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Question

Can't fill in Acrobat created PDF in Google Forms

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
November 2, 2024
2 replies
1530 views

I created an Acrobat fill-in form for a group of people to use. They share a Google Drive, so that's where it's saved. But when it's opened there, it can't be filled in. Anyone know why not and how to enable it?

PDF forms

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divyasin

Adobe Employee

Hi @Pamela36459753liwy ,

Thank you for reporting the issue. Can you confirm if the issue is only faced in Google Forms , or the form is not editable by other users in Acrobat as well ? If it is specific to Google Forms , then it may be a limitation from Google Forms (reference https://support.google.com/drive/answer/9463834?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&oco=1) . Hence to be fillable in Google Form , form might need to be created in the formats supported by them.

Regards,

Divya Kumar Singh

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Pamela36459753liwyAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks. I don't think it's opening Google Forms. It opens in a separate window that appears to be just a viewer provided by Google, and it can't be completed there. I did discover there's an "open with" option there that offers--at least for some people--to open it in Adobe Cloud, and it can be completed there. But I don't see any way to save the completed form from there directly back to the Google Drive unless it's connected to File Explorer on the computer--and not everyone may be willing to do that.

There is a workaround--save the file as a copy, then open it in the viewer, from there open it in Adobe Acrobat, and save. But they will have to remember to save it first, so if there's any way to make it fillable in the Google viewer itself, that would be preferable.

S_S

Community Manager

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. I'd be willing to try those things, but I won't always be the person creating forms--it's for a non-profit organization, and I'll eventually go off the board. I need to be able to provide simple instructions on how access the form in Google Drive, complete it, and save a copy (as an uneditable PDF) back to the Google Drive--preferably without having to download anything to the device and upload it back (though that would be an acceptable workaround if it's the only way).

It doesn't seem to me this should be all that complicated. I went a step further than I posted previously, saved a copy of my completed form, flattened it, and saved it to Google Drive. That seemed to work except that the flattening process removed two completed fields. (Beating head against wall.) Any ideas why that would happen?

I'll fill in a clean copy and try those steps again. Any other thoughts in the meantime are appreciated.

@Pamela36459753liwy The framework Google uses to display PDF forms/files is very different from what Acrobat uses.

Also, flattening a PDF form removes any modification (different layers, form fields), so Google PDF Viewer uses its own level of comprehension to identify the fields.

Also, would you mind sharing a sample form with me to test this workflow and get back to you?

You can share the file over a private message. To do so, click on my profile name followed by the blue "Send Message" button.

-Souvik

radzmar

Community Expert

Maybe those people don't use a suitable PDF viewer for your form like Acrobat or Reader?!

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Pamela36459753liwyAuthor

Participating Frequently

Some don't, but that's the problem. I'm wondering if there's a simple way for them to complete it right there in the Google viewing window so they don't have to have another app or program. I did discover that at least on some systems (still determining if it's true of all), they're given an "open with" option and can choose Adobe and fill it in there in an Adobe Cloud browser window. But I'm going to create a new post about that, because there doesn't seem to be any way there to save it back to the Google Drive unless it's connected in the computer's File Explorer. Again, not everyone does that--they access the Drive only online.

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Pamela36459753liwyAuthor

Participating Frequently

Correction--I'm ot going to post the save issue elsewhere, because I figured out a workaround as explained in my resply to divyasin below.

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