Information is removed when I combine two of the same document

Question

I work in design sales. I have created digital PDFs to support my work and when I have multiple spaces I am designing, I have to fill out multiple Job Specification sheets. However, when I combine multiples of the same editable PDF, it deletes all of the information off of one of the Job Specifications sheets and I don't understand why this is happening. Do we know why it is getting deleted? And how do I combine files into a Binder with all of the information in tact?

Thom Parker · Accepted Answer

A page template is just what it sounds like. It is a regular PDF page that is used as a template for creating new pages.

Here are the steps.

1. Create a new page, or a copy of a page, in your PDF with all the text and fields needed for a new page.

2. Turn it into a template.

-- Go to the "Organize Pages" toolset

-- Make sure the page to be used as the template is selected.

-- Select "Page Templates" from the "More..." menu

-- Enter a name for the template and push the Add template button

-- Hide the new page template.

3. Add a button somewhere on the PDF to add a page.

Put a script on the button so spawn a new page template.

this.getTemplate("MyTemplate").spawn(nPg,true,false);

Here's the reference entry for the template object:

https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/library/jsapiref/JS_API_AcroJS.html#template

4. If there are fields with scripts on the page, then they will need to be rewritten to use the proper page template field name prefixes.

try67 · Answer

This is normal behavior. Multiple fields that have the same name in a single PDF file will become duplicates of one another and have the same value automatically. This can't be avoided.

To get around that your options are:

- Combine the files as a Portfolio, which is an "envelope" PDF that has other files attached to it, or

- Flatten the form fields in the original files before merging them, or

- Rename the fields in the files so that they are unique and won't overwrite one another when merged.

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