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M
Meja_Ojay
Participant
August 13, 2018
Answered

My Fillable Form Showing "File Damaged & Can't Be Opened" Error...

  • August 13, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 676 views

A form i designed in Adobe Illustrator & worked on the fields in Acrobat Pro DC is giving the following error "There was a problem opening this document. The file is damaged & could not be repaired". Kindly assist, i have worked on this form for 2 weeks. Today i was doing the final design touch-up in Illustrator. I saved it, opened itup in Acrobat but then didn't see the changes i made. I saved & closed it, but when i tried to reopen it, i got the above error. The file size is 2.5mb & i am using a Mac. Attached below is the actual error message.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer George_Johnson

Don't ever use Illustrator to edit a PDF. The correct workflow if you need to make changes is to edit the source document (e.g., .ai file) in Illustrator, generate a new PDF, and in Acrobat replace the old pages with the new. This will preserve any form fields, links, scripting, etc.

2 replies

MichaelKazlow
MichaelKazlow
Legend
August 14, 2018

Generally, I would’t recommend adding form fields before finishing editing the pdf file other than replacing pages. A corrupt file cannot really be repaired. I would recommend going back to your last backup.

M
Meja_OjayAuthor
Participant
August 14, 2018

Noted MK,

the last backup though is decades behind...... let me work (again) from this.

G
George_Johnson
Inspiring
August 13, 2018

Are you saying that you're using Illustrator to edit a PDF that has fillable fields?

M
Meja_OjayAuthor
Participant
August 14, 2018

Hi GJ,

i am new at this (fillable forms), and was tweaking the background layout (colours & some vector shapes) as per the clients request. It had been working over the 2 weeks until the very last tweak .

G
George_JohnsonCorrect answer
Inspiring
August 14, 2018

Don't ever use Illustrator to edit a PDF. The correct workflow if you need to make changes is to edit the source document (e.g., .ai file) in Illustrator, generate a new PDF, and in Acrobat replace the old pages with the new. This will preserve any form fields, links, scripting, etc.

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