer on the PC? If you are good with Illustrator, you'll make better looking forms anyway. And the "Add Text Field" tool in the Forms Editing mode on the Mac is far less jumpy than LiveCycle. - Thanks - AM