Acrobat X - Cannot combine files with digital signatures

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
January 18, 2011
5 replies
26679 views

We recently upgraded to Acrobat Pro X (from Acrobat Pro 7). For many years, we have been using the digital signature feature to "approve" documents. Frequently, we have the need to combine many (from several to hundreds) of these "approved" documents (with digital signatures) into one .pdf file. However, Acrobat X Pro will not let us combine these files into one file. When we try this, the first screen(first image below) indicates that the digital signatures will be removed during merge. However, when we proceed, we get an error message (2nd image below) for all of the files with digital signature.

So my question is: How can we combine many .pdf files with Digital signatures into one new file?

(We need for users with previous versions to be able to open this new file, and we need to place a watermark on the file).

Thanks in advance for any help!

This topic has been closed for replies.

FrixkyKitty

Participating Frequently

1. Open the signed pdf in Adobe.
2. Open print dialogue (Ctrl+p)
3. Change the printer to "Microsoft Print to PDF" then print.
4. The newly created PDF will have the signatures and will behave as a normal pdf for combine/merge activities.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

EdZooks, thanks, but that is nonsense. The file will NOT have the signatures. Printing cannot preserve digital signatures, only pictures of signatures, which are useless and not legally valid

FrixkyKitty

Participating Frequently

"Test Screen Name's" comment deserves some consideration. My suggested approach converts the digitally signed document to a standard pdf. The result displays the signature information but the underlying digital signature is lost. In my case the original signers understand the distinction.

Creating a summary file is my goal. I combine a variety of digitally signed, along with other related, documentation into a single summary pdf. The original, digitally signed documents, are stored for future reference. I am increasingly convinced that it is not possible to combine digitally signed documents into a single, summary pdf, while maintaining the underlying digital signatures.

Users needing summary packets will benefit from my suggested approach. However as "Test Screen Name" suggests, my approach remains "legally valid" to the extent that the original digitally signed documents are available on demand.

S

seeformiles69

Participant

I am with you Kevin! Adobe, are you listening? This question is not answered! We need a solution for Acrobat X!

G

gkaiseril

Inspiring

his is a U2U forum. I suggest that you use Feature Request/Bug Report Form and Adobe will be notified of the problem.

K

KevinH2823

Participant

So, Acrobat X does not have the Portfolio option available, only the Pro version, so, now what? This is a program problem, and it needs to be fixed by Adobe. My old version works great, and I bought 9 copies of this Acrobat X stuff, only to find it doesn't work correctly! Any other suggestions?