• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

You cannot insert pages from an Adobe XML form into another PDF file...

Community Beginner ,
Jul 17, 2019 Jul 17, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I am getting this error when trying to combine two PDF files.

As far as I can tell, neither PDF file is an XML file.

The problem PDF file is from the Department of Veterans Affairs website and can be found here: https://www.vba.va.gov/pubs/forms/VBA-26-1852-ARE.pdf

If I try to combine this file with any other PDF I get this error.  It looks like a normal PDF file to me, with a .PDF extension.

What's the problem here?

TOPICS
General troubleshooting

Views

14.8K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Jul 17, 2019 Jul 17, 2019

There is a kind of PDF form called an XFA form, which contains XML. It looks like a normal PDF, but the error message shows that you have one of these. Acrobat can fill in these as forms but cannot edit them, including work with pages, in any way.

Votes

Translate

Translate
LEGEND ,
Jul 17, 2019 Jul 17, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

There is a kind of PDF form called an XFA form, which contains XML. It looks like a normal PDF, but the error message shows that you have one of these. Acrobat can fill in these as forms but cannot edit them, including work with pages, in any way.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jul 17, 2019 Jul 17, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Ok thanks, good to know.

Any way to convert it into a normal PDF yet still keep the form fillable?  Judging from a search on Google it doesn't look promising.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Jul 17, 2019 Jul 17, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

No, it's a one way trip. Consider combining using a portfolio. (Combining ordinary forms is often a fraught process, because the form field values get mixed up between them).

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jul 17, 2019 Jul 17, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I actually managed to convert it into a normal PDF and was able to overcome my original problem but I used third party tools.  Am I allowed to post info about third party apps here?  I will describe what I did if so.

Thanks to you for suggesting I had an XFA form, I was able to Google what I needed with that info.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Feb 19, 2020 Feb 19, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Here's a native solution using Acrobat Pro.

 

I neeeded to combine a W-9 with other PDF docs and had the same issue you described. I was able to combine the documents by using Acrobat to extract and save the pages from the original W-9 document as a new PDF. I then dragged the newly-extracted W-9 PDF into the Page Thumbnails of my other PDF document and saved the PDF without error.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Feb 18, 2022 Feb 18, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you! Your tip worked.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 18, 2022 Oct 18, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you kindly! You saved my sanity today!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Mar 06, 2023 Mar 06, 2023

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you so much for the solution!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
May 18, 2023 May 18, 2023

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you so much for this tip.  I extraced a W4 fillable form and saved it as another file.  I then combined the new file into my other fillable pdf file.  It worked like a charm.  I was going crazy until I found your tip.  THANK YOU THANK YOU

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jul 05, 2023 Jul 05, 2023

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you so much, this worked!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 06, 2023 Nov 06, 2023

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

When you say "page thumbnails" are you talking about the thumbnails that are in a portfolio?   

Does this work for you when its a single pdf of 20 pages and you use "organize pages" in the toolbar?

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 19, 2023 Oct 19, 2023

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I was able to solve this problem by opening the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Standard, then printing the document to the printer "Adobe PDF".   Hit print, then choose a location to save the new PDF. This flattens the form-fillable PDF into a regular PDF.  The new PDF can be inserted into another PDF!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines