Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

Forum|Forum|17 years ago
July 1, 2008
16 replies
62930 views

Greetings (I'm desperately seeking an answer to this, but I'll try to keep the rhetoric toned down!):

Is there a way for Acrobat Pro (I'm current at 8.1.2) to convert a (static) XFA Form into the old AcroForm format? I have a large static XFA form (created in LiveCycle Designer), but the Java API that I'm using to pre-populate some values currently works only with the AcroForm format.

FYI, there are two "informal workarounds" to be found on the net, but I can't get either of these to work in Acrobat Pro 8:

o From Carl Young: "Create PDF -> From Web Page"; select the XFA form instead of a web page; Acrobats web page conversion tool would turn the XML inside the Designer form to a regular PDF. Only works in Acrobat 7.

o From Ted Padova: "Document->Extract Pages" (static XFA only). This option is always grayed-out on any static XFA form I create.

So unless there are other suggestions out there, would you say that my best option for an immediate solution is to track down a copy of Acrobat 7 and use that? I've tried creating an AcroForm manually with Acrobat Pro's "Tools->Forms->Text Field Tool"/etc, but it's very, very difficult to replicate all the form field config and layout we did in LiveCycle. Having to do that might force us to abandon PDF forms altogether.

Thanks very much for any suggestions!

Regards,
-Peter Demling
Lexington, MA

Acrobat SDK and JavaScript

Correct answer lrosenth

A PDF without form fields – which is what you have when you “print to PDF” is NOT an AcroForm!! An AcroForm uses live/interactive form fields as defined in ISO 32000-1:2008.

Second, this process is EXTREMELY LOSSY! Not only to the form itself – losing all business rules, etc – but to the PDF, since Chrome’s PDF creation engine doesn’t support all the possible features of a PDF (or XFA-based PDF).

S

satenderk64944372

Participant

Hi,

I was also looking for same and reached a easy solution u can try this out

Follow these simple steps:-

1.Drag and drop it xfa format PDF into chrome ,it will open in chrome browser.

2.You will find three options at right corner

Rotate clockwise

Download

Print

3.click on print

4.Change destination "save as PDF" and save.

Saved PDF is flat PDF(Acroform) and can be edited easily

Thanks

[details removed by ussnorway]

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

With Adobe Acrobat you can print to "Adobe PDF".

J

jlabarre59

Participant

Tried that on the MacOS Reader application. It just whines that I should do a "File - Copy". Which *****DOESN'T***** remove the XFA functions. Which means the file STILL can't be opened in Ocular, Evince, or the MacOS previewer.

Don't need it to be editable once it's filled out. I need it viewable.

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_Leonard_Rosenthol_

Participating Frequently

Because they were wasting space in the PDF.

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_James_Kruegera_

Participant

Why?

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_Leonard_Rosenthol_

Participating Frequently

While what PDL said is true in the past, as of Acrobat 8.1, you will NOT find an AcroForm in all XFA-based PDFs - specifically, dynamic XFA will NOT have AcroForms associated with them.