Page 1 of 1

PDF creation help much needed!!

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:44 am
by dezz
I've used OpenOffice for basic word documents for at least a year and a half to two years. Now I am trying to create a PDF document with some specific capabilities. I know how to create a basic, fill-able/printable PDFs, but the date fields that I include revert to basic text fields when I export to PDF no matter what I try. How can I prevent that from happening? I would also like the file to either be savable once completed and/or able to be sent via email with completed fields. Are these things I can do in OO and if so how? If not can you recommend a free service/software that will allow me to do these things? I have gone through almost every page of the Writer forums reading every PDF thread I was able to find and did not see any information to help with my questions. If I was blind and missed something I apologize. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

:crazy:
Dezz

Re: PDF creation help much needed!!

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:10 am
by Hagar Delest
dezz wrote:I would also like the file to either be savable once completed and/or able to be sent via email with completed fields.
This cannot be done with OOo. Only the commercial version of the Adobe PDF suite can do that IIRC. The only free workaround is to print the completed PDF with a virtual printer like PDFCreator.

Re: PDF creation help much needed!!

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:03 pm
by dezz
Okay, so as annoying as it is that I can not create a savable form do you have any idea why my date and currency field revert to simple text fields when I export to PDF and how I can prevent that?

:?
Dezz

Re: PDF creation help much needed!!

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:17 pm
by thomasjk
This thread may be of some help http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/forms/.

Re: PDF creation help much needed!!

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:58 pm
by dezz
I appreciate your pointing me in the direction of the blog. It's very informative and helpful. I read through the tutorial, paying particular attention to the section discussing date fields. The blog is correct that the drop down will bring up a small calendar when NOT in edit mode, but that field become a standard text field when the document is exported into a PDF file. The blog does not explain how to prevent this from happening. It happens even when I follow the blog's step by step directions for creating the field and exportation.

How can I prevent my date and currency fields from being converted to standard text fields when I export my document to a PDF file?

:?
Dezz