Creating a Form From a .pdf file in Calc

The question came up about making a form with a .pdf file as the background. The question was raised in this e-mail from David Price -- kinaole at gmail.com -- on 11/4/2004: http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=78038

Hi all,
I wonder if anyone else has found a way to do this...
I would like to be able to prepare text documents that include a PDF as an underlying 'layer'.
The PDF would be an 'image' of the stationery which would be used to print the document, and the document text should appear positioned over the top of the underlying image.
Also, any pointer to where to learn more about document template creation?

aloha,
dave

Moses -- bjbm at iinet.net.au -- replied on 11/5/2004: http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=78042

There are some (free) pdf to image converters around. they could be used to produce an image file which could be used as a background on a text document. I have used this approach at times to make up a form from a scanned document.
You place the scanned image as a background, overlay text, lines, frames, images, etc, then remove the background. Did it once to reproduce an AutoCAD drawing template as a word processor document when I couldn't export directly (long story).

Brian

Trying to get further I replied on 11/4/2004 and received this response from Rod Engelsman -- rodengelsman at ruraltel.net)on -- on 11/4/2004: http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=78052

Peter Kupfer wrote:
> Can you name one?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Peter

Free (beer) or free (dom)? You can use the Adobe Reader 6.0 for this. It has a "Snapshot" tool that allows you to capture any rectangular portion of a pdf as a bitmap.

As an experiment, I dl'd a tax form in pdf from the IRS website. Then I Snapshoted the whole page. This puts the bitmap on the clipboard. Then I put the cursor in the top left of an empty Calc sheet and pasted.

Right click -> Anchor -> To Page and RC -> Arrange -> As Background. From there you can just drag your cell borders to match the lines on the form. Depending on how complex the form is, you probably end up needing to merge some cells. Work methodically left to right and top to bottom.

As a final touch, Unprotect each cell that is an input form element in the Cell Attributes dialog, then Protect the whole Sheet. This leaves you with a fill-in form that will automatically do calculations.

To reduce the file size, use a tool like Paint (Gimp might work, too. I didn't try it, but Photoshop was a pain.) and save the image as PNG before you paste it into Calc.

I have a project in mind that I would like to finish by early next year. Free income tax macro, anyone?

Rod

Here is a copy of something Rod sent me. It is some tax forms in OOo Calc format as an example of what he meant. Tax Forms

Last Edited 29 April 2005