Edit a PDF created in LiveCycle Designer

[erjobo1]

I'm trying to edit a PDF that was created in LiveCycle Designer and I get a warning box that says:  "This form cannot be edited in Adobe Acrobat.  Please use Adobe LiveCycle Designer to edit this form."  I have the latest version of Acrobat Pro.  Is there something additional I need to install to edit this form?  Any help would be appreciated.

[Bernd Alheit]

Why do read 4 years old postings?

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

Actually, if you read the license that comes with pretty much any trial software that I am aware of, you will find that you are not allowed to use it for real work. You can evaluate the software, but as soon as you are using it for anything else but evaluation, you need to obtain a full license.

Also, the discussion you are probably referring to in your last comment is from 2014. And, there are other comments that say that there is no eval version (or at least they could not find one and are asking for the link). I suspect that there was a trial version available at some point in time, but no longer is.

If this is really just about updating two links, you are very likely better off by paying somebody to do this work for you. If you are interested, I do have LiveCycle Designer. You can contact me via email. My contact information is on my profile page.

[jackiet82511788]

Karl, it seems as though I have not been clear, so I apologize.

I do not wish to use trial software for commercial use—and I am sure that you are right about this as I have used Adobe products since the Pagemaker days…

Trial versions are for evaluation. I need to evaluate whether or not I should tell my boss to spend $300.00 so that I can update 2 links with software that Adobe is telling people to migrate away from…

Is there a more “current” software available that we can buy to update the links?? It seems rather foolish to buy software that Adobe is telling people to migrate from—right?? What would you do if you needed to solve my “problem”

And, could you please answer: These are not really pdfs, right??

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

Sorry for the misunderstanding. There is no trial version of LCD - not anymore. There really is not much more we can tell you. Nobody in this discussion works for Adobe, we are all just users of Adobe's PDF technology.

[jackiet82511788]

ok, as users of pdf technology, please tell me what you would do, please.

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

This is what I am telling my customers about LiveCycle Designer: It's a dying technology, don't invest in it. For a long time the writing was on the wall, but with Adobe announcing the end of support for the product, we now even know when this will happen.

The big investment is not buying the software. The problem is that you need to learn how to use it. I don't know how much your time is worth, but usually climbing the learning curve is more expensive than the product you are trying to learn. So I would not buy LCD, and would outsource the modifications to your documents. At the end you will have to figure out if it's cheaper to have somebody else make these changes for you every month/twice a year/every other year or whatever the timeframe is that you expect, or to actually own the software and be able to do it on your own whenever it is required.

[jackiet82511788]

Karl, thank you for the great answer. Thank you for your time. Do you have advice as to how I find a source to do this?

[try67]

I would recommend converting the file to a "normal" PDF form, unless you really must have some features of the LCD forms which are not available in Acrobat forms (like dynamically-sized fields or a connection to a DB). Sure, it will basically mean having to create all the form fields from scratch, but you will have full control over your file in the future and won't be in the same situation the next time you need to make some small adjustment to it.

[jackiet82511788]

I did not create the form—that’s the issue—I don’t have the original file.

[ANBLPN]

I have AEM forms on one laptop 6.4.0 and need to move to a new laptop, however it does not appear to have a serial number and not listed on my account .  Anyone able to help me?

[try67]

It used to come bundled with Acrobat Pro (up to version X, I believe). If you have the installer for that application you'll need to run it on your new computer and hope that it works...

[Test Screen Name]

The source would basically be learning how to create PDF forms with Acrobat, and creating a form that looks and works the same by examination of the LiveCycle Designer file. Unless you invest in Designer you won't be able to examine the internal logic, so you will have to recreate from scratch. There are no tools or resources for converting.

Designer forms are basically dead, but a long time dying. I would advise anyone against getting it to use for new forms. Whether it's cost effective to use for old forms is another matter. Indeed, whether it's worth creating PDF forms at all is open to debate: HTML forms are so much more portable !

[jackiet82511788]

Thank you for your thoughtful answer and your time.

[Test Screen Name]

There is some evidence that LiveCycle has been subsumed into and replaced by Adobe Experience Manager. There is some evidence that Adobe don't expect you to deliver PDF forms any more, but instead use an enterprise tool that dynamically converts them to HTML forms on the fly. "Some evidence" is the best I can give, because (in this area) Adobe has abandoned technical information in favour of glossy marketing material completely. This is probably the future of software and services: sell a brand and a feel, not specifications and features.

[dmontano_printcom]

Try this:

1. Open the PDF in Acrobat

2. Select "File > Save As..."

3. Format: "Encapsulated PostScript"

4. Select "Save"

5. Open the .eps file using Acrobat

6. Select "Tools" in Acrobat

7. Select "Edit PDF"

8. Edit the document as needed.

Hope that helps someone.

[kristined58110201]

dmontano_printcom-This Worked wonderful...I am now able to edit.

Thank you!

M

[dnunley@genhardware.com]

Thank you very much for posting this work around. Worked great and without a loss of fidelity from what I can see. I tried the fix posted above yours and although I found his information helpful and managed to make my own work around it did not work nearly as well as what you suggested. Thanks again!

[RPSkeen]

I know this is a pretty old  thread now but I had to say, Thank you dmontano, that worked perfectly.

[Guest]

worked like a charm! thank you!

[3fort]

not sure if something has changed since this posting, but Acrobat 2019 is not letting me do the first step. Has there been any updates to this? This is so silly. All I need to do is add my signature graphic. 

[dgc-it]

First off, before anyone gets hot and bothered. I'm not doing this so I can electronically submit government forms.  I'm doing this so my app can build paper forms with pre-filled data.

Here's how you can get around the dumb restrictions for the IRS forms. Open the original PDF, save as copy. This removes usage rights.  open the new pdf. Print the pdf to the Microsoft XPS Writer. Use the Open XPS file format.  My adobe acrobat install gives me right-click context menu options.  I right-clicked the xps file and told it to convert to PDF.  Viola!  You loose the form fields, but you can just make new ones if you need them.

[Test Screen Name]

If it's actually AEM forms it may be that someone in your enterprise has AEM and you inherit an end user license for Designer.

[ap290320]

I recently had the same issue.  I had a form that was created using LiveCycle that I could not edit, since we no longer had access to the software. I found I could easily covert and remove the fields but the form has over 100 fields so recreating would be a challenge.  I found this suggestion on another thread and it actually worked.  Note: you will need access to a MAC, luckily we had one available. 

Open the form with Apple - Preview

Select the option to duplicate the file

Save the file.

I was then able to open the form and edit the fields.  I am using Acrobat Pro XI

[try67]

You should be aware this is a dangerous thing to do, as you can't know what information is lost in the process.

Entire sections of the file can be lost (if it's a dynamic form), not to mention scripts that perform calculations, validation, submitting data, etc.

[ap290320]

Yes completely understand, however this form was a very simple form, no calculations, no special formats, basically text only fields. The creator failed to correctly order quite a few fields for tab order, with 100 plus fields the form was very frustrating for my users.  We either had to edit or recreate.   We tried several different methods for resetting tab order but there were no options to edit.  If anyone knows of a way to make a simple tab reorder then please advise.