Common fields disappear or "ghost out" when combining different forms into one file.

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
October 17, 2018
2 replies
2158 views

When multiple files are combined into a single document, common fields disappear from the added pages. The fields are still there (because a "ghosted out" field box will appear if you hover over it in the edit form mode...and they show up if we use some other type of pdf viewer) but they disappear when we use our typical Adobe program to open/view the file...rendering the file as pretty much useless for what we're trying to accomplish. For example, in the attached screen shot, all the fields in the top section of of the first page, should also be appearing in the top section of the second page...but they don't. Is there a way to fix this short of downloading some other type of pdf reader that works?

PDF forms

This topic has been closed for replies.

S

simonebjaf

Participant

They warn you about it when you combine multiple PDFs into one. They recommend putting it all into a portfolio instead of one document.

P

peacepipesAuthor

Participating Frequently

I’m not manually combining the forms. They import that way from a different program. Other PDF viewers (like Foxit, for example) don’t seem to have an issue with it at all…but in Adobe, the fields seem to disappear.

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

Have the form fields the same name?

P

peacepipesAuthor

Participating Frequently

Yes...and they are supposed to. It's the same basic "site" information on both forms.
It's all rather odd. SOMETIMES some--but not all--of the duplicate fields appear like they're supposed to. But those occasions are rare.

Also, if I extract the page that has the "ghost" fields and save it as a separate document, all the fields usually appear again like they're supposed to. At that point, I can sometimes drag that page back into the original document and the fields will stay on the page like they're supposed to. Other times I end up losing some of them again.

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

Can you share the files?

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded