[Solved] Writer to PDF Form

[antonioj]

Hello.

I checked several guides and posts and still have not found a solution to my problem.

I want to use Writer to create a PDF Form which will be stored in a cloud drive, so that anyone who has access to it can enter values/text and then print it.
The problem is I use A4 sheets and want to make that form to print 2 copies of A5 size.
My approach was to make a page with 2 columns but i don´t want to have to fill the form two times.
Any way i can make the text entered in pdf form to automatically being entered in 2nd column? If not, is there another way i can do this?

Thank you.

[John_Ha]

Welcome to the forum.

I am sorry but I don't understand what you are trying to do. Can you explain it differently or perhaps upload the file you are editing, explaining what you want to do, and/or upload a sketch of what you want the final thing to look like. Use the Upload attachment tab below where you type (128 kB max) or use a file share site for a larger file.

Does setting the page size to A5 solve the problem?

Or, when someone opens the PDF form, do you want them to see an A4 page with two A5 forms?

As a new poster you will find much useful information in the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials, the up to date Writer guide and the Writer Manual. May I suggest you bookmark the pages.

Press F1 to access the Help screen and search for your problem

The chapter headings in the manual are:

1 - Introducing Writer
2 - Setting up Writer
3 - Working with Text
4 - Formatting Pages
5 - Printing, Exporting, Faxing and E-Mailing
6 - Introduction to Styles
7 - Working with Styles
8 - Working with Graphics
9 - Working with Tables
10 - Working with Templates
11 - Using Mail Merge
12 - Tables of Contents, Indexes and Bibliographies
13 - Working with Master Documents
14 - Working with Fields
15 - Using Forms in Writer
16 - Customizing Writer – Keyboard shortcuts.

When a pop-up window opens, click the Help button for extensive help on that function - it is often more comprehensive than the manual.

[antonioj]

Thank you for reply John_Ha.

Here is an example of what i am doing right now.

example.odt

(12.17 KiB) Downloaded 73 times

I want to save this document as a pdf, then open it in the cloud, fill with information (yellow zones), and print a A4 page with 2 copies of the form, like they were two A5 pages. All i have to do after is cut the page in half.
What i am doing now is filling in both columns with data to make 2 identical columns. I want to know if it is possible to duplicate the 1st column to the 2nd column. Or to fill in data in 1st column and it appears automatically in 2nd column. Something like that. Hope you understand my English.

Thanks again.

[John_Ha]

I still don't understand why you would want to be doing this, but this does what you want.

Your .odt is somehow a little corrupted, so first fix the corruption in it by going File > New Text Document > Insert ... Now navigate to your example.odt and insert it. This fixes the corruption.

Now edit the document to delete the second instance. Set the two columns and add a column break. Copy the first column contents to the second. Save the .odt.

Now File > Export as PDF > tick Create form (I also ticked allow duplicate names). Create the PDF.

Or to fill in data in 1st column and it appears automatically in 2nd column. Something like that.

Now, whenever I add anything in the left form it appears in the right form which does what you want - see my .odt and PDF.

Incidentally, I think you present this as an XY problem. You want to do X but cannot. You guess a solution Y which you find does not work and is probably not a good idea. You then try to fix Y.

It is far better to say "I want to do X ..." without attempting to give a solution so we can consider all your options and so we don't get drawn down the dead end of Y.

It is always better to ask what you want to do rather than guessing a solution which is? may be? wrong, and then trying to get your guessed wrong solution to work - see The XY problem.

For example, if you want to print two copies of the A5 form on one sheet of A4 paper, then create an A5 page and go File > Print > Page Layout ... Choose 2 pages per sheet.

[antonioj]

Problem solved, i guess it was either the file being corrupted or the way i was creating the pdf file.
Thank you very much.

Just to clarify, i was not trying to get a solution for my problem.
I was doing things as best as i could but asked for help to simplify my work.
Thank you for helping me out.

Really glad with the final result.

Cheers.