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deividasn36924162
Participant
May 19, 2018
Question

How to let people edit text and not the images

  • May 19, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 1379 views

Hi,

So i'm having trouble finding a solution.

I'm making Invitations on Adobe Illustrator and saving them as PDF's.

How do I lock the images but let clients change the text to their needs?

i know others a re doing it but I cant seem to figure this one out myself.

Thank you

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

Legend
May 21, 2018

You need to be really on top of this if you are going to be selling the result, because there can be a LOT of user frustration. You especially need to be on top of product names.

You need Acrobat Pro (or Acrobat Standard) to add form fields to a PDF. InDesign can be used but it isn't usually satisfactory for your purposes because you can't choose fonts for form fields.

Form fields can be filled in SOME PDF products, including the free Acrobat Reader. RECENT versions of Reader can save them: how recent depends on stuff you do. Other PDF products may:

- work as well as Acrobat for some purposes

- not allow form filling at all

- fill in forms but not be able to save them

"Other PDF products" is very relevant. Almost all new purchases of a computer, tablet or phone include a PDF viewer, NOT one made by Adobe. You have to REALLY motivate people if you want them to download more software to do what they think they can already do. And many get very confused. For example, Chrome views PDFs and will NOT use Reader. But many people assume that installing Reader will change that.

deividasn36924162
Participant
May 21, 2018

I will only prompt clients to use Adobe's Acrobat reader software cause its the most used one I believe.

So I will try using a form on the free version and see if its possible like that.

Legend
May 20, 2018

It isn't called editing in Reader, it's called Filling (a form). You can't do anything in Reader until you've made form fields.

Legend
May 19, 2018

Bear in mind most software will ignore the locks. Not really worth the effort.

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 19, 2018

If you make a form and put the text into fields, you can put on security where users and enter text into the form, but can't make changes to the pictures and layout without the password.

People do this when they sell pre-made invitations, for example.

Is that what you are thinking?

You need the paid version of Acrobat to make forms. You can get a free 7-day trial to make sure it works for you.

deividasn36924162
Participant
May 20, 2018

Thank you for your reply,

Well I didn't think an invitation can be known as a form.

But I'm just having trouble figuring out how can I edit the text by myself on acrobat reader.

Do I have to have the paid version to do so?

I see others selling invites and telling clients they only need the free version to Edit the text on the PDF's.

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 20, 2018

What they do is what I said earlier. They create a form using the paid version and use text fields for the part clients can "edit" or rather, customize.

You can't Edit using the free Reader, but you can fill out forms.