Fillable PDF Forms

If you ever find yourself in need of populating a fillable PDF form with data from an Access database, you can use the Acrobat DLL to manipulate the PDF file as discussed here.

However, that approach adds dependencies to your Access project. Fortunately, there is a simple alternative. Adobe developed an XML specification called XFDF (XML Forms Data Format) that we can use to apply the data from an Access database into the fillable PDF form.

This demo shows how to create an XFDF file with a well-formed XML content from an Access database to fill the textboxes in its associated PDF form.

More information about this demo and further discussions about its use can be found at UtterAccess' Code Archive (since I originally posted it there).

Additional Info

To implement this demo in your project, you will need to know the field names in your PDF form. If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe LiveCycle Designer, then that won't be a problem. However, if you only have the PDF Reader, then another option is to upload your PDF file to this website and you will get a list of all the field names used in your PDF.

Applicable Versions

This demo was created using Access 2007 and tested using Access 2007 and 2010. A MDB version is also included in the zip file. Users at UtterAccess have also tested this demo in earlier and runtime versions of Access.

Demo Update

Updated demo to version 1.1 to handle special characters that causes XML parsing to fail if your database contains the ampersand "&" and less than "<" symbols.

Acrobat API Demo: Now Available

In response to some requests I received for an Acrobat API demo, I have decided to post an Acrobat API version of my fillable PDF demo to illustrate the difference between the two approaches. Please remember that you can only use this demo if you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat installed on your machine. This demo does not have the XML limitations present in the XFDF approach because it directly manipulates the PDF file. Please let me know if you have any questions.

List PDF Form Fields Demo: Now Available

Although one can use the website link I posted above to determing the names of the fields in a fillable PDF form, I received some requests to show how it can be done using VBA. This new demo uses Acrobat API and JavaScript object to get the field names of a fillable PDF form. It is just a quick and easy demonstration. Please let me know if you run into any problems.

Bug Report

Please report all bugs to theDBguy@gmail.com.