On Thursday 2004-12-23 12:00, Lee Einer wrote:
> Not that I am aware of. In the case of the employer I was dealing with,
> their form had to be signed and printed out anyway, so the PDF was a
> reasonable replacement for the .doc file. A form which was to be
> completed electronically would require a different solution. HTML,
> perhaps?
>
Yes, for online HTML would be ideal.
Using Word documents as forms is a path of least resistance. Virtually every
office uses Word, and almost all private users. If you put up a Word form
you can bet that something like 95%-plus of all users will be able to fill it
out interactively and another 2% or so will be able to print hard-copy from
their browser.
Advantages of the *.doc interactive form:
1) We have Word, we have Word gurus, without additional training we can get to
a prototype form in-house in 2-4 hours.
2) We can use the resulting file to produce hard-copy forms.
3) We can put the exact same form online and only an insignificant minority of
users will be unable to access the form. The completed form can be returned
online or printed by the user and returned as hard copy. Even if the form
needs to be signed sophisticated users with scanners can return the form
online (if the web builder allows for the option) or return the form as an
email attachment.
4) The sophisticated office can accept online Word forms and automatically
extract the values of the form's fields. Unfortunately, this will require
the assistance of someone with IT expertise.
WHAT A GREAT VALUE. Cheap to create, then you can use it everywhere, and
everyone (Windows and Mac users) can access the results. In the worst case,
a customer can request a faxed or snail mailed hard copy.
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