Is it me, or does Acrobat just really suck?

[Maria32803393ouc0]

I've been trying to create a form for over an hour. First I got the "109" error like four times. Then I finally get the document to do what I need it to do but upon saving, the document is all white and now completely useless. What a joke! Does this company even beta test anything before realeasing it to the public and having people pay for this garbage?

[Randy Hagan]

I can commiserate with you, but I can't address your situation without a lot more information. Like:

What version of Adobe Acrobat are you using?

Are you running it on a Mac? Windows PC? iPad? Android phone? And what version of operating system does the device you're running Acrobat on use?

We want to help. But you've got to tell us something more than your Acrobat install sucks fr us to be able to help you. We're end users too, and we've been in similar situations if not the same exact one. We can try and help if you give us something to go on.

Randy

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

109 error usually indicates a corrupt document. Did the problem occur with just the one file? Are you saving to a server or cloud?

It is happens continually, it could be the app install itself. Uninstall (if a newer version), clean the remnents with the Adobe CC Cleaner, and try a fresh install. 

As @Randy Hagan stated, more info is really needed.

[Maria32803393ouc0]

To answer the above questions: 

- I'm running on a Mac. I've tried this on both my desktop and laptop--the errors occur regardless of what machine I'm using. Desktop runs on Sequoia, laptop runs on Ventura. 

- Running on Adobe version 2025.001.20643 on both machines.

- I've already tried to uninstall/reinstall the program. The errors still occur. 

- I also tried to generate new PDFs from the same word document and go from there. The errors happen regardless. It seems like every time I try to re-size the cells in a form, after saving I get the error 109 error. The blank page occurs inexplicably when the form works fine in Adobe, then I go to re-open it at a later time and the entire document is white. 

I feel like this is a lot of effort just to perform such a simple task. I expect more from Adobe. Such a stronghold on the market yet the program is incredibly glitchy. It's unacceptable. 

[Randy Hagan]

OK. Now we've got something to work from:

• When you uninstalled/reinstalled the program, did you use the Adobe AcroCleaner tool that Dave talked about? It's not inconceivable, even though we're talking about two systems, that some type of update corruption messed up your Acrobat installs. Using the AcroCleaner tool reaches through your system and removes any and all remnants of your Acrobat installation. It's really the only way to be sure that you have completely removed any hanging pieces of Acrobat parked in the nether regions of your system. You can get to that utility through this link.
• But before that, you might want to try a couple other things that may make things work better for you. You say you're using Microsoft Word to create your form layout. By default, it saves files in .docx format, which includes a bunch of xml-based data in the background that can conflict with laying any data functions, not just Acrobat Form Fields, to the document structure. You may want to try saving a copy of the file in Word 97-2003 document (*.doc) format. This retains all your MSWord formatting, but strips out that xml-like data substructure from your Word document. Try using the .doc version of your MSWord document and see if that works better for you.
• Did you use Adobe Acrobat to automatically create and define your form fields? You may want to try creating a couple of data fields manually, using Acrobat's Field tools.
• First, have Acrobat create a PDF from your MSWord document with the Menu>Create>PDF from file... menu command, rather than use the Menu>Create>Create form... menu command that automates creating a form for you.
• When the PDF opens, Click on the Form field tools button just to the left of your document window, as illustrated at right. Here you can manually create form fields like Acrobat does automatically through the Create form... menu command. Try to manually enter a few fields into your PDF file, adjust them as you'd like them to fit, then save the document. 

So, the plan of attack I would suggest you try next is to 1) Create a MSWord .doc format source file, then see if Acrobat's automatic form creation tools work better for you with the older, non-xml fortified file format, then 2) Create your form manually using Acrobat's form field tools and finally, if need be, 3) Use the AcroCleaner tool to completely wipe out your current Acrobat install, reinstall and try steps 1) and 2) again.

Hopefully something in this support tree will help you past your issues.

Randy