Inspiring

Answered

Form field info not showing up, unless field is clicked?

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
November 10, 2010
5 replies
252897 views

Hello,

I have been receiving PDF files with form fields that contain text. In the past, all the text is visible and if more text is in the box than visible, you get the scroll bar.

The last document I received, the text doesn't show up, until I actually click the field biox. Once I click the field, the text and scroll bar appear, but once I click off it disappears again? We cannot figure out why?

Does anyone know how or why this happened and what the fix is?

Thanks!!

babs

PDF forms

Correct answer George_Johnson

That works because it gets Acrobat to redraw the field appearance, which is the problem. Preview doesn't save the PDF correctly and field appearances can get corrupted. Importing the data back in causes Acrobat to redraw the field, partially correcting things.

2

2nGLK

Participant

Yup, we've just started to see issues with our PDF forms not showing content when filled in by a client and then emailed to us. They have worked fine for years. The form has about 30 fields for text input. Clients complete the PDF form fields with plain text, but now only some fields show entered their text, and other fields appear empty until you click on them, and then text appears. This happens even where the text inputted is short (well within the form field size showing) and does not need to be scrolled down in the form to see. This is impossible to work with for us, as it's the same when you print the PDF form, so we don't have all the content from our clients to work with. Can anyone please offer any help as these PDF forms are a critical element in our training business now, having to work remotely due to Covid? Thank you.

try67

Community Expert

Ask your client how (in what application) they're viewing the file, with full-window screenshots, if possible.

My guess is it's either Apple Preview or inside a browser, ie. not using Adobe software, and hence the issues.

2

2nGLK

Participant

Ah, ok, thanks @try67, so viewing and inputting from non-adobe software could be the issue. I'll see if I can find out more from the client. Many thanks!

J

Joel5E78

Participant

That "solution" doesn't work for me either. Adobe Reader is the problem. It is opening PDFs as blank when the same pdf can be opened in Chrome or other applications completely populated. Clicking on the cells where there should be text doesn't reveal anything. This seems to be a new development in Adobe Reader; I haven't had the issue before today.

B

blampyre

Participant

George,

Many thanks!

This is very helpful. But does anyone know why Preview is able to open a fillable-form pdf and allow it to be filled in? (When I try it in Preview, there are some limitations — e.g. you can't click on buttons or boxes, and it ignores fields defined as required.)

Is there anything you can lock on the pdf form to prevent Preview (or any other non Acrobat program - are there any?) from accessing these files and allowing a user to fill them in?

G

George_Johnson

Inspiring

There are indeed other PDF viewers. Most do not support forms, but there are some that do a fairly good job. The best two are Foxit Reader and Nitro Pro/Reader. You may not want to exclude these.

You can use JavaScript to enable the fields when the form is opened in a JavaScript-capable PDF viewer. Another thing I've done is set up a button that displays a message telling the users that they have to use Reader (or the others mentioned above). The button gets hidden if viewed in a JavaScript-capable viewer. Otherwise it is shown and obscures the underlying form.

As to why Preview allows some form interactivity but ultimately botches things up, that's a good question for Apple. It's simply buggy. It would be better if it didn't pretend to work with forms until things are fixed.

L

LSynadinos

Participant

If you're using Acrobat Pro, turn off Output Preview.

G

glendaox

Participating Frequently

Hi ibabs2

I am having the same problem. Did you figure out what the problem was? Do you think it is a setting on the creation end? I have over 15 forms returned with no fields showing up. Going in and changing the font is nearly out of the question for me. What to do? glendaox

G

George_Johnson

Inspiring

glendaox,

If your users are using Preview, it is most likely due to the problem we've been discussing. For an easier approach, you can use a script, such as the one discussed here: http://blogs.adobe.com/pdfdevjunkie/script_to_fix_mac_osx_previewa.html

That particular script is less than ideal as it doesn't deal with fields other than text fields, and doesn't use the best approach then. If anyone is interested in a better script, let me know and I'll make it available.

iBabs2Author

Inspiring

hi glendaox,

George's solution using the export field data and the re-importing it only took a few seconds....It may be something at least for now?

babs

G

George_Johnson

Inspiring

What likely happened is someone used Preview on a Mac to fill-in and save the form. Preview is very buggy with respect to PDF forms. A quick fix of sorts is to export the form data to a file and re-import it. You can achieve the same effect automatically with a script, but this does not repair all of the damage.

iBabs2Author

Inspiring

hello,

Interesting....I will see if that is what they did!!!

I was able to fix the one I have for now, by actually going in and changing the font size in each field from 12 to 10? I don't know why that would work, but it did for this one.

But, I will tell the person who created it, not to use that preview as you mentioned and see if that does it for good ;-)

Thanks!!

babs

G

George_JohnsonCorrect answer

Inspiring

That works because it gets Acrobat to redraw the field appearance, which is the problem. Preview doesn't save the PDF correctly and field appearances can get corrupted. Importing the data back in causes Acrobat to redraw the field, partially correcting things.

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