Information About These Forms

Formats

The forms may be in a number of formats. Most are in Adobe Acrobat, which requires you to have the free Adobe Acrobat reader. You can tell which format the form is in by looking at the format field (called Fmt) before clicking on the hyperlink. Examples of some formats are shown below.  

Usage

The electronic forms can be used in a number of ways:

• view them online
• get & print -- meaning open the form, print or photocopy it, then fill it in on paper. Most of the Acrobat formats are of this type.
• fill & print -- open the form, fill it in electronically, then print the completed form. Some of the Acrobat formats may have this capability, meaning you can type into the form before printing it.
• fill & send -- some of the formats are suitable to fill-in and send electronically, perhaps via email, to a recipient (note that Acrobat forms do not have this capability).
• fill & submit -- some of the HTML forms may be online, in which case, you fill them in, then press the submit button. In these cases, just follow the instructions provided as displayed with the form.

Storing the Forms on your PC

All the formats noted above can be saved to your PC and opened later when you are disconnected from the Internet. This is useful for commonly used forms that you may print and use often, or for portable notebook PCs that you may carry with you when traveling. For example, with the Internet Explorer browser, you can right-mouse-click and choose save (instead of open), and save the forms to a directory of your choosing, perhaps called MoFForms. Later, you can launch Acrobat Reader or MS Word on your PC, do a file open, and select the form you wish.

Microsoft Word Forms

Microsoft Word Documents (DOC file extensions) are designed to be used directly. On the other hand, Word Templates (DOT file extensions) usually need to be installed first (refer to above). These DOTs tend to be designed for people or staff involved in specific functions (such as a resource clerk). Note that a DOC can always be saved as a DOT to your template directory if you tend to use it a lot.

Forms in Word formats can be in a number of different styles themselves:

• a simple sample -- which is a normal Word document that you edit to complete it.
• a word form -- which is a Word document with form fields added. It is much easier to use. You tab from field-to-field to complete it. The rest of the text is protected from accidental changes.
• a word template with automation -- which is a word document with macros. Typically these are word templates (DOTs) which require installation. 

Acrobat Forms

Tips on Using Acrobat Reader

Click here to go to the Acrobat Reader Online Help Manual. It is an online tutorial for new users.

Tips on Printing Acrobat Forms

1. Use the Acrobat Print Button. If you are printing an Acrobat file from within your browser, ALWAYS USE THE ACROBAT PRINT BUTTON. That is the little one just above and left of the Acrobat screen. DON’T USE the browser’s print button at the top nor the browser’s file, print menu. The reason is, the browser will print it as a web page, with headers, footers, etc. and generally squish it. This printing confusion only exists when you have Acrobat as a plug-in within the browser. If you launch Acrobat standalone, you only have the one print choice – Acrobat’s.
2. Size & Orientation. All the forms have been designed for paper size and orientation. If a form says 14x8.5 on the bottom left of the screen, then it is suppose to be printed landscape on legal paper. The advice here is to print it on the paper size it was designed for, otherwise, filling it in by hand could be a bit squished, or some of the 14x8.5 form will be clipped if printed on 11x8.5.
3. Shrink It?  However, when you print, the Acrobat print panel has a setting on it called "shrink to fit". If this is checked, Acrobat will attempt to squeeze the form on whatever size paper you have. This can be quite useful if you just want to see it.
4. Bottom Line – if the print does not look right, make sure you are using Acrobat’s print button, check or change the paper size and orientation, and, lastly, it does assume you have a printer capable of at least, say, 300 dpi (it does not work too well with a daisy wheel or dot matrix printer!).
5. Acrobat as Plug-in? You can have Acrobat configured to launch either as a browser "plug-in", which is the default installation, or launched as a standalone program (a helper application). The former appears inside your browser while the latter appears as its own instance of Acrobat.

Tips on Using Acrobat Fillable Forms

• fillable Acrobat forms have had data entry fields added to them. Unlike normal Acrobat files that are simply a print image, these additional fields can be entered electronically from your PC.
• some of the forms include instructions or examples
• fillable Acrobat forms can be used either of two ways. You can either "get & print" the Acrobat form, then fill it in as a normal paper form, or you can "get & fill", meaning, electronically fill in the fields first, and then print it.
• after you open the form, use either the "tab" key to move from field to field, or use your mouse to click directly within the fields of your choice
• exit fields before printing -- always exit the last field you entered or changed data in (use tab, backtab, or mouse click elsewhere). There is a bug that while the screen may show the correct data for the last field you are in, the print out may not. Acrobat does not commit to the change until you exit the field.
• print it before you close it, unlike a Word document, Acrobat cannot save your input, so input your data then print it before you close the form or turn off your PC.

Shana Informed Filler EForms

New forms are being introduced in the ministry that use eform technology from Shana Corporation. The products are Shana Informed Filler and Informed Designer. These forms are much like Acrobat or Word forms however they can provide richer calculations, edits, and in addition can be saved, sent, and signed, providing an opportunity for fill & route forms. For more information about Shana eforms, please refer to the Shana user guide.

Waterproof Forms

Many of the forms are used for field work. In wet, rainy conditions, waterproof paper becomes very desirable. To make waterproof forms, use waterproof paper in your laser printer or photocopier. Many ink jet inks are not waterproof, so first print a master, and then produce waterproof copies on your photocopier. An example of waterproof paper is a product made by "Rite in the Rain" called "All-Weather Copier Paper", which is made for photocopiers and laser printers. They have a website at http://www.riteintherain.com .

To Order Pre-printed Paper Forms

Some of the forms can be ordered in pre-printed paper formats, either directly from the ministry, or from the BC government Office Products Centre (OPC). If you need to order any of these forms, please refer to the How to Query page for ordering information. 

Or, if you need to, you can contact  Ministry Forms contacts using this link Ministry Forms Contacts.

Revised: December 19, 2003, fb