Ghost Fields

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
November 16, 2020
3 replies
1747 views

Greetings! I'm hoping someone can help with my situation.

I have several documents setup as a "template" - not within Adobe, but a standalone PDF document - which need to be merged together in different scenarios to create document packets for my company.

Recently I have found that when I merge some documents together, some form fields randomly disappear - there appears to be no rhyme or reason to it. Some fields are duplicates of each other, to have the duplicated information flow throughout the documents: I've tried creating the form field duplicates my (1) traditional way (CTRL + C to copy, and then CTRL + V to paste it on the desired page), and recently (2) by selecting the fields and choosing to "Duplicate Throughout Pages", and then selecting the desired pages to add the fields to. Both ways are giving me issues.

I've tried flattening the documents to start from scratch, but this seems to come back every time.

Other thing to note - earlier this year we had switched to Foxit PhantomPDF and these issues became noticed, so I convinced the company to switch me back to Adobe: but the issues continue.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

Does you use form fields with the same name but different type?

P

Peter5CD6Author

Participating Frequently

Currently, the issue is merging some blank documents into a single document that has non-duplicating form fields - primarily text fields. I need the same information through the added pages, and so I would like to have the same field names across the document - there apparently is an option to do this (duplicate fields across pages), but it randomly gives me these issues.

Note, I've used the method of duplicate field names since 2010, and has worked like a charm. It really helps the end users, in that they only need to fill out a data point once, instead of 10 times.

Thom Parker

Community Expert

What technique are you using to merge the PDFs? The Combine Files tool? The insert Pages Tool? or dragging and dropping into the page display?

Can you provide us with a set of sample PDFs that display this behavior?

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

JR Boulay

Community Expert

This issue drove me crazy a few month ago, and I can confirm that this behavior is the same in Acrobat and Foxit.

The truth is therefore elsewhere.

My understanding of the cause is this: spawning a page with fields named exactly like other fields already existing on regular (not spawned) pages is the source of the problem.
But that doesn't hold true every time…

With other forms less filled with JavaScripts things are going very well.
So I feel more like I have identified a consequence than a cause.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Thom Parker

Community Expert

If this is correct, then there is an easy solution. Don't use field names that are the same on both template and none template pages.

However, I do not believe the poster meant that the merged documents used "Page Templates" but rather, there is a set of individual files that act as templates for building the final document and the fields are lost though merging, instead of spawning. Could be a related phenomenon though.

In either case the solution seems to be better managment of the process.

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

P

Peter5CD6Author

Participating Frequently

@Thom Parker you might be right on that - but as I posted to another user:

Currently, the issue is merging some blank documents into a single document that has non-duplicating form fields - primarily text fields. I need the same information through the added pages, and so I would like to have the same field names across the document - there apparently is an option to do this (duplicate fields across pages), but it randomly gives me these issues.

Note, I've used the method of duplicate field names since 2010, and has worked like a charm. It really helps the end users, in that they only need to fill out a data point once, instead of 10 times.

P

Peter5CD6Author

Participating Frequently

Also, using Adobe DC Pro DC v 2020.013.20064