Until recently if you wanted to send a simple form for a client or potential customer to complete and return to you there have been four broad options

1. send a word document – pretty much works but difficult to design and layout properly; and your carefully crafted fonts will disappear on receipt, usually screwing up the layout at the same time.
2. send a printable pdf -  this works, design and layout are retained but can’t be electronically completed and returned thus taking you back to fax or post.
3. create a web based form – works well but a lot more work, requires technical staff to manage or outsourcing to developers.  Either way it is expensive.
4. create an xml coded pdf – again this works well but as in 3. above needs qualified people to administer.

For large businesses or systems using standard forms on a mass scale clearly the web route works best, but for SME’s the cost of this route can be prohibitive.  For smaller operations MS Word or resorting to print and fax has been the answer, and anyone who has ever tried to creatively brand and format a Word document will be aching for a better way . . .

. . . and so here it is.

With the latest upgrade to Adobe Acrobat the age old problem of not being able to save edited pdf has now been removed. It is now possible to create forms  in a design programmes such as Quark, Illustrator, InDesign using creative design, images, logos, brand fonts and typographical design export these to pdf and then add all the data fields you want the recipient to complete and return to you.  The finished pdf can be easily managed by non technical staff who simply email to the recipient who complete the form and email by return.

Hey presto, clear, well designed forms that retain brand identity and professionalism managed simply.

Adobe haven’t exactly made this crystal clear but here is the method to produce editable AND saveable docuuments

1. create your branded form in your preferred software package and export to pdf
2. using Acrobat Professional ( you can’t do this in the Reader sadly) open the pdf

3. in the menu bar below the main menu find and select ‘Forms’ and ‘Start from Wizard’.  Go through the wizard process Acrobat will create a new version of your pdf and will have tried to insert all the forms fields guessing where they should be.  If you’ve made your form field areas pretty obvious the wizard is pretty good and will have sorted it all for you.
4. now you can fix an fields where the wizard has got it wrong, adjust and edit to suit or add more as required.
5. save the form using a different name and reopen.  Youl will now see all your field areas, check boxes  etc. (important to save as a different file name as you can’t go back to the original)
5. the final step is to make the form editable and savable in Reader. Go to the ‘Advanced’ menu and select ‘Enable Useage Rights in Adobe Reader.  Now you have a form that can be emailed completed and returned

Send a test email to a colleague, get them to complete and return to check all is OK.

Job Done

If you need any help with this process please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Call 0117 933 4416 or 07770 750327

Well although you might be more used to a screensaver displaying a personal photo or some excessively garish cartoon, and  of course its original purpose was to prevent ‘image burn’ on old cathode ray tube monitors.  Nevertheless in one sense they both provide a similar function  in delivering information to anyone in the vicinity or walking past.

The potential to use these screens to reach out and inform has been utilised by Active Assistance a company working in the live-in care sector who’s purpose is to create choice and independence for those they care for.  Working with their designers Soap Marketing based in Portishead near Bristol they created a series of images specifically designed to attract attention combined with key messages (chocolate cake always gets our attention!).  Soap then commissioned Applause to turn these images into interactive Flash screensavers combining animated sequences of imagery and messaging. The finished screensavers where delivered as a simple 10 second install program in a range of computer screen formats to suit all types of machine.

Active Assistance’s computers throughout their offices and public areas now reinforce the company brand message of personal choice in care.  In addition the visual reminders of cake and latte may potentially also improve sales in the local fitness centre!

The web, however, was going to change things Sir Tim Berners Lee’s
proposal in march of 1989 was to formulate what we now know as the worldwide web.  In the early stages this didn’t really impact on the CDROM simply because of the severe limitations of software technology and data connection speed.  A photograph of any reasonable size could take an age to appear on screen, video and animated graphics restricted to tiny content windows  So CDROM and its big brother the DVD continued to be the media of choice.  The  web, in the meanwhile,  was gaining ground.  Increased bandwidth and continuous upgrade and improvement of programming technologies and facilities meant that as of today a web page can have pretty much all of the features a CD or DVD can provide plus a lot more.

So is the CD/DVD dead … surprisingly not.  Rather like the cinema when the siren voices announced its death at the launch of television, the CD and DVD ROM seem to have found their niche markets in digital signage for conference and exhibition and retail display, as a  means of reliable communication in developing countries and in helping its old adversary by driving websites forward. When technology becomes easier and cheaper it also becomes more accessible, thus although not many organisations could afford the twenty or thirty thousand pounds a multi-media CDROM could cost in 1995 so many more can afford the few hundred pounds it can cost today.

The huge reduction in cost of digital display screens and players has meant that a 42″ lcd screen and dvd player can cost  under £500 making it a viable and easy to maintain  the means of displaying product and brand information to customers who walk into your reception area, or attract potential business from those who walk past your shop window.

For charities  and organisations who work tirelessly to communicate and inform the health and community professionals working in developing countries, where a battered old TV and player is just as likely, maybe more likely  than a sophisticated broadband network. It is a brilliant way of sending training video, interactive browsable media together with attached further reading files and links to websites for further information where internet access is available.

Is the CD/DVD dead?  No – in this world of downloads, uploads,online backup, streaming, mobile apps and squillions of web pages there are still oft times when you think …. where’s my installation disc, where are my photos, I’m presenting in 2 minutes WHERE IS MY WIFI!!

Two projects just completed involved encoding and editing high definition HD video source material into looped interactive dvd video discs for exhibition and showroom digital signage display.   In each case discs were replicated and distributed to showrooms or retail outlets throughout the country and displayed continuously at exhibition sites.

Technology involved is simply a display plasma or LCD TV and a DVD player eliminating the need for sophisticated equipment with it attendant security issues or web based connections.

Short of a complete power failure the programmes will run and interactivity easily controlled by the player remote.

Video content can also be encoded to run on standalone digital signage displays or delivered online to mobile devices and video player.

PBA wanted to be able to give visitors to their website the ability to ‘play’ with sound, mixing various music and voice over tracks to see how this service could help their marketing efforts.  Applause provided an interactive audio mixer, programmed in Flash actionscript 3, which enabled viewers to select modules such as ‘Christmas Messages’, Business to Business, ‘On-Hold Messaging’ then pick from a selection of tracks and then mix them to create differing effects.  The finished Flash .swf file was emailed to PBA who themselves programmed it into their Content Managed web site.

Want to play??  visit Premier Business Audio’s site