Text Fields Have Gone Missing After Merging Docs in Acrobat Pro DC

[Tony the D]

Hi. I'm very new to Acrobat Pro DC, so this might just be something stupid I'm doing...

I've converted a few MSWord docs to Acrobat and then combined them. I've then created many text fields throughout the new combined document, some of which were copied from an original text field I created at the top of the dcoument, keeping the field name the same so that when the text is entered at the top of the combined doc, it feeds through the document to the several other places where the same info is required.

All worked well so far. Then I converted another MSWord document and combined it with the first combined document - suddenly many of my text fields have gone missing! Particularly the ones that were 'copied down' in the first combined document, but also several checkboxes and date dropdowns.

The weird thing is, when I use the 'Organize Pages' tool, I can see those fields in the thumbnails of each page, with test text that I had put in there, like nothing's wrong. However, when returning to the main view, they're missing.

I hope the above makes some sense to someone who can help me. It seems that I may have lost several hours worth of work. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Test Screen Name]

Did you combine separate PDFs with same fields? Only one can “win”.

[Tony the D]

Thanks for your reply. No, the separate PDFs didn't have the same field names. In fact, all I got to was converting the later MSWord docs to Acrobat and then combining them with the original combined file.

[Tony the D]

Sorry, hit Enter too soon. Also, why can I see those fields in the thumbnails when I use the 'Organize Pages' tool?

[Bernd Alheit]

Can you see fields when you use Prepare Form?

[Tony the D]

Yes, some. But every time I open the document and then choose Prepare Form, the program wants to re-scan the document to add its 'suggested' fields. If I go ahead and do that, the fields that are missing from the main view appear as plain empty white boxes with thick borders. If I try to change the properties of those boxes, they come up with strange settings that I definitely didn't set (e.g. font size 1, font color yellow, purple fill etc), and will not accept any attempted changes by me. When I close Prepare Form and go back to the main view, those fields have disappeared from the main view. However, when I choose Organise pages, all fields I've created, including the ones that are not visible in the main view, are clearly visible on the thumbnails of the pages.

[Bernd Alheit]

How does you combine the files?

[Tony the D]

View/Tools/Combine Files/Open - click on Add Files; select the files I want; click on the Combine button. Get a screen with thumbnails of the files I've chosen in a document called Binder1.pdf; save it as my choice of file name.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Tony wrote: "But every time I open the document and then choose Prepare Form, the program wants to re-scan the document to add its 'suggested' fields."

To prevent this, turn off Auto-Dedection of Fields.

Turn off form field auto-detection.

[Tony the D]

Thanks. Done. No change.

[Tony the D]

Sorry. To clarify: I've turned off Field Auto Detection. It's resulted in fewer suggested fields when I do Prepare Form, but it hasn't done anything towards helping with the original problem. Apologies - I've been fighting with this for many hours now and I'm very tired.