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View Full Version : A "what is the best way?" question



Lani
25-11-2009, 1:23pm
Is it possible to create a form that can be sent by email, be easily filled in and emailed back...I am looking at doing our camera club registrations by email and am not sure which program would best to use to create it. I can do it in word, using tables...but curious to know if there is a better way.
Thanks in advance for any help.

pgbphotographytas
25-11-2009, 1:29pm
We have some PDF files at work which all you to fill in the details and then print them off to send away to be used.

Paul

Lani
25-11-2009, 1:35pm
I want to do it all electronically Paul, to save on printing, post etc. ;)

ricktas
25-11-2009, 1:42pm
You can do PDF forms that the user can complete on their screen and email back. I have never tried to make one, but you would probably need to buy Acrobat to do it.

MarkChap
25-11-2009, 2:17pm
Yeah an editable PDF would be the way to go.

MarkChap
25-11-2009, 2:22pm
It would appear that Cyte PDF can do it as well, a lot cheaper than full on Acrobat

http://www.cutepdf.com/

Lani
25-11-2009, 4:42pm
Thanks, I have acrobat and cutepdf, so will have a look into it further....didn't realise you could make editable PDF's.

phild
25-11-2009, 5:37pm
It can be done as a webpage relatively easily with some forms and PHP scripting. A couple of years ago, I managed to do some email reply web forms with Frontgpage using PHP scripting.

I can't gove you specifics, my memory's not that good, but I managed to find a script to work with the frontpage generated forms, from memory it wasn't that hard.

Tannin
25-11-2009, 6:00pm
PDF has its problems and incompatibilities, but it might work for you.

The best way would be to have an on-line form: you send the emails out with a link to the form in them, they click on it, fill it out using their browser, and it (the form) emails itself to you. If desired, it can also store all the info directly into a membership database, though that adds quite a bit of extra programming overhead.

Lani
25-11-2009, 6:26pm
Thanks Phil and Tony....the online format sounds like more of what I had in mind, the easier it is to fill out the higher the response rate,...might handball to the guy who looks after our website. :D Coding tends to do my head in a bit....like a foreign language.

jev
25-11-2009, 7:28pm
Adobe's acrobat reader can't save edits AFAIK, it can only print a filled form or send the results back to you.

Online form would be easiest. Try using google docs, great way to set up a form and publish it. The results are than stored in a spreadsheet and can be represented graphically. Very powerful and free :).

Lani
25-11-2009, 7:48pm
Thanks Jev....effective and free is good. ;)