Collaboration and editing via email

[mark]

Hi, all -

Don't know if this is the right place, but I have no idea
where to start. We're looking for a way to send forms
via email that can be edited and returned. Ideally, it
would look like an email, but the recipient could make
changes and/or additions and return it and we could do
the same. It could also be an attachment. The trick is,
we want it to be platform and application independent.
We want them to be able to easily fill it out and return
it without having to have a specific OS platform (Wintel
or Mac, although just Wintel would be OK, I suppose) and
without having MS Office products or at least current
versions. We currently use an Excel spreadsheet for one
application (scheduling jobs with a subcontractor who has
Excel), but even that is a problem. How it works best
depends on whether you have Office 97 or 2K, etc. We
want to use the same basic solution with modifications
for communicating with different subcontractors and
suppliers and customers. I don't mind explaining how to
do something once, but I don't want to have to include
directions for Office 97, Office 2K, WordPerfect, IE5,
IE6, AOL, Netscape, etc. We'd rather people didn't have
to download and install additional software and we
certainly don't want them to have to buy and learn new
software.

I'd like to be able to use controls and such, of course.
Wouldn't want my request to be too reasonable.

I realize I'm probably asking for the sun and the moon
and most of the stars, but I'd be very happy if I could
get maybe the solar system. And if anyone has a big bag
of money, I could use that, too.

Thanks for any ideas.

Mark

 

[Bill James]

That's a pretty tall order... PDF comes closest (I
think) to your requirement, but you need the full version
of the program to make modifications to the layout of a
form. I believe a form recipient can fill it out and
send it back to you.

You might also want to look at InfoPath. Although I
don't know all the specifics. It's too new:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/infopath/default.a
sp