Am trying to save some time here, anyone know of a quick way to add a set of text fields to an existing pdf so as to provide the one character per box format beloved of governments.

Eg, sorry no graphic but as an example:- name [F]R]E]D] ]F]A]N]G]D]A]N]G]O]

The pdf isn't locked and I've access to Acrobat Professional.

Suggestions welcomed.

By the by I also have ScanSoft but the document has a considerable number of bar coded elements which defeats it, leading to a Word version that is not much use.

Regards & TIA

Edited July 16, 200817 yr by A_Traveller

Am trying to save some time here, anyone know of a quick way to add a set of text fields to an existing pdf so as to provide the one character per box format beloved of governments.

Eg, sorry no graphic but as an example:- name [F]R]E]D] ]F]A]N]G]D]A]N]G]O]

The pdf isn't locked and I've access to Acrobat Professional.

Suggestions welcomed.

By the by I also have ScanSoft but the document has a considerable number of bar coded elements which defeats it, leading to a Word version that is not much use.

Regards & TIA

There's an Acrobat plug-in availabe, called PitStop, which is been used in prof. prepress. That one might do the job. I only can talk about Acro 7 because it is widly used in prepress because of its stability. I read Acro 9 is capable to do such jobs but no experiencies yet. But without knowing the file and without a pre-flight on it is almost impossible to to give you any good advise.

Edited July 16, 200817 yr by webfact

Thanks, PreFlight is not a happy bunny with this doc, which is sourced by a government department, but not Thailand.

All I want to do is to be able to enter into the single character boxes relevant information, similar to immigration forms but in this case several pages of them, the world over. I'm even wondering about extracting the grid sets as images and using a text layer, but there must be an easier way, mustn't there?

Regards

PS Of course if I had a typewriter ..........

Edited July 16, 200817 yr by A_Traveller

Thanks, PreFlight is not a happy bunny with this doc, which is sourced by a government department, but not Thailand.

All I want to do is to be able to enter into the single character boxes relevant information, similar to immigration forms but in this case several pages of them, the world over. I'm even wondering about extracting the grid sets as images and using a text layer, but there must be an easier way, mustn't there?

Regards

PS Of course if I had a typewriter ..........

you might want to post your questions here: http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bbeda8b/

I use it as a source and almost all of my questions were replied with a solution

Edited July 16, 200817 yr by webfact

PS Of course if I had a typewriter ..........

There is a typewriter tool in Acrobat Pro 7 at least, in the Tools menu. It was added specifically for filling in forms, but it sounds like you are working with a high volume of forms, and I don't know convenient it would be for that.

And after a rummage in 8 Pro, at home, which fortunately I have on a notebook, so I can use that on the morrow. It's supposed to be an option in 7 Reader as well but couldn't invoke it. I'm not sure but I think the Pro I was using there was earlier, hence why I didn't see it I guess.

However, thanks for the heads-up, I'll be a typist {ish }

Regards