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jamesukr33
Participant
August 25, 2025
Answered

STOP Merge Form Fields when combining pdfs!

  • August 25, 2025
  • 5 replies
  • 1579 views

So, first off, I do NOT WANT TO FLATTEN the fields!!! I want to be able to use them! Please don't suggest that.

 

Second, I don NOT WANT to create a portfolio. They are lame and worse than useless IME. So please don't sugges that option unless you know of a way to then make the portfolio into a single document WHILE keeping the form fields usable.

 

Now, I have a single page document which has fillable forms. I want to duplicate that page into 4 pages with the same forms fields. But, as it stands it merges all the fields, so the information on the first page is duplicated to the other 3 pages! I do not want that, I want the fields to be unique so each page can have different values in the forms.

 

Anyone know how to duplicate a page with form fields to multiple pages WITHOUT merging the fields or flattening them???

 

Frankly, why Adobe merges the fields is beyond me... 

Correct answer Bernd Alheit

Use a template page and spawn this page. 

5 replies

G
Gord@APL
Inspiring
April 13, 2026

This may be a silly question, but why do you need duplicates of a form in a single PDF?

When I’ve used PDF forms, it’s been for gathering information, and then exporting that information from a directory full of individual PDFs into a single spreadsheet.

Perhaps if we better understood your end goal, alternatives could be suggested.

randoPDFuser
randoPDFuser
Participant
April 13, 2026

For my use case, I’m filling out a form created by someone else. The blank form is made up of several kinds of pages and I need to fill out 30 additional copies of one of the pages. Think tax forms where you receive one page for itemizing, but run out of space and need additional copies.

 

So I’m now stuck with 30 unique pages whose contents will be overwritten if I combine them.

try67
Community Expert
try67Community Expert
Community Expert
April 13, 2026

Of course I understand the need for such a feature, which is why I developed the script linked to above that allows you to do that, but the request of the OP to have fields with the same name but unique values is technically impossible and not feasible. The solution is to have uniquely named fields with the same properties, so that they can have unique values.

    D
    desertwalker
    Participant
    October 15, 2025

    Same problem here in Australia. I am so disappointed with this. It has caused a lot of grief. Adobe is really starting to bug me. Justifying there own existence by tampering with things constantly

      Bernd Alheit
      Community Expert
      Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 15, 2025

      Read the replies.

        try67
        Community Expert
        try67Community Expert
        Community Expert
        October 15, 2025

        It's easier to rant...

          try67
          Community Expert
          try67Community Expert
          Community Expert
          August 25, 2025

          You can do it in a few clicks using this (paid-for) tool I've created:

          https://www.try67.com/tool/acrobat-duplicate-pages-of-a-pdf-file-including-form-fields

          Note that field names will NOT be the same on each page, though. That is technically impossible to achieve.

           

          Edited: Forgot to add the link...

          Bernd Alheit
          Community Expert
          Bernd AlheitCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
          Community Expert
          August 25, 2025

          Use a template page and spawn this page. 

          Joel Geraci
          Community Expert
          Joel GeraciCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          August 25, 2025

          What you are asking to isn't possible. The PDF specification doesn't allow it by design. This is to allow fields that appear on multiple pages to be filled out once and be consistent throughout the document.

          To do what you want, you'll need to use different field names on the different pages. 

          J
          jamesukr33Author
          Participant
          August 25, 2025

          Well that is just stupid. In the Fields tab there is even an option to "Duplicate Across Pages", which I just found and was hopeful would actually do what I want... but of course it didn't. How dumb is that!?!

           

          You can Create Multiple Copies of a form field, and it auto-increments the name so each is unique, but you can't do it across pages!?!

           

          Lame. Sigh...

           

          Thanks for your response, though. I'm still hoping someone will have a fix for this issue. Otherwise, Adobe should fix it themselves.

            PDF Automation Station
            Community Expert
            PDF Automation StationCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            August 25, 2025

            There is nothing for Adobe to fix.  Fields with identical names can only have one value.  Run the following script in the console:

            this.createTemplate("MyTemplate");
for(var i=1;i<5;i++){this.getTemplate("MyTemplate").spawn()}

             

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