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Topic: my error on clunky pdf - what to do?
| Author | Message |
| nellie bly | Posted – 2/2/2008 2:16:02 AM | show profile A not-for-profit that's dear to my heartasked me to try writing a grant proposal. I just finished an application that was on online pdf which I typed in and printed out because the application was to be snail mailed. When I got to the budget page, which was a not too complicated budget for the proposed project only, the form would not let me type in all of my line items though lines/spaces were provided. For example, if I had "XYZ Foundation"- $5,000 under Other Sources of Income, it would repeat that info in the Expenses colummn. It would not let me type (for example) Printing- $1,000 in the Expenses column. If I persisted in typing the $1,000 Printing expense, it would replicate itself in the Income column and erase the original item I'd typed there. I must have done this song and dance a dozen times. Is this typical for pdf's or is there something very basic that I don't know because I'm new to to budgets and pdf online forms? The deadline was approaching, so I mailed it out with two errors on the budget page before the Fedex closed. Yes, I should have typed my own budget page with an explanation. But I didn't have time to think. Should I phone the foundation on Monday and ask if I can send it? Should I just mail it with an explanation? Should I wait until they read it? They'll see it's a technical error because the $5,000 foundation item is listed in both columns and the numbers don't add up.. But I'm afraid if I say there's a technical problem with their application, they'll either be offended or think I'm an idiot. My very first application and I've messed it up. |
| Lula | Posted – 2/3/2008 1:30:53 PM | show profile I would contact the recipient immediately and explain that due to technical issues with with online form, the budget section is not accurate. Ask them if you can fax/email a corrected page immediately. I can't tell you why the form wasn't working?sounds like a programming error to me, in which case the site should be notified. Just as an FYI if you were filling out the form online, it wasn't a PDF. PDF is a file format, which means you need a software application to open and read it (and fill it out). If you _were_ filling out a PDF and it wasn't working, then likely whoever created the PDF messed up the form functionality. Not much you can do about either one, as it's a back-end issue. So yeah, just contact the folks to whom you sent the application and ask them how they'd like you to rectify the situation. |
