combine pdfs

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
November 11, 2023
3 replies
881 views

I have seen MANY other people post about this issue. The latest version of Adobe will not allow me to combine pdfs that are the same form, but with different information. I send out electronic timecards for employees to fill out. Once they send them back, if I try to make a single document that contains all of the timecards to send to the boss for approval, it either erases the information in the form completely, or changes the names and addresses on every timecard to the same person. Personally, this is enough for me to end my subscription with Adobe and seek another pdf making company to deal with going forward. This is SUCH a basic need - to be able to combine pdf's - and every answer I have seen to others complaining about this leads to a basic explanation of combining pdfs that are based on the same form, and offer NO solutions for this issue. Shame on you Adobe.

[Title edited for clarity]

PDF

Abambo

Community Expert

Allow me to explain this in simple words.

You have a street with many houses and each house has a letterbox. And on each letterbox is the same house number and the same name, and you ask the postman to deliver mail to the correct boxes.

Normally, I would expect someone to take all those forms and extract the data into a database. If the form itself is important, you will need to enter the forms in a portfolio or keep them in a directory or a zip file, which will keep each form separated from each other.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

try67

Community Expert

I don't understand why you're blaming Adobe for a fault of your own making.

It's TECHNICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to merge forms as a single PDF file (that isn't a Portfolio) and maintain all the data in fields that have the same name. No PDF application will do it (unless it implements one of the solutions I mention below behind-the-scenes, which would be even worse).

The possible solutions are:

- Flatten the fields in all the files before merging them, converting them to static contents.

- Rename the fields in all the files (except for one) so they are not duplicated when merged.

- Use a Portfolio.

All of these can be done in Acrobat. The easiest to implement is the Portfolio option, as it doesn't require changing the files in any way, followed by flattening, then renaming.