We all know that the only way to gather data from a user is via a form on the web. In the past a typical form was very boring due to the limitations of HTML. With the advent of new features within HTML5 and CSS3, it is much easier to create better looking forms that are much more user friendly.

HTML5 offers the ability to easily create required fields and control what is entered by the user into the form and CSS3 can make those forms look much nicer than every before. PDF forms are another alternative to HTML forms that should also be considered.

With the advent of Acrobat 8, PDF forms had the capability to be filled out and saved by anyone using the free Adobe Reader. Since that time, this capability has been expanded and a PDF form is a much nicer way to collect data from a user. Not all PDF forms are alike however, and Adobe offers 2 programs that allow you to create PDF forms. Both Adobe Acrobat and Adobe LiveCycle Designer offer PDF creation capabilities, but the 2 programs are very different in the type of PDF forms they create.

Acrobat 8, 9 and 10 installed LiveCycle Designer when Acrobat was installed, which most users were not aware of. LiveCycle Designer offers many PDF form capabilities that are not available in Acrobat including the ability to create multiple form fields and save them for reuse, Designer also allows you to create templates that include Master Pages so you can separate form field data from visual elements to simplify the creation process. You can create dynamic forms that change based on user actions using either FormCalc or JavaScript using LiveCycle Designer.

The data entered by the user is also different between the programs. Acrobat saves PDF form data as bit data, and LiveCycle Designer saves it as XML data which is easier to manipulate if you need to get the user data into other systems for storage.

Whether to use an HTML form or a PDF form is a decision that should be made based on the number of forms you need to create, how you want them to look, and if you want your forms to be easily created or printed. These capabilities should be considered before a decision is made on which type of form to use. Forms are the only way to collect user data, so be sure to consider a PDF form in addition to a standard web form. It may offer you more flexibility when storing and gathering the form data, and usually are more visually appealing for users.