Acrobat Forms - Copy & Paste Problem

[carolyncharan]

I am encountering an issue with Adobe Acrobat Pro DC when creating forms. This has never happened to me before, but now I cannot get the program to fix this issue.

I have created a form and would like to use the same form fields on a similar document. Normally, I could just open the "Prepare Form" tool on both documents (in separate tabs), select the fields I want to use, COPY (CTRL+C), then switch tabs to the other document and Paste (CTRL+V). From there, I could move the fields into their correct positions. 

Today, however, after copying and pasting, I CANNOT move the fields. I cannot delete them. I cannot use the "Align", "Center", "Match Size", nor "Distribute" functions. This is extremely frustrating as I often reuse forms with similar fields to save time. I do not want to have to create each individual field every single time I duplicate a form. I have tried restarting the program and my computer and nothing has worked.

Thank you in advance.

Program/Computer Details:

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (most recent version)

Windows 10 Pro v.1903

[barbara_a · Accepted solution]

I'm not able to replicate this issue. It works fine on my computer. In Position properties for the form fields, is Locked turned on? Are you in Form Editing mode by clicking the Prepare Form icon?  What happens if instead of copy/pasting the form fields, you use Organize Pages and replace the underlying page with the new document -- are you then able to edit the form fields?

[carolyncharan]

I had no idea that my fields could get "Locked". That was the issue! Thank you.

[anniem5123968]

Hi, I'm having this issue and it's incredibly frustrating. My copy/paste simply doesn't work anymore for form fields, even though it worked hours ago. In both documents I have Prepare Form activated, but the form fields simply don't copy or paste, no matter if I use keyboard shortcuts, right-clicking the mouse, or using the Edit menu. Please help!

[try67]

Did you check if they are locked, as described above?

[anniem5123968]

I did check, and the fields are not locked.

[RedIPA]

Hi, anniem5123968. Were you ever able to get this working again? I'm having the same probem. suddenly not able to duplicate fields anymore. and the program keeps crashing when I try.

[anniem5123968]

I think my problem was that the form field I had copied had the same exact name as another form field on the page I was pasting onto. So, I was trying to copy a field called Text 1 (from page 1, let's say) onto page 2. But page 2 already had its own Text 1, so the paste would never go through. So I've been renaming fields with this in mind, and it's been smooth sailing so far.

[Alison5F99]

I am having this same issue now but did not have the issue four months ago when I did this for my end of the year documents.  I have checked to see if the fields are locked and they are not.  I can select all the fields on the first documents but if I try to drag them to the second document, it will not allow it to go off the first page.  I can do a copy and paste for each field one by one but I have a LOT of field names and would prefer not to have to do this. Any ideas for me?  I also tried to do the organize tip that someone suggested and I dont seem to have that option?  Not sure if my version is outdated but I searched for updates and found none.  Thanks Alison

[Dena363937355ko2 · Accepted solution]

I stumbled across this thread when researching the same problem. In case anyone else has this problem, I've found that you can only copy and paste multiple fields at the same time if they are of the SAME CATEGORY. If, for example, you have a form that has only text fields, you should be able to copy all at one time and paste them into your destination document in the same order and maintain the same tabbing order as your source document. However, if your form has a combination of text fields, checkboxes, date fields, etc., you have to handle each type separately and each of them in the same order as your source document if you want them to paste in the same tabbing order in your destination document. It's pretty easy if your document only has 1 or 2 types of fields. If you have numerous types of fields and they're disbursed among one other, it could take a little time to get this right. When you have everything pasted into your destination document, be sure to check your tabbing order (if the tabbing order matters to you). The fields should paste into the same position on the destination document and look like they're in the correct order, but the tabbing order may not be correct. It's a pretty easy fix if you only have a few fields. If you have a lot like I did for my document, it took a little time to correct it. 

[Billie298606717djl]

I found this to be the case in my situation too. Is there a fix for this? I used to be able to copy multiple fields over from a document no matter what type of field, but now it's not letting me copy multiple fields even in the same category. I have to copy EACH field one by one. THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM!!!! Fixes?

[Vanessa37573324cqza]

I am having the very same issue. Field types are the same and fields are not locked. Does anyone have a workaround for this? Copy/pasting one field at a time is not a workable solution since I have so many fields that need to be copied to many different forms. This is happening with Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020.

[Billie298606717djl]

Vanessa,

I ultimately narrowed our problem down to a font issue. Try using different fonts and see if it works for you.

[Vanessa37573324cqza]

Thanks so much, Billie! I'll give that a try.