Known Participant

Question

Flatten form text in save to not be selectable and some parts to be selected.

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
October 23, 2023
4 replies
1869 views

I saved a form with many fields as optimized-flattened -pdf. So text is selectable. Some text fields I don't want selectable. I tried the properties pane and used do not print option. It still selects. I also have some text under the edit feature I like to not be selected too. How can I make these elements of text not selectable while keeping certain form and edit text selectable after flattening.

This topic has been closed for replies.

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

MyangoUtmostAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks for taking time to Ty to fix my issue. I believe you're misunderstanding what I'm trying to accomplish. The PDF is a form and that form will receive input. Once I flatten the form text will be able to be selected.
I'd like some text items to not be selectable. Thus I can select and copy A block of text, that's next to another text element without selecting the text that's only visible to the viewer. I wanted to take two types of text some from form elements others from text elements in the edit pane. Then I'd like those to be flattened perhaps as images or not be selected. I could do this step by step by creating the doc then duplicating it, delete the elements I flattened into an image then paste the other selectable elements on top. That's too much work for the amount of documents I create.

As far as security, though you protect the file it mainly works in Acrobat as Adobe has a disclaimer that it can be converted. I can take that file in preview.app and save it again as pdf breaking its security. My goal is not to hide or restrict access. It's to make my documents searchable and selectable.

I truly appreciate the time you took to try and help me.

Abambo

Community Expert

You can disable "copy text" but you will do that for the whole document. A screenshot is still possible!

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

MyangoUtmostAuthor

Known Participant

I'm ok with people taking the information by converting a screenshot. I create a lot of legal docs, then need to cite them for other legal docs. I mentioned you in the previous post. Ty!

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Just because you can select text doesn't mean you can copy or export it.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

MyangoUtmostAuthor

Known Participant

Not sure how this applies. Though if you show me how it will not be copied while other parts are copied. I'm all ears.

Abambo

You can disable "copy text" but you will do that for the whole document. A screenshot is still possible!"

last I need it to not be selectable because in this instance large fonts were used in the design that I don't want selectable to allow the text around to be selected and copied.

ty 4 response

MyangoUtmostAuthor

Known Participant

If I could flatten text in edit into image or vector;

or flatten form fields into image or vector prior to saving that would work. I know JavaScript but not how to apply it here. Also fields have names so I was thinking somewhere in the saving process I could flatten or vectorize the text that should not be selectable in the final output by referencing field names. Ty guys .

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