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M
matttttttt-oEK1ew
New Participant
July 17, 2019
Answered

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

  • July 17, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 20953 views

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?

Correct answer Test Screen Name

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.

2 replies

T
Test Screen Name
Brainiac
July 17, 2019

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).

    M
    matttttttt-oEK1ewAuthor
    New Participant
    July 17, 2019

    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.

    N
    nic@fundraise_up
    New Participant
    February 20, 2020

    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.

      T
      Test Screen NameCorrect answer
      Brainiac
      July 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.

        M
        matttttttt-oEK1ewAuthor
        New Participant
        July 17, 2019

        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.

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