Creative Solutions

Plugging in...


Pulled a few tricks from the bag yesterday while working with a client. The client needed to fill in a PDF form to submit for an audition for a part in a movie in France. The form was emailed to him, the client filled in his pertinent details, though the form was not capable of being saved with the data typed into it. OK... except the client did not have a printer. Nor did the client own a version of a PDF product that would allow him to save or print. Hmm. So we have an online form, and no way to use it with the data in it. Time to put on the thinking cap.


Here's what the Tutor arrived at for a solution. The client filled out the one page form on screen. The Tutor used the Windows 7 Snipping Tool to take two "photos" of the form, the top of the form, and the bottom of the form. (The Snipping Tool does not allow scrolling on the screen to encompass what needs to be "snipped" so the Tutor could not snag the entire form in one pass).  Once the two photos were taken and saved to the desktop, the Tutor opened Microsoft Word and pasted the two photos into a blank 8.5 x 11 Word document.


Using the Wrap Text feature, each photo was set to Wrap Tight which allowed for movement and placement of the photos on the page. The Tutor aligned the photos, to make it look like the original form, using the Word Cropping tool to remove excess bits and pieces of the two photos. When the placing and cropping were complete, the document appeared as the original form, filled in with the client's details. But, we weren't done yet.


One final piece: the Word document was then saved as a PDF, which was the required format for submission to the company. That took all of about 10 minutes to complete but 20 years to know how!


ALWAYS REMEMBER: before calling for help - is it plugged in, and is it turned on?


Unplugged