[Scribus] Creating PDF forms whose data can be saved with acrobat reader

[Henry Hartley]

Gregory Pittman wrote:
>> 
>> This is of interest, and worth figuring out. It's not clear to me
>> that this is entirely in Adobe's interest to restrict this usage
>> -- encourages someone to develop a more open forms format.
>> 
>> I've always felt that this is one of the big ways that proprietary
>> formats are very wrong -- I take *my* data, *my* creative input,
>> and it gets held hostage in a format I do not have complete rights
>> over -- very very wrong.

I agree pretty strongly with this.  It seems to me that not too many
years ago, a PDF form could be saved with the entered data but that this
ability went away (or was severely restricted) in the last version or
two.  I first discovered this "feature" when I downloaded an IRS Form
1040 and started filling it out.  When I went to save it, I was told
that I would not be able to save my entered data.  Now, there are some
forms you fill out, print, and throw away.  But it seems to me there are
too many times with IRS forms that you print them out, find a mistake
and want to go back and make a small correction.  Sorry, not possible.

I see that the IRS has woken up to this fact and the form now DOES let
you save the data, but the problem is that this required the creator of
the form to do something (and presumably pay money) before this is
possible.  So, for instance, the US State Department's passport renewal
application does NOT let you save the form in its filled out state.
That's just stupid.  I don't entirely blame the State Department,
either.

Adobe has, in my opinion, overreached and will lose some business
because of this.  Unfortunately, they may not lose enough to make them
change their mind or to offset what they will make selling this ability
to their big clients.  But for small companies needing forms that can be
filled in and saved, PDF is no longer portable.

-- 
Henry