Did you know about DA forms going to Adobe fillable 1 October 2014?

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 08:32:59 -0400

Apparently now that we almost have all the bugs worked out of the IBM Lotus forms we will no longer be using them. 1 October of 2014 the Army will migrate to PDF fillable DA forms

https://www.milsuite.mil/book/docs/DOC-155683

Response by SGM Matthew Quick made Jul 11 at 2014 8:34 AM

SGM Matthew Quick — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 08:34:34 -0400

Cutbacks...maintaining contracts can be expensive.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 11 at 2014 9:11 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 09:11:04 -0400

Less Software licenses needed. And we're far from removing all the bugs from IBM Lotus viewer, or pure edge, or any other program we use.

Response by CW2 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 11 at 2014 8:59 PM

CW2 Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 20:59:43 -0400

Your tax dollars at work

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 11 at 2014 9:16 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 21:16:58 -0400

1SG Private RallyPoint Member the OER is already going away from myforms. I believe that the NCOER is supposed to follow that track next year. It is all through a website now. I am not even sure how to submit the evaluation to HRC now or how the S1 can track where each evaluation is in the process. It is a learning curve for all of us. I am just loving the idea of now having a new form type that we now must use for our awards, etc.

Response by LTC Yinon Weiss made Jul 11 at 2014 10:00 PM

LTC Yinon Weiss — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 22:00:46 -0400

This sounds like a great move. Maybe I'll finally be able to sign and process forms on my Mac.

The rest of the world uses PDFs... it's usually a better idea to use a platform which is modern and well supported. I've never seen Lotus Forums or Pure Edge used by anybody outside the military. Those programs are awful.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 11 at 2014 10:08 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 22:08:38 -0400

When I heard about this I was excited. We have been used software that requires you to have an S6 at your house to get it all working. I am glad we are using a common standard across the gov. It has been long needed. It functions much better than lotus. I welcome the change.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 11 at 2014 10:27 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 22:27:16 -0400

Fillable forms in general need to go away. It's old tech. You are replicating a paper system on a computer. It's totally in-the-box thinking.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 12 at 2014 11:31 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 11:31:11 -0400

Pure Edge, Form Flow, and PDF... While it is a good sign for the Army to take advantage of the Information Technology advancement, is it cost effective or feasible to keep changing the format standard?

Response by MSG Sean Milhauser made Jul 12 at 2014 2:14 PM

MSG Sean Milhauser — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 14:14:08 -0400

Well, SGM Quick, perhaps we are closer to having purely paperless reenlistment / extension documents, with digital or (as recruiting does now) biometric signatures? Or then again, perhaps the soon-to-be released IPPS-A will manage all of that.