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r_tist
Inspiring
December 21, 2011
Question

transfer form fields to another PDF?

  • December 21, 2011
  • 4 replies
  • 55932 views

Hi,

I have 4 different PDFs with different graphical information on them (think custom letterhead with a contact name on it).

I set up typing fields within and saved. Those fields will be the same on each PDF so is there a way to cohesively export or copy and paste those fields onto the other PDFs so I do not need to set up again and again.

Imagine if there were 100+...

Show me the way!

Thanks!

4 replies

MADink_Designs27
MADink_Designs27
Inspiring
July 21, 2015

As George mentioned, I usually replace the pages. I've found that in some instances, you can insert the new page from the old document and the functionality will stay the same as the form fields will merge.

rpottsadtran
rpottsadtran
Participant
July 17, 2015

I have tried the suggestion to replace the pages as indicated in this forum, but my fields all rotate 90 degrees. Any ideas why the existing fields would rotate? They do the same thing when I try to copy and paste fields. My original pdf form is protrait so that doesn't really make sense to me why it would rotate them.

Suggestions?

G
George_Johnson
Inspiring
July 17, 2015

This behavior depends on the rotation setting of the page, which is an internal property of each page. A page that looks to be in portrait can either have a height that is greater than the width and no rotation (or 180 degree rotation), or a width that is greater than the height and have a rotation of 90 or 270 degrees so that it displays as portrait. When you copy fields from a page that is rotated to one that isn't, even though the pages may appear to be the same size and orientation, the fields will be rotated. There's not a simple way to deal with this problem, unfortunately, unless you can somehow regenerate the base PDF so the page rotations match the pages that you're copying the fields from.

You could also use a script to change the rotation property of each field and set the rect property of each to match the source fields. If you'd like more help with such a script, post again.

K
kirktab
Participant
November 1, 2013

I just discovered that for single forms, you can copy+paste:

> open the source PDF & put it into 'forms>add or edit fields' mode

> select the fields in the source PDF > COPY

> open the target PDF & put it into 'forms>add or edit fields' mode. Open the correct page in the target PDF

> PASTE the form fields into the target PDF. Use the arrow keys to nudge the fields into the correct location/s.

> Save the target PDF

> For bonus points - check that the newly pasted fields lie in the correct order (relative to any pre-existing form fields) ie so the user can tab through all form fields in the correct order.

Done.

This of course is better for single PDF's (or a small number of PDF's), which ain't what the OP was asking. However, someone with a single PDF to edit (like me) may come across this thread and get some help.

    G
    gkaiseril
    Inspiring
    April 24, 2015

    Even for a single page PDF I find it faster and easier to just replace the page and then rearrange the form fields as needed.

    Also replacing the page does not cause one to lose any document level actions like Will Print, Did Print, Will Save, etc. and document level functions. For some forms like a time sheet where there a multiple form fields with the same calculations except for the field names to process it makes sense to use document level JavaScript functions so if there is an issue with computing say the time difference between 2 fields, the cod that performs the calculation is in one place and not in 7, 14 or more fields. Replacing pages would also be helpful when using the JavaScript date picker or converting numbers to words since both use a document level script and each script have a large number of lines of code.

    Also any comments on the form would also be kept because they are on the comment layer.

      G
      George_Johnson
      Inspiring
      December 21, 2011

      It's usually easier to replace the pages than to copy the fields. When you replace the pages, any fields, links, comments, code, etc. are retained. In Acrobat 9 you'd select "Document > Replace pages"

        try67
        Community Expert
        try67Community Expert
        Community Expert
        December 21, 2011

        I've develoepd a script that allows you to save the fields properties in an external plain-text file, which you can later import into the application and use in a batch process to create exact copies of the same fields in multiple files (of course, you must have Acrobat Pro to do the latter).

        If you're interested in this tool, contact me directly at try6767 at gmail dot com.    

          MADink_Designs27
          MADink_Designs27
          Inspiring
          March 24, 2017

          Do you currently have a link on your storefront for this script? That's my biggest frustration with Acrobat is having to redo JavaScript. Most of the forms I do update often.

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