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

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

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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?

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[–] bionicjoey 37 points 2 years ago (7 children)

I work for the Canadian government, and these are horrible. They worm their way into everything. We are slaves to proprietary formats. There is very little will to switch to open standards for something like this.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I wish you the very best of luck climbing the ranks of your position and straightening this BS

[–] bionicjoey 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That's not really the progression track for me personally, but I'll at least keep beating the drum about this problem.

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

Thanks for fighting the good fight in any government. Bring it to people's attention when you can and its not too out of place. Some people might genuinely not know about this and even if they don't make it better at least there's some chance you stopped them from making it worse.

[–] bionicjoey 2 points 2 years ago

Unfortunately, certain things have actually become codified institutions in the government. Like the way we handle digitally signed forms is with a proprietary Adobe Acrobat plugin.

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