I.T. document?

[mtnjam]

I told my boss I'd look into getting some sort of document's put on our work computers to help us be able to decrease the amount of paperwork we have filed away in our department. I'm looking for some sort of "liquid document" kind of format that will let us print patient information forms after we have filled in all the required documentation for say the Nuclear Regulatory Comission (yes, I work with radioactive materials ). Right now we are printing off the forms and then writing the information in, but I am hopefully seeking to change that. I think that Adobe Acrobat/.pdf files will let you do that, but I don't know if you need to change the information in the form a little (like how many days a patient needs to be on radiation isolation precautions) that a .pdf will let you do that.

Thanks

[Snow Dog]

Acrobat documents support data fields, check boxes and all that. I just use them. Here is an example.

[Platinum Pete]

Tell your boss that your anonymous internet ski buddies are pretty sure the answer to your I.T. Documents questions are in a 3000 sqft. slopeside cabin in Whistler. I'll pick those answers up for you as soon as you send me the keys. PM me for my address.

[Sinecure]

Acrobat should do what you want. You'll want a real, licensed copy to do it, but that's not expensive. You'll want to play around with field lengths, tab order, stuff like that. I haven't used it in a long time, but I'm sure you can auto-populate dates and some other standard info. You should also be able to create drop-down boxes to create multiple-choice options for various standard entries. If its the government, you'll probably still need to print out and file them, but you also have the option of having a pdf when you are done that you can file. I don't know if you need the standard or pro version, but I'm sure Adobe can tell you.

[RShea]

If you want to fill in the forms then .pdf is probably the most common. There are a number of .pdf form generation packages out there. The Full version of Acrobat is the best known, but there are others out there that are .pdf compatible like Foxit Software that can do some of the same things cheaper.

Once the forms are filled out then you have to ask what happens to them next, you may need document storage and archiving next on the list once you create the forms.

It really depends on the difficulty of the forms and what the budget is for this project.