Intermediate

dobe Acrobat X Pro

The Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library Questions? Ask us.

Intermediate Adobe Acrobat Pro Packet by Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Introduction This class will briefly review creating interactive PDF forms. However, the main focus of the class will be discussing how to distribute forms and collect data from forms. Also, we will discuss how to create digital signatures and provide an overview of how to create secure PDF documents. This class assumes a basic familarity with Adobe Acrobat.

Review of Creating Interactive PDF Forms

You can create a form from an existing electronic document (for example, Word, Excel, or an existing PDF document) or you can scan and convert a copy of a form, and then add interactive form fields to it. To create a form from scratch or from a Word template, you need to have Acrobat Pro, Acrobat Pro Extended for Windows, or Adobe LiveCycle Designer. For the purpose of this class, we will be learning how to create a form from an existing electronic document using Acrobat X Pro. 1. Open Adobe Acrobat and import a form or form template from Word, Excel or a scanned document. 2. Convert the document into PDF format. You will notice that while the form information is intact, Acrobat does not recognize the form fields. In order to convert the PDF into an interactive form you must connect to the Form Wizard. 3. Click on Tools > Forms > Create. 4. Select Use the Current Document, then hit the Next button. 5. From the Create or Edit Form dialog box, select, the Use the Current Document option and then hit the Next button. 6. The Form Wizard then reviews the document and adds the appropriate interactive form fields. When the form wizard finishes scanning the document it will prompt you to inspect the form, allowing you to edit or add fields.

Adding a Text Field

You will notice after converting your form that the Form Wizard probably found most but not all of the form fields. Most likely, there will be a bit of cleanup involved and you will probably have to add forms fields to some of the sections.

Different Types of form Fields

1. The following types of fields can be included in a PDF form from the Add New Field menu: 2

a. Barcodes - encode the input from selected fields and display it as a visual pattern that can be interpreted by decoding software or hardware. b. Buttons - initiate an action on the users computer such as opening a file, playing a sound, or submitting data to a web server. You can customize buttons with images, text, and visual changes to the button that are triggered by moving or clicking a mouse. c. Check boxes - allow the user to choose between two choices such as yes-or-no or true-or-false. A form may also contain check boxes for options that allow the user to pick multiple choices. d. Combo boxes - allow the user either to choose an item from a pop-up menu or to type in a response. e. Digital signatures - allow the user to electronically sign a PDF document with a digital signature, which can be a scanned image of your signature or some other image. f. List boxes - display a list of options the user can select. You can set a form field property that enables the user to Shift-click or Control-click to select multiple items on the list. g. Radio buttons - allow the user to select from a group of choices which allow the user to only select one choice. All radio buttons with the same name work together as a group. h. Text fields - allows the user to type in text, such as name, address, email address, or phone number. 2. When you have completed the form, you can preview and test it. Once you approve the form, click on Close Form Editing.

Preparing to Distribute Form After you have created your form, it can be distributed in several different ways. a. You can host your form on Acrobat.com and send a secure link to recipients. To do this you can create a free user account at Acrobat.com, and use Acrobat.com to upload and share your forms. b. Send the form as an email attachment and manually collect responses in your email inbox.
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c. Send the form using a network folder and automatically collect responses on the internal server.

For the purpose of this class, we will discuss sending your form as an email attachment and manually collecting responses in your email box. a. While you are in the form editing mode, and after you have designed and created your form, click on the Close Form Editing button.

b. Click on Advanced from the top menu, and then select the Extended Features in Adobe Reader option. Be sure to review the information in the dialog box before clicking the Save Now button. c. When the Save As dialog box appears you can save the form using the same name, or you can choose another name before clicking the Save button. d. Normally, users of Adobe Reader cannot save PDF forms after they have been completed. However, when you use the Extended Features in Adobe Reader option when using Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, you give the user the capability to save the form as a
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Reader-enabled PDF file. This means that the form can now be completed and saved using Adobe Reader.

Distributing Forms 1. When the newly created form is ready for distribution, click the Forms button from the top menu and then select Distribute Form. 2. If you are prompted to save your form click the Save button. If you have not cleared any practice data from the form, you will be prompted to clear the form before distributing. 3. Notice that the Distribute Form dialog box asks, How do you want to collect responses from your recipients? From the drop-down menu. There are two responses: a. Manually collect responses in my email inbox b. Automatically collect responses on my own internal server

4. For the purpose of this class, we will choose option (a) Manually collect responses in my email inbox. Then hit the Next button.

5. The next screen asks, How do you want to distribute your form? You have two options: a. Send it automatically using Adobe Acrobat b. Save a local copy and manually send it later.

Note: To use option (a) your computer requires a working email application, (i.e. GroupWise or Outlook, etc.).

If you receive an error message indicating that you do not have a working email application set up, then you will need to go to the Control Panel to set it up. a. From the Start menu on your computer, choose Settings > Control Panel > Internet Options. b. Click on the Programs tab and click on the down arrow by the E-mail field to select your application.

6. Choose the Send It Automatically Using Adobe Acrobat option. Then hit the Next button.
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7. If this is your first time using this feature, Adobe Acrobat will prompt you to enter your information (i.e. email address, name, title, and organization). After you have entered the information and verified that all of it is correct, click the Next button. If you have used this feature before, your information will be stored.

8. When the next dialog opens type the email address of your recipient(s) in the To section. Although Adobe Acrobat provides default content for Subject and Message, you can populate these sections with content tailored to your organization. Also, make sure that the Collect name & email from recipients to provide optimal tracking option is checked. Then hit the Send button.

9. Once you have sent the form, the form tracker opens to help you track the form that has just been distributed. You will notice that it tracks recipients that have and have not responded to your email, as well as the total number of recipients who received the
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email. The tracker also allows you add recipients at a later time, and to email recipients that have not responded and filled out the form. The Tracker also keeps track of the responses to the form.

10. You can access the Tracker by clicking Forms, then choosing Track Forms from the drop-down menu.

Digital Signatures Digital signatures are the electronic equivalent of pen and paper signatures in that people use them to vouch for the integrity of a documents information. A digital signature can serve various purposes: to certify authorship, to approve a documents contents, to indicate that someone has reviewed a document, among others. Any subsequent changes to the document, whether authorized or unauthorized, will be noted by Acrobat. In signing a document, a person can even opt to lock the file so that no further alterations to it may occur. In order to use a digital signature, you must also create a digital ID. This is the electronic equivalent of a drivers license or passport in that it proves your identity to others in an online environment. A digital ID usually holds your name, email address, the name of the company that issued the ID, a serial number, and an expiration date for the ID. People commonly request their digital ID online from a third-party vendor. Acrobat Pro offers a way to create your own digital ID from within the program. This method does not offer the same degree of security as going to a third party vendor, but will suffice for documents in most situations. Contained in the digital ID is a digital signing certificate. You should send the certificate to those to whom you intend to email documents digitally signed by you. It is this certificate that contains technology permitting recipients to prove that the signature on your document actually came from you and not someone pretending to be you.

Create Your Digital Signature

To create your own digital signature: Go to Edit > Preferences, and choose Security from the list of categories on the left.

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Make sure that Verify signatures when the document is opened is check-marked at the top of the dialog box. Also, make sure that View documents in preview document mode when signing is check-marked. Under Appearance, click New.

Give your Digital Signature a descriptive title that will enable you to identify it easily (in case you create multiple signatures). 11

Under Configure Graphic, you may opt to add an image to your signature by selecting Imported Graphic and clicking on the File button to locate the image. Under Configure Text, you would generally have selected to appear as part of your digital signature: your name, the date, and the reason for the signature. Click OK in the Configure Signature Appearance dialog box when done.

Configure How You Verify Others Signatures

Back in the Security preferences dialog box, click on Advanced Preferences.

Make sure that Require certificate checking to succeed whenever possible during signature verification is check-marked. This runs a certificate against a list of revoked certificates as part of the validation process. Also, use the default, document-specified method for verifying signatures, requesting a prompt when its not available.

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Create Your Digital ID

Choose Advanced > Security Settings from the Menu Bar. Click on Digital IDs in the top left corner of the dialog box.

Next, click on Add ID.

In the Add Digital ID dialog box, select A New Digital ID I want to Create Now and then press Next.

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Select New PKCS#12 digital ID file, if it isnt already selected, and press Next.

Next, enter your personal information. Leave the Key Algorithm at the default of 1024-bit RSA. By Use digital ID for:, select Digital Signatures.

Then click Next.

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The next screen allows you to choose the location on your computer to store your digital ID, and prompts you to create a password.

Make sure you remember your ID, but never share it with anyone. Passwords are case sensitive. Click Finish when done.

Your digital ID displays in the Security Settings dialog box.

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Double-click on your digital id listing to view certificate details.

Information about the certificate is displayed in the various tabs within the Certificate Viewer.

Click OK when done and then close out the Security Settings menu.

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Share Your Digital Certificate with Others

You will probably want to email in advance a copy of your digital signing certificate to those to whom you intend to send digitally signed documents. Those who receive copies of the certificate will have your name added to the list of trusted identities and can easily vouch for the authenticity of your digital signature. In the Security Settings dialog box, choose Export.

Choose Email the data to someone.

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Enter email addresses in the To field, separated by commas, and choose Email.

Your default email application opens and a message appears with your digital certificate attached and the email addresses entered and an explanatory message entered in the body of the email.

Digital Certificate attachment

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When the recipient opens up the certificate, it looks like this:

Click on Set Contact Trust In the Import Contact Settings dialog box, to checkmark Use this certificate as a trusted root. To allow actions that could potentially compromise document security, such as playing embedded video segments, checkmark Certified documents and any of the boxes listed beneath it that you choose.

Click OK when done.

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Youll see a message indicating that the import has succeeded.

Click OK to close the message.

Import a Certificate from a Digital Signature Contained in a .pdf File

If you have not been sent someones digital certificate in advance of receiving a signed document from him/her, you can add the certificate to your trusted identities by contacting the creator and comparing the certificate details you see to those of the creators original certificate. Open the .pdf file containing the signature.

Open the signature panel,

by clicking on the signature icon.

Click on the signature whose certificate you are seeking to verify.

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In the Options menu directly above, select Show Signature Properties, and then click on Show Certificate.

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If the certificate is self-signed, contact the creator of the certificate to confirm that the information in the Details tab matches the details in his/her own certificate.

Click the Trust tab, click Add to Trusted Identities, and click OK at the prompt.

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In the Import Contact Settings dialog box, select your trust options, and click OK

Digitally Sign Your Document

To add a digital signature to a .pdf file, click on the Sign button located on the Taskbar and choose Place Signature.

A message appears explaining how to create a signature field.

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Click OK to remove the message. (You may also checkmark the box beside Do not show this message again if you no longer wish to view the prompt prior to signing files.) Your mouse pointer will change to a crosshair and you can draw a box over the portion of your document where you wish to add your signature. Acrobat will display your document in Signature Preview mode.

Click on Sign Document in the upper right portion of the window.

Enter your password (case-sensitive). Choose the Digital Signature you created from the Appearance list. Select the Reason for the signature under Additional Signature Information. 24

If you checkmark Lock Document After Signing, no one else can alter the document or add an additional signature. Then, press Sign. Youll be prompted to save/resave the file. Do so.

Sample digital signature

Your signature will appear on the document with whatever information you have chosen to display with it (e.g., name, email address, reason for signing). Everyone to whom you send this file will need to have a copy of your digital certificate in order to authenticate your digital signature. (See section, Share Your Digital ID with Others.)

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Verify a Digital Signature

If you receive a .pdf file with a digital signature, you need the certificate of the signatures creator in order to validate it. Click on the Signature button in the Signature Panel to the left of the document.

Youll see the signature listed. Click on the Options button, located just above the signature and choose Validate Signature from the list of options. 26

If you do not have the digital certificate of the person who signed, you will receive the following message:

The easiest way to obtain the certificate is to have the person send it to you. Once you have it, you may save it anywhere on your computer. Adobe Acrobat will remember the location. Then open the file and establish the person as a trusted identity. When you go to validate the signature, you should see a message displaying that the signature is VALID.

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Detecting Modifications to a Document Following the Original Signing

If someone alters the document in any way after the document is initially signed, those changes will be noted in the Signature Panel.

In the illustration above, Felix the Cat was the document creator and signed his name first. Later, Sylvester the Cat reviewed the document and added his signature. The recipient of the document would notice the indication: 1 Miscellaneous Change(s). Had the original signer, Felix the Cat, opted to lock the document in the Sign Document dialog box, then Sylvester would not have been able to add his own signature.

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Remove a Digital ID
You can delete a digital ID youve created if you no longer plan to use it. Go to Advanced on the menu bar and choose Security Settings. Click once on the digital ID you intend to remove and click on Remove ID.

Click OK at the next prompt to confirm the deletion.

(1/31/2013)

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