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andrewt23907588
Known Participant
February 24, 2021
Question

Remove blue box behind editable text on PDF for emailing

  • February 24, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 30028 views

Hi, 

 

Hope someone can help. I am trying to get rid of the blue box which appears behind text in editable/filable areas of a pdf.

 

From reading other posts I think I'm right in saying that when such a document is printed out the blue boxes don't appear. However, if I'm not using the editable PDF for printing purposes, I am making text changes in the editable area and then want to send it on to a client for their final use, how do I save it with the new text I've entered showing and not the blue box?

 

In case that didn't make sense - 

I have for example a form which has the following text on it:

 

Dear

 

Blah blah blah blah

 

Many thanks

 

I have created an editable area next to Dear, and I just want to be able to input someone's name, save the pdf off and email it to them. How do I save it without the blue box behind that text??

 

Thanks

1 reply

Nesa Nurani
Nesa Nurani
Community Expert
February 24, 2021

I belive it's field highlitning, you can turn it off, Go to Edit->Preferences (or CTRL+K) then select 'forms' and uncheck 'show border hover color for fields' but keep in mind it only will be turned off on your computer other users will have to do same in order to remove highlight.

    A
    andrewt23907588Author
    Known Participant
    February 24, 2021

    Thanks for your reply but that's the issue I'm trying to find a solution to.

     

    I want to have an editable PDF that I can use digitally (email it to people). Do editable/fillable PDFs always show the blue highlighting and it's only removed when it's printed out?? Somewhat frustrating if so, as I never want to print them out!

    try67
    try67
    Community Expert
    February 24, 2021

    But what if the end purpose of the file is not to be edited? For instance in the following made up example.

     

    A marketeer creates a PDF for the head office of a chain of 30 garden centres.

    The design of the PDF is lovely pictures of flowers and descriptions of services offered at the generic garden centre - and this imagery and info applies to each of the 30 garden centres.

    On the PDF the marketeer creates an editable/fillable area for each of the individual garden centres to input their address under the generic text "Come and visit your local branch of Green Thumbs at ........."

    The head office of the garden centre chain sends the editable PDF to each of the 30 garden centres.

    Each of the managers at the 30 garden centres fills in their unique address and then gets ready to email the PDF out to their database of customers

     

    What can be done to stop the customers receiving the email from seeing the blue box around the editable area? As obviously the garden centres do not want the strange blue box appearing around the editable areas, nor do they want the customers editing the info.

     

    Perhaps there's a different way for me to ask my question.

    In the above example, after the manager has added his address details, is there a way to turn off the editable areas and turn the amended PDF into a non editable PDF (retaining the new address he has just inputted and removing any trace of blue boxes)?

     

    Thanks


    Yes, you can set those fields as read-only, or have the user digitally sign the file, and the signature field can be set to lock them. The former is easier, but less secure.

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