Free and Open Source Software

18527 readers

46 users here now

If it's free and open source and it's also software, it can be discussed here. Subcommunity of Technology.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Am I the only one who hates these fake PDFs? (eclecticlight.co)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

36 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was forced to fill out an XFA form (that was pretending to be a PDF) from the Canadian government and the experience left me feeling completely subjugated. The lengths that Adobe go to to make sure that you have the most frustrating experience possible is unbelieveable. Searching for alternatives or help leads you to either: be forced to buy their premium software (or a licensed equivalent) or subscribe for Adobe's online tools. Why is this propriety format allowed in government forms? What is so fantastic/irreplaceable about this format?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Before you post a snappy "just do X" or "try this software" try it yourself consent-letter-2123.pdf my complaint is not trivial.

[–] lemini 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There's a plain PDF right above the form you posted. Why didn't you link the page where its from?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I did realize much later that there was an alternative form, which makes sense and I kind of now assume that most of these forms probably have an alternative equivalent that is not dynamic or interactive. In the begining I was sent the link to the form directly by my wife (she is the Canadian) so I struggled for a while with it before I decided to look for any alternative. This still frustrates me because the XFA version is supposed to make the process easier not more complicated!

[–] lemini 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ah, that makes sense. I'm glad that all worked out in the end.

I thought there was already a format for form-fillable PDFs that does work with other software. I wonder why they can't just keep using that?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I can see how a single dynamic form can replace several plain PDF forms because not all parts of the form apply to every user. (For the record I did end up using the XFA form as dictated by Adobe and I am lucky that I have everything you need, a full fat computer and a printer, to make it work. If you wanted to do this digitally on your iPad you would have to find an alternative)