how to save these documents in a free format
Here's a list of documents in non-standard PDF and Microsoft Word with macros. If I use LibreOffice to save my work in the .doc documents, I get error messages where the court file number normally goes. Is there a way to make the forms work properly in freedom?
http://ontariocourtforms.on.ca/en/family-law-rules-forms/
The word processor forms are more useful to me than the PDFs. I don't think that it's possible to save changes in the PDFs, even with Adobe's software.
In what way are these PDFs "non-standard"? They look like normal PDFs to me. Heck, they even have boxes you can type in! These are really the best thing you can ask for.
Just open it in your favorite PDF reader*, click on the boxes, and type in what you need to type in. Then you can save a new copy, and unless the PDF reader is buggy, you will have a copy with your changes included.
* Trisquel's default PDF reader, Evince, is unfortunately not a very good choice. I've had problems doing this with every single version of Evince I have ever used. It's doable, but something else, e.g. Okular, is probably better.
I assumed (wrongly ... I see!) that the PDFs were non-standard because i had trouble working with them in Trisquel. I'll try Okular -- thanks for the suggestion. I really hope that Okular lets me save the info that I type into those forms.
Thanks onpon!
I opened the first PDF file in Evince, Trisquel's default document viewer. I could choose the court from the drop-down menu, write in the text fields and save the document with these changes.
Yes, like I said, it will work, but there are bugs.
IIRC, the problem with the version in Trisquel is that Evince seemingly randomly stops being responsive to the keyboard when you make changes. So you have to constantly restart the program when this happens, after saving through the menu since Ctrl+S stops working too.
The problem with the version I'm currently using, from Ubuntu 16.04's repo, is that Ctrl+S only saves a copy of the original PDF, not the PDF with your changes. I had to redo all of my federal tax forms because of this; quite frustrating.
By the way, since I wrote that post, I tried Okular, and it seems to work well (though I dislike the way the interface looks and the fact that you have to manually tell it to show the input fields). That's why I edited a reference to it in the post as an example of another PDF reader to try.
The problem with ignored input might be related to the long-standing
Ibus bug. I didn't test this with Evince specifically, but to
*workaround* the Ibus bug, one has to run im-config both as root and as
normal user (in this order), and for each, choose XIM (thus disabling
Ibus for those users).
I doubt it, because it's all keyboard input it becomes unresponsive to, including keyboard shortcuts.
Hm.... I see.
I can't remember exactly if all keyboard shortcuts became irresponsible
when the Ibus bug happens, but that indeed seems to be a different problem.
Okular gives me a caution "This document has XFA forms, which are currently unsupported."; I attached a picture. Did you get this message onpon? I'll try out some forms with Okular now.
I undoubtedly have a newer version than you do, but no, I don't.
If Okular doesn't work for you, try some of the other suggestions at this website from FSFE:
There must be at least a few that support typing into forms.
Thanks again Onpon
Although my version says that forms are not supported, it seems to work. I'll fill one in and try to open it on one or two different computers to make sure it's okay.
Have a great weekend,
M
XFA forms are not part of the standard and aren't supported by any free PDF reader. However, I usually find that in such documents, the forms work. I think XFA adds some fancy features like rich text, but I think if you don't need those, Okular should work fine. You can also use Okular's annotations (press F6 or Tools->Review) if you find that you can't type in a field.
Form 13A says (instead of showing the form) "The document you are trying to load requires Adobe Reader 8 or higher. You may not have the Adobe Reader installed or your viewing environment may not be properly configured to use Adobe Reader. For more information on how to install Adobe Reader andconfigure your viewing environment please see [URL]"
This is probably why I thought that all of the forms were not free/neutral for a while before I posted this topic. Not sure yet whether Form 13
A is the only one like this.
Oh, wow.
I think that means it's restricted with Adobe Reader's DRM. You should complain about that file; there's no way to see it.
That's too bad; thanks again onpon
Although I can fill in and save with most of those PDF forms (with Okular), people who use Adobe reader to open my saved work cannot see my entries in those forms.