Operation Manual

184
Forms
Last updated 4/7/2015
CGI export values
An export value is the information sent to a CGI application to identify a user-selected form field. You need to define
an export value only if both of the following are true:
• The data is collected electronically in a database over a company intranet or the web.
• The data is different from the item designated by the form field, or the form field is a radio button.
When defining export values, keep the following guidelines in mind:
• Use the default export value (Yes) to indicate that a check box or radio button has been selected.
• Enter an export value for drop-down lists only if you want the value to be different from the item listed—for
example, to match the name of the form field in a database. The item selected in the drop-down list is used as the
export value unless a different export value is explicitly entered in the Properties dialog box.
• Related radio buttons must have exactly the same form field name but different export values. This ensures that the
radio buttons toggle and that the correct values will be collected in the database.
More Help topics
Form fields behavior
Manage form data files
Add a button to an Acrobat PDF form
PDF barcode form fields
More Help topics
PDF forms basics
About barcodes
Barcode fields translate a user’s form entries into a visual pattern that can be scanned, interpreted, and incorporated
into a database. Barcodes are helpful when users submit the form on paper or by fax.
The advantages of using barcodes are that they save time, eliminate the need for responses to be manually read and
recorded, and bypass data-entry errors that can occur.
A typical barcode workflow includes the following phases:
• The form author makes sure that Automatically Calculate Field Values is selected in the forms preferences, and then
creates the form in Acrobat, setting up all the other fields as usual.
• The form author adds the barcode field to the form, setting up the barcode so that it captures the needed data.
• The form author enables the form for Acrobat Reader DC users (if the author wants to allow the users to save their
own filled-in copy of the form or if it contains certain barcode fields).
• The form author distributes the form to other users.
• Users fill in the form on their computers and submit it electronically or print a copy and deliver the copy to the form
distributor.