As a former graphic artist, I've been using Reader in its many versions for umpteen years now. However, the Achille's heel in Adobe's PDF electronic forms workflow continues to be that there is no easy way for the average user to SAVE a filled-in form. What's the point of having an electronic form if, once you've filled it out, you can't simply save it electronically?

Oh, sure, if your end user happens to own one of the expensive Acrobat products, like Acrobat Professional, they can save a filled-in form. But how many people have that? Virtually anybody who would want to open your interactive form, fill it out and return it back to you (while frequently wanting to save an electronic copy for their own records) will only have Reader. But Reader, even in this new 6.0.2 version, can't do this. You can ONLY print out a paper copy. Then as you close the document you just spent time filling out, you lose all the data you just entered. So much for the paperless workflow.

Yes, I know if your form is Web-based an end user can go to your Web site, fill out the form while online, and submit their data back to your server's database via CGI programming. Well, that's IF you have a Web server and IF it is hosting a database and IF you have and/or can pay for CGI scripting skills. I don't have any of that. I'm just a guy trying to run a small non-profit. All I want is to be able to make an interactive form (for which, unfortunately, I bought Acrobat Professional, having been mislead to believe that it would let me do the action this sentence is describing), send out the form as an email attachment to whatever member of the general public wants or needs my form (and these will be ordinary people, not employees working from behind a firewall or having access to any fancy corporate-sponsored Acrobat site licenses), and have them send it back to me as an email attachment with their information intact. Can't do it. They can't send it. They can't save it. No way. No how. Not with Reader.

Very frustrating, Adobe, that after all these years you still insist on maintaining this apparently arbitrary roadblock to a true electronic forms workflow.

--Kevin J.