This article pertains to Acrobat 9 Pro and Acrobat X Professional.
You can create a Submit Button that will allow folks to submit a completed form by attaching itself to an e-mail. The person who creates the form will designate the address to which the form will be sent.
I don’t know about you, but I can think of lots and lots of uses for this. Just recently I had someone request that I create a form questionnaire for their son’s Lacrosse team. The person making the request was a coach for his son’s team and he and the other coaches wanted to garner some more information and input from the parents of their Lacrosse players.
Now when he requested that I do this form to send to the parents he thought that he would have me do the form and then he would e-mail it to everyone and they would fill it out and then give it to their son to give to him. I said really?? There are so many problems with that method! Why don’t you let me create the form and include a Submit Button at the bottom that the parent can just click to send the completed form to you? Well let me tell you! He thought I was a veritable genius! I had to be honest and let him know that I was a mere mortal but I did create that Submit Button for his questionnaire form and every single parent completed the form and mailed it back to him. See, I have found that the easier you make things for folks, the more cooperation you will get.
Follow the steps below to learn how to create a Submit Button for your PDF form:
- Open the file that you would like to create your Submit Button in.
- From the Forms menu, select Add or Edit Fields.
- Acrobat will switch to Form Editing mode.
- From the Add New Field drop-down menu, select Show Tools on Toolbar.
- Click the Button tool.
- Your cursor will change to cross hairs. The cross hairs will allow you to align the button with the ruler, text or another form field.
- Place your cursor where you would like your button to begin.
- Click and drag until the button is the size of your liking.
OR
- To create your button in the default size, click your page at the desired location for your button.
- The Field Name entry box will appear.
- In the Field Name box, key in a name that will identify your button.
- To edit additional properties of your button, click SHOW ALL PROPERTIES. The Button Properties dialog will open.
- Select the Actions tab.
- Int he Add an Action section, from the Select Trigger drop-down list, select Mouse Up.
- From the Select Action drop-down list, select Submit a Form.
- Click ADD and the Submit Form Selections dialog will appear.
- In the Enter a URL for this link text box, key in mailto:email address (i.e., mailto:mickeymouse@abc.com).
- To export your entire PDF, in the Export Format section, select PDF The complete document. Of course, depending on the format for your export, one of the other options may be more appropriate.
- In the Field Selection section, to submit all form fields, select All Fields.
OR
In the Field Selection section, to submit only specified fields:
A. Select Only these
B. Click Select Fields
The Field Selection dialog box will appear.
C. In the Select Fields scroll area, select the field(s) you would to have submitted to you.
D. To the right of the Field Selection list, select any addition options you would like.
E. Click OK.
- In the Date Options area, select Convert Dates to standard format, which will convert all dates to a standard format regardless of how they were entered in your form field.
- Click OK.
- Select the General tab.
- Select the Options tab.
- In the Icon and Label area, in the Label text box, key in the name of the button (i.e., Submit Form).
- Click Close.
Your Submit Button has now been created. Who knows – folks might think you’re a straight up genius now!