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Answered

Text boxes issues in DC

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
December 29, 2020
6 replies
1278 views

I am sure this has been asked and answered many times (and complained about).

How in the F'n F do you stop Adobe DC from messing with your text. I type a bunch of text in and the next thing I know it has merged it all togther or broken it apart and I can't do anything with out starting over. It makes me scream out words no one should hear.

I use adobe DC to work as I have check boxes, form fillable fields, radial boxes and even some java script. There is no way to edit in the original program anymore it is purely a PDF now.

Is there something else that I should be doing? Can I check a box to tell DC to stop messing iwth it, group it together, other?

Going back and having to edit the original then put all of the form fields,check boxes, java,etc is beyond crazy. I mess with this document all the time to get it up to date and right, things never stay the same.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer George_Johnson

The normal way to do what you want is to generate a new PDF, and then replace the pages of the old PDF with pages from the newly generated PDF. This way, all of your fields, links, scripts, etc. will be retained. So you absolutely do not need to recreate these things when you need to make changes to the underlying PDF, though this is a common misconception. It's unfortunate that you don't have access to the source documents - it greatly limits your options.

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bcoop888Author

Participant

well I have learned more in the last few minutes than anyone has ever told me in the previous years of use. Part of the problem with this not being "part of my job" just a way to try to organize and get some info from a user in a digital format(create a process). So I never had(took) the time to really understand PDF's as they are a very, very small part of the tools I need for my job, I just took them on as a quick way to get something done. None of the people who work with me and understand PDF's ever stopped me and told me this info(maybe they don't know either).(As it was their job I would have hoped so but maybe they were scared of me??)

I did not know anything about this replace page feature and how to use that. I will look into it, that is possibly the missing information about how I am not using the program correctly.

For some of the documents this will work, others it will still cause me greif as I tend to move stuff around all the time in the source(text) but if I follow it would keep the boxes and I would just need to drag them to the new home. As far as the source goes - it never existed as I created most of these directly in Adobe DC - I will see about exporting to create a source.

thanks for all of the info, maybe my next ones will be much better.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

@bcoop888, our best to you. So glad you now have a better understanding of Acrobat and how the workflow works.

As you create new source files, keep these issues in mind. There is no one way that will fit all of your document needs, so weigh the pros and cons of each method.

Word is probably the easiest and most successful source authoring program that will work for most documents. Avoid Google Docs (doesn't convert to PDF well enough), and avoid PowerPoint unless it's a real presentation you're creating.
Adobe InDesign is the most all-encompasing authoring program, but it is a professional design tool and has an extremely steep learning curve.
Learn how to export correctly to PDF from the source authoring program. In Word, we recommend using the Acrobat plug-in (called PDF Maker) that you see in the Acrobat Ribbon in Word. Learn what preferences need to be set for your type of PDF. And don't use File / Print / Acrobat Printer (or any other brand of virtual PDF printer). It won't produce fully editable text that you'll need to build your forms.
Don't use Word's form tools: they work only in Word and disappear when it's exported to PDF.
If you do use Word to build the visible skeleton of the form (that's what sighted users see, not the form fields themselves), you'll have to add the form fields and scripts in Acrobat once the PDF is made. And that's ok. I think it's what you're attempting to do now, correct?
One of the best authoring programs for forms is Adobe InDesign, where you have micro-control over the visual appearance (to the nth degree!) and you can add the form fields into the layout. Once exported, you could have a completely functional PDF form without any or much futzing in Acrobat. There are also plugins that let you add scripts to the form fields in InDesign, as well. But it does require a helluva lotta training to build forms in InDesign.
A good quick reference guide to PDF forms is Ted Padova's "Creating PDF Forms for Government" which is available for free at http://www.tedpadova.com/govt.html Although written for Acrobat X (10), the basic information about forms is still valid. Not much has changed in Acrobat Forms since he wrote the guide.

Good luck!

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

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bcoop888Author

Participant

I will check that out. thanks.

I do have indesign but I so did not want to learn that. my need for it is super limited and it would be mostly a waste of my time to learn it as that has zero to do with my job nor would it ever become part of it. Its the photoshop conundrum over again, love the fact you can do so much with it but it makes it so complicated that I never use it as the learning curve is so steep and I just need super basic picture editting done.(clean up some edges,blur or unblur something,crop/cut out,resize)

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

The PDF file format was originally designed to be locked: that is, not editable at all.

It in no way is like Word, PowerPoint, or any other authoring program because it is not an authoring file format. It is a static, sort-of locked file format. That's what it was designed to be.

Recent versions of Acrobat have built in tools for doing minor editing in a PDF file, but even that is dicey and you're likely to see the reflow problems you're complaining about.

The comments by @try67 and @George_Johnson are 100% correct. And their suggestions for a better, more effective workflow are spot on.

1st Rule of Working in PDF:

Always keep the source file so you can make your edits to it, not to the PDF.

2nd Rule:

If the source file has been lost, then rebuild it either from scratch or by exporting from PDF into Word or another source file format and then re-exporting a new PDF from the new source file.

3rd Rule:

Don't lose the source file next time.

Source files are so critical that at my office, we write SOURCE or MASTER into the file name, clueing everyone that this is not an ordinary Word document but something that needs to be saved for future use.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

jane-e

Community Expert

When Adobe Acrobat first came out, you could not make any edits, nor could you add any text. While that's changed over the years in response to users, Acrobat does not excel at text editing. It was never meant to.

In addition to what's been said about making edits in Word or Excel and using Replace Pages, there are two other things to look at:

What typeface are you using, and is it one that is on your system? Does it work better if you change the typeface?
If you use Adobe InDesign instead of Word or Excel, InDesign can create and format the Acrobat fields. It can't do everything Acrobat can do, so there may be some tweaking, but it will take you a good way there.

Also, if it's a very old form, you might want to redo it once to get a clean copy with a standard typeface such as Calibri. Use Word or Excel (or even InDesign if you are comfortable) and keep the original for future edits.

The form fields can be copied and pasted from one Acrobat document to another while you are in form editing mode, so you won't have to redo them. This form is causing you more grief than it ought to and unfortunately that will continue if you don't do something different.

~ Jane

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George_JohnsonCorrect answer

Inspiring

The normal way to do what you want is to generate a new PDF, and then replace the pages of the old PDF with pages from the newly generated PDF. This way, all of your fields, links, scripts, etc. will be retained. So you absolutely do not need to recreate these things when you need to make changes to the underlying PDF, though this is a common misconception. It's unfortunate that you don't have access to the source documents - it greatly limits your options.

try67

Community Expert

There's nothing you can do about it. PDF files were never meant to be edited in this way. The static contents should remain static. Making any changes to the static contents of a PDF file (ie. everything that's not a form field, link, comment, bookmark, script, etc.) is highly risky and should only be done if no other options are available to you.

I would recommend either exporting the PDF to another format, edit it there and then create a new PDF, or create the static layout from scratch it a different application (like Word, InDesign, FrameMaker, etc.), and then convert it again to a PDF when done, making sure to keep a copy of the original for future edits!

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bcoop888Author

Participant

Thats unfortunate. That is not the way I work. These forms are a freely flowing design that I work on from time to time. I don't think I should be limited like this as solving 85-90% of the problems would be super easy for them to do.

All they would need to do is disable(or allow you to disable via options) the subroutine that automatically changes the text boxes. Just leave them alone(or allow you to select that option) and most of my issues would go away. I can't imagine I am the only one who complains about this.

The way these forms work and evolve over time does not lend itself well to creating in word(haven't used indesign so I won't speak to that) and then converting to pdf everytime I change something(recreating the boxes,checkboxes,field,etc would be even worse than having to fiddle with the text).

I really wish the people who design these programs would get with the people who used them in the real world. They simply just don't take into account how people actually use their stuff.(its noit jsut acrobat) Whenever I make changes that affect my users I take the time to be sure that these changes will work for my users and not just make my life better. I always vette anything by if I can work like that first, If I am unhappy trying to use it like that then why should my users suffer. I get that you will never make everyone happy but this seems like one of those overlooked issues.

Wish there was a way to get the actual product developers to read this.

try67

Community Expert

I'm sorry, but that is simply not how PDF files work. There are no "text boxes" in them. Each /character/ in the file is defined on its own. If they disable the option to merge these "boxes" you'll end up having to move each character separately. Again, this format is not built for this kind of editing, so the fact it can be done at all to such an extent is a small miracle.

And you certainly don't need to recreate all the fields for each new version. You just generate a static PDF file and then open the old version, with the fields in it, and use the Replace Pages command to replace the old pages with the new ones. All of the fields (and scripts, etc.) will remain in tact.

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Steve5CC9

Participant

I couldn't agree more. Acrobat should be as easy to use as PowerPoint but it's not. It's utterly awful.

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