Thanks, that would seem to explain it, though in that case I wonder why the
U.S. Postal Service (e.g.) has chosen Adobe's proprietary format, thereby
making it more difficult for customers who don't run Acrobat to use their
(i.e., the P.O.'s) fill-in forms.
------------------------------
--- On Mon, 7/1/13, Nath Rao <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Nath Rao <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Skim-app-users] Any SKIM 'plug-in' that allows it be used at
websites that want ADOBE?
To: "For general discussion about using Skim"
<[email protected]>
Date: Monday, July 1, 2013, 10:08 AM
The issue seems to be with the form data, rather than web plug in. Certain pdf
forms are not compatible across pdf viewers. There are pdf forms at work that
can be filled in off-line, if I try on Skim etc., will not print correctly
after filling in, let alone save or export.
According to Wikipedia, "In the PDF 1.5 format, Adobe Systems introduced a new,
proprietary format for forms, namely Adobe XML Forms Architecture (XFA) forms."
This is not part of the ISO specs, and seems to require Adobe Reader. If the
pdf form uses this format, the user is out of luck. Seems to be Adobe's way of
preserving market share.
Regards
Nath Rao
On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 12:17 AM, Michael Kraft <[email protected]> wrote:
> It's not clear to me what you mean by saying that the website requires it.
Perhaps the best illustration of what I was posting about can be seen by going
to the U.S. Postal Service website (https://cns.usps.com/go) and starting to
create a "Click-N-Ship" Priority Mail label. You will be prompted that you
need Adobe Acrobat.
(I think you may have to create a user account -- i.e., login ID and password
-- if you don't already have one. But perhaps you can just create a disposable
ID if you never plan to use USPS
services.)
My post was prompted by the question: Why specifically do I need to use
Acrobat instead of SKIM for this purpose?
-------------------------------
--- On Sun, 6/30/13, Christiaan Hofman <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Christiaan Hofman <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Skim-app-users] Any SKIM 'plug-in' that allows it be used at
websites that want ADOBE?
To: "For general discussion about using Skim"
<[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, June 30, 2013, 5:08 PM
It's not clear to me what you mean by saying that the website requires it.
Generally, website
don't require a program. Or at least, they should not. I would not know how
they would require it. Websites offer data, like PDF. And how that is handled
is determined by your *browser*, not the website (or it should.) So this seems
more like a question about your browser. I.e. you should tell your browser what
it should do. That has nothing directly to do with Adobe or Skim. Now if it is
about plugins, then you cannot do it, because there is no plugin for Skim. You
can only tell your browser to open a PDF in Skim externally.
Christiaan
On Jun 30, 2013, at 19:09, Michael Kraft wrote:
Thanks but I'm not sure why you brought up operating system defaults, as they
weren't relevant to my inquiry.
In a word, I just wanted to
know whether any plug-in or other add-on would allow SKIM to substitute for
ADODE (Acrobat) when a website 'required' the latter. Again, a case in point
is printing out Priority Mail labels at usps.gov.
> My advice: don't ever use PDF forms!
Hard to never use PDF forms if the website requires them for what you want to
do.
----------------------------
--- On Sun, 6/30/13, Randy Parker <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Randy Parker <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Skim-app-users] Any SKIM 'plug-in' that allows it be used at
websites that want ADOBE?
To: "For general discussion about using Skim"
<[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, June 30, 2013, 11:34 AM
Your computer's operating system assigns which program should be run to open
particular filetypes, not Skim.
In "Finder", right-click on a PDF file, select "Get Info", and set "Open with: "
But my experience is that PDF forms actually DO require certain Adobe programs
to correctly manipulate the fields. I can't remember if it was the standard
"Acrobat" or a some kind of enhanced Acrobat. I base this on my son's Boy
Scout Eagle form 2 years ago: some non-Adobe programs would open it and allow
typing, but the entered text would not reliably "save". I was sure my son was
doing something wrong until I did it a few times myself. (such fun typing in 8
pages of content a couple of times, only to have it completely lost both times
!). I tried a couple of other PDF programs as well, with bad results.
My advice: don't ever use PDF forms!
I never got to the bottom of the problem, but I suspect there are proprietary
quirks that are not part of the PDF standard.
On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 11:01 PM, Michael Kraft <[email protected]> wrote:
Certain websites (government websites, in particular, including the USPS)
require the user to have ADOBE installed in order to complete forms fill-in
that are converted to PDFs. (Example: ADOBE required to create a USPS
'Priority Mail' mailing label)
Is there any way to configure SKIM so that PDF’s that “require” ADOBE can use
SKIM instead?
Thanks.
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