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justino80271123
New Participant
October 22, 2018
Question

Checkboxes not showing checked in acrobat dc

  • October 22, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 34087 views

Recently I created a new fillable pdf form using Adobe Acrobat DC. The document was created in InDesign, then opened with Acrobat DC. I selected tools, prepare form, and allowed DC to find fields. All worked well. I deleted the text boxes it placed in the squares I created in InDesign for my check boxes. I created the boxes in InDesign so that users can print and fill as needed. I added in checkboxes with default properties. Long story short, when I open the form in Acrobat DC and click the checkbox fields, it does not show as checked. It is just blank. However, if I open the pdf using Microsoft Edge, all checkboxes work and show perfectly fine. All other features work properly such as text fields, number fields, radial buttons, etc. It is only the check boxes that are not working properly. Any ideas?

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4 replies

New Participant
August 12, 2020

This is a common problem, which causes havoc with documents that are filed electronically at the courthouse. Attorneys will prepare their documents and submit them electronically. But when their documents arrive, the boxes that they have checked show as unchecked. The workaround for some law firms is to manually check the boxes with a pen, scan the form, then email the scanned image. Adobe Acrobat is an unnecessarily complex, illogical and poorly managed program, which the typical well-educated person cannot figure out.    'The first thing we do, let's kill all the software programmer team managers...''     —not Shakespeare      

try67
Adobe Expert
August 13, 2020

That's a very bad workaround. A much better one is to flatten the file, converting the check-boxes added to it to static contents. Also, if a proper PDF viewer (such as Adobe Reader) is used to view the file there's no reason for them not to show up in the first place.

New Participant
March 15, 2019

Hi All,

I resolved this issue by following steps.

Open writable pdf in acrobat reader dc and right click on checkbox. Open properties of checkbox element. Where there will be properties "Visible but does'nt print". Change it to "Visible" so it will be visible and also print.

try67
Adobe Expert
March 15, 2019

You can't do that in Acrobat Reader. You probably mean just Acrobat...

New Participant
March 15, 2019

No, It's acrobat reader DC, It is used to make writable pdf.

Inspiring
October 22, 2018

BTW, this is usually caused by having the Zapf Dingbats font installed. If you do, try uninstalling it and relaunching Acrobat.

Participating Frequently
September 28, 2023

You sir are a hero.  I second this solution as working.  I've been pulling my hair out for ages trying to figure out this bug and then I ran accross this post and after casting ITC Zapf Dingbats into a lake of fire, the checkboxes started working perfectly.   Thank you again. 

Inspiring
October 22, 2018

Can you post a sample somewhere so we can take a look?