[texhax] Newbie Question: (La)TeX Good Choice for Data Collection Forms in PDF?

[Martin Heller]

Jack Ort wrote:
> 
> Hello!  I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this question, but 
> I have been frantically searching for information on TeX and LaTex, and 
> whether or not it would be a good choice for designing data collection 
> forms.  Specifically these would be clinical Case Report Forms (CRFs), 
> where patient data such as vital signs, laboratory results, etc. would 
> need to be collected across multiple clinic visits.  Typically these 
> forms will have groups of empty boxes (with labels) for manual entry, 
> questions with Yes/No checkboxes, lines for capturing free-text 
> comments, and often tabular data entry sections as well.
> 
> Ideally, forms could be stored in a "library" for reuse and modification 
> as needed.
> 
> Eventually these forms need to go to PDF, either for printing or for 
> conversion to a data entry screen for a web-based data collection system.

I think some of the tools in the AcroTeX bundle might be useful. D.P. 
Story's paper 
<http://www.tug.org/pracjourn/2005-2/story-survey/story-survey.pdf> 
might serve as a starting point.

His TeX survey 
<http://www.math.uakron.edu/~dpstory/eqExam/tex_survey.pdf> is an 
example of a pdf-form with automatic data collection.