Converting Fillable Word to Fillable PDF with Active-X controls

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 4, 2021
2 replies
9909 views

I created a fillable Word with many many radio button groups (painfully tedious!). I used the Active-X controls for buttons, checkboxes and text fields. I was hoping to convert it to fillable PDF, but the radio buttons and checkboxes came out not clickable/fillable. The text fields work fine.

I found a couple of similar posts, but nothing quite like my case using Active-x controls. It seems that most folks with conversion problems didnt use Active-X controls like I did.

Is this conversion supported? If so, what else can I look at to troubleshoot?

My co-worker did the PDF conversion for me as she has the license. I don't know what flavor or version, but I can find out.

This topic has been closed for replies.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

You might consider using HTML forms. PDF forms are much less useful than they used to be, because the success of PDF means lots of people (like Google, Apple, Microsoft and many more) make their own PDF viewers, which often work very badly with PDF forms. HTML forms are universal. You sacrifice full control over layout, sure, but you get something that works. If you go for PDF forms you will need to provide tech support to the form users as they struggle with different browsers, Macs, Windows, phones and tablets - you will need all the devices they have, to support them.

C

ClemaholicAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks try67. Good info.

Test Screen Name: wow... very interesting. The "universal" rationale you describe is why I thought I wanted PDF. Things change... I feel old (er) 🙂

C

ClemaholicAuthor

Known Participant

Simultaneous to the technical issues of the form, we are also investigating secure delivery options. The HTML form implies that it would be hosted from our website. It's secure but I don't know enough about website security to know if secure enough for PII. Does anyone know if either of these form types are compatible (?maybe wrong word) with DocuSign? I'm not too familiar with DocuSign details, but 4 pages of buttons and fields seems above and beyond what I think DocuSign is intended for.

try67

Community Expert

No, it's not. You would need to create all fields from scratch.

C

ClemaholicAuthor

Known Participant

that's a bummer. Whats the point of converting?

Thanks for your answer tho.

try67

Community Expert

So that you can share your file as a PDF file... It is possible to automatically generate fields based on certain characters, like Wingdings symbols or even underscores, but not based on existing ActiveX controls.

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