Identify form fields with the same name

Question

I am working on an appendix to a book that consists of multiple fillable forms. I need to add this appendix at the end of the of the PDF that contains the rest of the book. When I try to add the appendix, Acrobat gives me the message telling me that form fields with the same name will be merged. The appendix has 87 pages of forms. Is there a way to quickly identify any form fields that have the same name?

Thom Parker · Answer

Yes, you have some options, but they all involve scripting. Unfortunately Adobe did not include a field reporting tool in Acrobat.

You could write a script that examines all the separate PDFs and compares fields.

How may separate documents are there that contain form fields? How many pages are the documents and about how many fields on each?

But there is another simpler solution. Do you really need interactive form fields in the index? Or were these fields just for developing the document? If you don't need the fields, then the document can be flattened, so the text is there, but there are no form fields.

You'll find a free flattening tool here:

https://www.pdfscripting.com/public/Free_Acrobat_Automation_Tools.cfm

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