Active PDFs without Adobe Reader

[torreydale]

Does anyone have a way to handle active pdfs?  I have a user who has a utility bill that they can view in Firefox.  But the bill comes as an active pdf.  The user can enter in payment amount, date, checking account and routing number, etc., and they can pay the bill that way.  But it isn't working under Linux.  Based on the following article, it doesn't look like it will, but I thought I'd ask.

https://www.linux.com/news/software/appl...-on-linux/

[shaggytwodope]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PDF_forms Some pdf versions (the file format) are a bit wonky as you might've guessed. But visit the link and you'll see the viewers that should allow it. Whats worked for me in the past as been evince. But that's not always gonna work.

[torreydale]

Evince is the native pdf viewer for Linux Lite and that isn't working here.

[LL-user]

This old post might help you:
https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/insta.../#msg14366

When I learnt about Adobe pulling support for Linux I did some research to find a replacement, also in regard to filling in PDF forms. I've settled with these ones, both in the repos:

Okular
I know, it needs some kde libraries.
https://okular.kde.org/
https://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdegraphi...ction.html
As Rob in that thread pointed out, Okular and its required KDE components combine to eat right around 500 MB of disk space! So if Okular were the only KDE application and is only used rarely, it might not be worth it.

Xournal
http://xournal.sourceforge.net/manual.html

Hope that helps

[N4RPS]

Hello!

I've found that xournal makes pretty much any PDF file fillable - something I needed to do just the other day!

Evince is good much of the time, but there are just certain forms that HAVE TO HAVE Adobe Reader to display properly, or even to be readable at all...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[torreydale]

Have either of you tried running Adobe Reader using Wine?

[LL-user]

Sorry, haven't tried it.
Running Windows software under WINE is for me always the last resort.
Okular and Xournal have been able to provide all I need so far.

[N4RPS]

Hello!

Like LL-user, I only use WINE as an absolute last resort, as it adds a lot of additional overhead. Most of what I run here can't cope with the extra load.

YMMV, but I just plain haven't had very much success with WINE. It has always turned out to be easier to just do it all in Windows, as some of it doesn't want to cooperate with WINE or a VM...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[torreydale]

Evince is good much of the time, but there are just certain forms that HAVE TO HAVE Adobe Reader to display properly, or even to be readable at all...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

So Rob, when you use Adobe Reader, is it in a Windows VM?

[N4RPS]

Hello!

So Rob, when you use Adobe Reader, is it in a Windows VM?

As a rule, I prefer dual or triple booting, and don't use VMs. Right now, I don't even have VirtualBox installed on anything here.

VMs are great and have their uses, but since VMs can eat a lot of limited resources, OSs perform differently in a real world environment than they do in VMs, I have several old spare laptops (so that I'm never without at least one), and I keep things relatively well backed up, I have shied away from VMs in the past. However, I HAVE recently purchased a new laptop with the resources to run VMs without any lag, so my attitude about VMs is subject to change in the future...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob