PDF without Adobe: 23 The nightmare of forms
eclecticlight.co
Just fill in this form – then the problems start. They look fine in Preview or another app, but don’t work right. Here’s why.

I was forced to fill out an XFA form (that was pretending to be a PDF) from the Canadian government and the experience left me feeling completely subjugated. The lengths that Adobe go to to make sure that you have the most frustrating experience possible is unbelieveable. Searching for alternatives or help leads you to either: be forced to buy their premium software (or a licensed equivalent) or subscribe for Adobe’s online tools. Why is this propriety format allowed in government forms? What is so fantastic/irreplaceable about this format?

    • ConsciousCode@beehaw.org
      4·
      1 year ago

      To be honest it’s making my phishing senses go off. Javascript shouldn’t be in a PDF/XFA/whatever basically ever, but it’s why PDF is a potential malware risk

    • bazmatazable@reddthat.comOP
      4·
      1 year ago

      Feels very hostile right? I assume that all these smart XFA forms still have an online legacy dumb equivalent that is far less easy to use (both for the user and the government)

      • bazmatazable@reddthat.comOP
        4·
        1 year ago

        That just shows how dishonest Adobe is being. For example if a form was named “gov-form.xfa” instead of “gov-form.pdf” then my whole expectation would be different as it is obviously not a PDF and so I shouldn’t treat it as such.