5 ms·

Doculicious: On-line Form Designer with PDF Output

5 points by bdfh42 18y ago

pclark 18y ago
like Wufoo, but not as cool?
- blurry 18y ago
  Quite different: Wufoo makes html forms, Doculicious makes PDFs. A lot of applications (government-type orgs, class-action lawsuits, etc) require PDFs and signed paper forms.
  - pclark 18y ago
    Adobe must love that.
    - blurry 18y ago
      Actually, a couple years ago PDF got ISO-approved as an open standard format so PDF=Adobe is no longer true. (I believe MS tried to muscle in on the PDF market with their own standard so Adobe was kind of forced into acting quick). They might still make money on the Writer software but it's become quite competitive so I doubt it's a big source of revenue.
icey 18y ago
This is something that could be of use at my office. Do the Doculicious people post / read here? I have questions that I didn't immediately see answers to. Namely, is there any support for marking up existing PDFs, and will this work if your form is behind a login?
- carpo 18y ago
  Yep, I read here. Only just saw your post though :) Currently, forms need to be created using our WYSIWYG design tool - this creates the layout of the web-form and the resulting PDF. There is no way at the moment to import an existing PDF form to mark up - though I am working on a solution to this. (To get around this, some users have used a screenshot of their static PDF form, and then placed the text fields and checkboxes over this image - it works, is quick, and they don't have to pay someone to make them a fillable PDF - though, this is less than ideal if you already have a dynamic acro-form) Our forms will work from behind a login. It uses iframes to embed the form, so as long as the user has access to the 'net, they will see, and be able to use the form. We also have an authorisation script that you can put on your site to protect the iframe embed code so that people can't copy the HTML and put your form on their own site. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions - my email is in my profile.

5 points by bdfh42 18y ago

pclark 18y ago

like Wufoo, but not as cool?

blurry 18y ago
Quite different: Wufoo makes html forms, Doculicious makes PDFs. A lot of applications (government-type orgs, class-action lawsuits, etc) require PDFs and signed paper forms.
- pclark 18y ago
  Adobe must love that.
  - blurry 18y ago
    Actually, a couple years ago PDF got ISO-approved as an open standard format so PDF=Adobe is no longer true. (I believe MS tried to muscle in on the PDF market with their own standard so Adobe was kind of forced into acting quick). They might still make money on the Writer software but it's become quite competitive so I doubt it's a big source of revenue.

icey 18y ago

This is something that could be of use at my office. Do the Doculicious people post / read here? I have questions that I didn't immediately see answers to. Namely, is there any support for marking up existing PDFs, and will this work if your form is behind a login?

carpo 18y ago
Yep, I read here. Only just saw your post though :) Currently, forms need to be created using our WYSIWYG design tool - this creates the layout of the web-form and the resulting PDF. There is no way at the moment to import an existing PDF form to mark up - though I am working on a solution to this. (To get around this, some users have used a screenshot of their static PDF form, and then placed the text fields and checkboxes over this image - it works, is quick, and they don't have to pay someone to make them a fillable PDF - though, this is less than ideal if you already have a dynamic acro-form) Our forms will work from behind a login. It uses iframes to embed the form, so as long as the user has access to the 'net, they will see, and be able to use the form. We also have an authorisation script that you can put on your site to protect the iframe embed code so that people can't copy the HTML and put your form on their own site. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions - my email is in my profile.