Can Adobe SIgn be set to IGNORE existing fields in an Acrobat document?

[chrisb_MBCG]

I have a complex form that's been completed by multiple parties in a team and now needs to be sent for approval by others via an Adobe Sign workflow.  Trouble is, Adobe Sign re-examines all the fields and takes the Signer through every fillable field before they get to the Signature page. 

Adobe Sign is also flagging format issues with some fields - dates, for example, because it's expecting all dates in US format MMM dd, YY when our fields are set to the Australian standard of dd-MMM-yy.  There's also a mismatch between the way Acrobat formats for fields containing percentages works compared to Adobe Sign.  All of which could be overcome if I could find a way to get existing fields ignored.

Is there some way to tell Adobe Sign to ignore existing document fields?  That would save a whole lot of heartache.

[chrisb_MBCG]

Just want to bump this to see if anyone has had any new ideas about this question?  Have spoken to a number of Adobe Support personnel via the phone and online support, they have had some connectivity issues leading to line drop and over several calls have been unable to resolve the matter.  Competing product HelloSign makes ignoring existing fields very easy.  I feel there must be a solution, but I'm struggling to find one.

[chrisb_MBCG · Accepted solution]

It turns out there are two ways to achieve what I was trying to do, but neither of them are particularly elegant.
The first, and probably quickest, solution is to save the form with fillable fields using SAVE AS OTHER from the File Menu, then choosing OPTIMIZED, which flattens form fields.

The second way is to edit the form fields in PREPARE FORM mode, click Read Only and Click Locked.  But that would be terribly tedious in a multiple-page form with lots of fillable form fields.  That option would allow the document owner to unlock those fields, however, if the document subsequently required re-editing.

[Ken Akiyama]

Thank you! One more tip: Within the PDF Optimizer popup, we need to choose Discard Objects > Flatten Form Fields. We could also create and save a preset for future use.

[JJG Commercial]

The best way is after you are done filling all the fields go to "Print Document" and instead of selecting printer choose PDF (or print to PDF) assuming you have to print to PDF (I have adobe suite on my computer and I think that was part of it.) Now you have essentially a scanned version of the documents in PDF.  Use that document to request signatures.

[SJ CSU]

Thank you very much.  I don't even want to admit how much time I wasted trying to figure this out. 

[Nathan30221690odu4]

This was by far the EASIEST way to resolve this issue 

[paravia]

This only just started happening to me today 4/24/2025 (wasn't a problem last week).  I did find a work around in case anyone is still having this issue, or wants an alternative.  You take the pdf that is causing problems, open it in Chrome/Opera tab.  Print the opened pdf in the browser with the print choice of 'Save as PDF' (that is what it shows in Opera).  This removes all the links/problems/signatures/etc that exist on that copy of the pdf.  You can then use this newly 'printed' copy to send out for new signatures.

[zac_8794]

I logged in specifically to tell you thank you for this. I tried the other ways on here with frustrating failure, and your method saved me from extended headache.  Thank you so much!