READ THIS!!! YOU MAY WANT TO STICKY THIS MODERATORS!!!

[222halo 0]

I have some great news for those of you who like to fill out your forms using a pdf program!!!

Are you tired of not being able to save your information into the pdf file? Are you tired of having to print forms with empty spaces in blanks where you cannot put anything but a number??

I have your solution and best of all, IT'S FREE!!

I only have one caveat to add... you need Firefox Web Browser (Also free!!!) to use this great utility...

This is an Add-On for Mozilla Firefox called PDFESCAPE.

This utility will allow you to open up a pdg file online and edit the answers just about any way you want! You can save a copy of the edited pdf file to your computer and you can save a copy online for later editing!! This is a fabulous utility!

I hope this isn't a redundant post! I hope this will help many of you, especially those of you who have been so gracious in helping myself and others!

Cheers and good luck with your petitions!!

Andy

[LanceandGalina 0]

Thanks Andy,

This is a wonderful tool for anyone to use! I, for one, understand how annoying it is not to be able to insert text into a PDF and save it! Hopefully many people will take advantage of this great too!

Lance

[Otto 83]

Thats great - am just not excited about FireFox..

[dale_trisha 3]

I am going to be checking that out later today. Wish I had it when I was doing all the original forms but it will help out with the AOS/EAD once we get there.....

[222halo 0]

Please note: This program, PDFEscape is still in its beta form so there ARE some problems with it. In particular, I've noticed some slight skewing of embedded text on forms when I save the form to my computer. If you then open the saved from on your computer with PDFEscape, the skewing gets worse. I've submitted a bug report to the authors, hopefully they can resolve that issue.

As far as web browsers go, I find the current version of Firefox to be exceptional! It's fast, has great utility add-ons and will load most pages just as well as MS Internet Explorer. I think it even has a higher user satisfaction rating. Obviously, people will have different tastes and/or experiences using programs on computers. If you haven't tried Firefox in a while, I highly recommend you give it another test run. After all, it's free! If you still don't like it, uninstall it!

Thanks for your responses! I'm just trying to give back to the community that has helped me immensely with my own immigration process!!

Andy

[222halo 0]

Please note: This program, PDFEscape is still in its beta form so there ARE some problems with it. In particular, I've noticed some slight skewing of embedded text on forms when I save the form to my computer. If you then open the saved from on your computer with PDFEscape, the skewing gets worse. I've submitted a bug report to the authors, hopefully they can resolve that issue.

Note Mark II: The file that I uploaded to PDFEscape from my computer already had information in the answer boxes... I just loaded the original blank form from VJ(pdfescape can load from your computer or straight off the web!) and there was no skewing this time. I will next load the original blank form from VJ again and fill it out. I will then save it to my computer and see if the skewing happens again.

I'll update this post so that everyone knows what I know about any bugs in this program.

Cheers!

Andy

[222halo 0]

Please note: This program, PDFEscape is still in its beta form so there ARE some problems with it. In particular, I've noticed some slight skewing of embedded text on forms when I save the form to my computer. If you then open the saved from on your computer with PDFEscape, the skewing gets worse. I've submitted a bug report to the authors, hopefully they can resolve that issue.

As far as web browsers go, I find the current version of Firefox to be exceptional! It's fast, has great utility add-ons and will load most pages just as well as MS Internet Explorer. I think it even has a higher user satisfaction rating. Obviously, people will have different tastes and/or experiences using programs on computers. If you haven't tried Firefox in a while, I highly recommend you give it another test run. After all, it's free! If you still don't like it, uninstall it!

Thanks for your responses! I'm just trying to give back to the community that has helped me immensely with my own immigration process!!

Andy

UPDATE---

Ok, I loaded the blank form G-325A from the VJ website into PDFEscape. No problems.

I entered information into all fields, but not all check boxes. Basically, I filled it out the same as my wife and I filled out our actual copy.

I saved it to my computer (make sure to check the option "Flatten Fields") and opened it in Acrobat Reader. No problems, it looked like it should. No skewing.

I printed out the first page of the document.

IT WORKED PERFECTLY!

So, lessons learned:

1. Don't upload the file from your computer with information already in the file, it might cause skewing of the embedded text.

2. Load the blank form straight from the web. As long as PDFEscape is activated in your browser, all you have to do is click the link for the file as normal.

One thing I forgot to mention about this add-on... to make the best use of it, you should register with the website. Registration is also free.

Feel free to comment or ask questions, I will do my best to answer!

Andy

[222halo 0]

Please note: This program, PDFEscape is still in its beta form so there ARE some problems with it. In particular, I've noticed some slight skewing of embedded text on forms when I save the form to my computer. If you then open the saved from on your computer with PDFEscape, the skewing gets worse. I've submitted a bug report to the authors, hopefully they can resolve that issue.

As far as web browsers go, I find the current version of Firefox to be exceptional! It's fast, has great utility add-ons and will load most pages just as well as MS Internet Explorer. I think it even has a higher user satisfaction rating. Obviously, people will have different tastes and/or experiences using programs on computers. If you haven't tried Firefox in a while, I highly recommend you give it another test run. After all, it's free! If you still don't like it, uninstall it!

Thanks for your responses! I'm just trying to give back to the community that has helped me immensely with my own immigration process!!

Andy

UPDATE---

Ok, I loaded the blank form G-325A from the VJ website into PDFEscape. No problems.

I entered information into all fields, but not all check boxes. Basically, I filled it out the same as my wife and I filled out our actual copy.

I saved it to my computer (make sure to check the option "Flatten Fields") and opened it in Acrobat Reader. No problems, it looked like it should. No skewing.

I printed out the first page of the document.

IT WORKED PERFECTLY!

So, lessons learned:

1. Don't upload the file from your computer with information already in the file, it might cause skewing of the embedded text.

2. Load the blank form straight from the web. As long as PDFEscape is activated in your browser, all you have to do is click the link for the file as normal.

One thing I forgot to mention about this add-on... to make the best use of it, you should register with the website. Registration is also free.

Feel free to comment or ask questions, I will do my best to answer!

Andy

UPDATE #2 ----

Lessons learned:

1. Uploading a blank pdf form to PDFEscape from your computer does not seem to cause skewing.

Conclusion:

Always upload blank forms and fill out the entire form in PDFEscape. This apparently avoids the skewing issue I have been posting about.

I will continue to report bugs as I use this program more extensively!

Andy

[Jasman0717 9]

Thats great - am just not excited about FireFox..

I've had lots of problems with it in the past

[th3mo 6]

i had this problems before i start to search about another program coz adobe was just readable edition and in order to type have to buy so here is 2 programs they doing it great and having great great results first one and i recommend it its Foxit Reader the 2nd one is Jaws PDF Editor try and let me know how it goes and by the way just put em in google search and ya will find the links for downloads GOOD LUCK

[pushbrk 12,898]

Please note: This program, PDFEscape is still in its beta form so there ARE some problems with it. In particular, I've noticed some slight skewing of embedded text on forms when I save the form to my computer. If you then open the saved from on your computer with PDFEscape, the skewing gets worse. I've submitted a bug report to the authors, hopefully they can resolve that issue.

As far as web browsers go, I find the current version of Firefox to be exceptional! It's fast, has great utility add-ons and will load most pages just as well as MS Internet Explorer. I think it even has a higher user satisfaction rating. Obviously, people will have different tastes and/or experiences using programs on computers. If you haven't tried Firefox in a while, I highly recommend you give it another test run. After all, it's free! If you still don't like it, uninstall it!

Thanks for your responses! I'm just trying to give back to the community that has helped me immensely with my own immigration process!!

Andy

UPDATE---

Ok, I loaded the blank form G-325A from the VJ website into PDFEscape. No problems.

I entered information into all fields, but not all check boxes. Basically, I filled it out the same as my wife and I filled out our actual copy.

I saved it to my computer (make sure to check the option "Flatten Fields") and opened it in Acrobat Reader. No problems, it looked like it should. No skewing.

I printed out the first page of the document.

IT WORKED PERFECTLY!

So, lessons learned:

1. Don't upload the file from your computer with information already in the file, it might cause skewing of the embedded text.

2. Load the blank form straight from the web. As long as PDFEscape is activated in your browser, all you have to do is click the link for the file as normal.

One thing I forgot to mention about this add-on... to make the best use of it, you should register with the website. Registration is also free.

Feel free to comment or ask questions, I will do my best to answer!

Andy

For those who don't care to use Firefox, here's a G325a altered so you can save the changes to the data fields.

Sorry, the file is too big. PM me your email address if you want it.

Edited January 18, 2009 by pushbrk

[222halo 0]

For those who don't care to use Firefox, here's a G325a altered so you can save the changes to the data fields.

Sorry, the file is too big. PM me your email address if you want it.

Question for you, in that altered G-325A (I think I have this one already) when you try to put text into a spot that requires a number, what happens? In my copy, some of those fields let you put the text after you click "OK" to a couple of popups. However, othere fields expecting numbers simply return a value of 0000 nomatter what type of text you input. This is one of the chief reasons I was looking for something like this firefox add-on. I'll definitely look into the other two programs mentioned in this post!

Andy

[222halo 0]

i had this problems before i start to search about another program coz adobe was just readable edition and in order to type have to buy so here is 2 programs they doing it great and having great great results first one and i recommend it its Foxit Reader the 2nd one is Jaws PDF Editor try and let me know how it goes and by the way just put em in google search and ya will find the links for downloads GOOD LUCK

I'm sure these are both good programs, however, they are NOT totally free. They come in evaluation installs.

Depending on whether or not you want to pay, Foxit Reader is probably preferrable since it's trial is 6 months.

Jaws PDF Editor - Free 14 day trial, fully functional. $51.00 to purchase

Foxit Reader - Free Reader. The editor add-on has a 6 month trial, that's a nice plus! After 6 months, it's "valued at $49.50."

Still, since the usage of either of these two programs is most likely to be on a temporary basis, ie only for the immigration process, they're pretty good deals.

I haven't tried either so I will rely upon mohamed123's evaluation that they are both great programs. All other things being equal, if I was to use one of these, I'd probably pick Foxit Reader because it has that nice 6 month trial period.

Thanks mohamed123 for the recommendations!!

Andy

[Zayd 0]

The Adobe PDF Professional version allows also you to save the changes to the pdf forms. For those that have the software already or have access to it through work, it is a good choice. I used it through the I130 process.

[dale_trisha 3]

An update since I tried the pdfescape plug-in today. Worked great. Only issue I had was after I edited a file, saved it, closed it, then tried to reopen it and edit it I had to save it under another name. That is a minor issue. This allowed me to work on my wife, Maricel's EAD and AOS today and we will not need them for several months. I personally give it