I am relatively new to home inspecting. I had a mentor who was kind enough to bring me into the fold. However, he has tried to send me the Four Point and the Wind Mitigation forms but I seem to be having issues getting them to save. I believe there are issues with the forms that he is sending.
Is there a site that I can go to in order to get these forms? One of the issues that I am having with his forms is that as soon as I go to save the form in any manner, the form converts to an unfillable PDF.
I would greatly appreciate any guidance. I need the forms to be able to allow me to upload photos.
Typically with a fillable PDF, you do not save the file, instead you print it to a PDF print driver, which creates a “flattened” PDF that can’t be edited (be you or anyone else).
If you haven’t got such a print driver, there are plenty to pick from online.
Yes, that’s what I do but in the case where they are sending updated photos of let’s say a panel that needed something corrected, I have to complete an entire report vs just fixing/updating the one I already completed.
Windows has an excellent PDF Print Driver built in. Apple has been removing direct support for PDFs from macOS but there is a good PDF Print Driver called “PDF Printer” in the Mac App Store.
A PDF Editor is needed for flattening (aka Publishing or Distilling) with iOS, iPadOS, and Android. The best options for iOS and iPadOS are PDF Expert and PDF PRO. The best option for Android is QPDF Notes. FoxIt advertises that it works with Dynamic (XFA) and encrypted PDFs but it doesn’t.
Most third-party PDF Print Drivers do not support advanced PDFs. Preview on Mac only supports basic PDFs. Microsoft Print to PDF (built into Windows) and PDF Printer for Mac both handle encrypted PDFs and XFA PDFs. Very few PDF Print Drivers are capable of handling either encrypted PDSs or XFA PDFs, let alone both.
XFA PDFs (the most advanced type), which function like an app, are not supported by iOS, iPadOS, or Android. Those operating systems do, however, support Acroform Interactive PDFs with the right PDF editor.
The output quality from PDF Print Drivers varies, just as quality varies with physical printers. The overall best PDF Print Driver available is Microsoft Print to PDF. It yields consistently good results and is rock solid.
The best third-party PDF Print Driver for Windows is BullZip PDF Printer. It is one of the few that can handle all PDF types, including Dynamic and Encrypted PDFs.
