Re: [Fsfe-uk] E-envoy and Open file formats

[Richard Smith]

On Sun, 3 Aug 2003, ian wrote:

> > For read-only documents, PDF would seem to be
> > the way to go.
>
> But this isn't about read only documents or even whether downloading
> documents for word processors is a sensible thing to do. Its about
> taking an opportunity to further the free software cause.
>
> I have just downloaded a Word document from
> www.dfes.gov.uk/elearningstrategy/strategy.stm. This is a consultation
> document to be filled in and sent back and its in Word format. Yes,
> there is a pdf format available but that is useless for filling in a
> form.

Is it not possible to create a PDF form containing input boxes for the
user to enter data?  That would seem to be all that is required from most
editable documents on the web.  I seem to remember filling in forms in
this manner several years ago when I still used proprietary software such
as Adobe Acrobat.  Is this functionality still not supported by Free PDF
viewers?  If not, why not?  Is PDF not a fully documented format?


-- 
Richard