Fill & Sign: Can I disable the new form field "guessing" feature in acrobat reader?

[Lindquist]

A recent update to Acrobat Reader DC introduced a new feature to Fill & Sign that I am finding more frustrating than useful.

I frequently fill out documents that are not actual PDF forms. A lot of them are small town government application forms that were probably made in Microsoft Word and exported as a PDF. I use Fill & Sign to type in all the details and save myself hours of handwriting the same information repeatedly.

I used to be able to pick whatever area I want to type, adjust the font size to look decent on the document, and then keep going. Acrobat would remember I font choice. This system has worked brilliantly for the last couple of years (since I started using it).

A recent update introduce a new feature that tries to guess where form fields are located. That's a fine feature; it doesn't always guess right, but I can still choose a different spot if I want to. My problem is that is doesn't honor any font choices. Every field is assigned a different font size that Acrobat has decided is suitable, and it looks extremely unprofessional.

Even worse, it resets my font size choice for custom areas if I even accidentally click into one of the "guessed" field areas.

Can this feature be disabled?

[Adorobat]

Hi Lindquist,

As per the issue description mentioned above, you are facing issue when using fill & sign option in reader, is that correct?

Would it be possible to share the screenshot of the issue with us for better understanding of the issue? To share the screenshot here in the forums, refer to the steps given in this link: https://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-7043#jive_content_id_How_do_I_attach_a_screenshot

Also, let us know dot version of reaer and the operating system installed on the machine? You may refer to the steps given in this link on how to check the version in reader: Identify the product and its version for Acrobat and Reader DC

Let us know if you need any help.

Shivam

[Lindquist]

The screenshot above was taken while using Fill & Sign in Acrobat Reader DC. The blue area is highlighted when the cursor hovers over that spot. The software is guessing which areas are form fields.

I can still click outside the area to type the way I want to, but then I have to manually move every piece of text into place after typing it instead of just clicking where I want it to be. Clicking inside the blue box erases the size formatting that I have set for the document and sets it to whatever the software decides is best for that form field without any consideration for the text size on the rest of the document. This leads to documents with several different font sizes that look very unprofessional.

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Version 2019.008.20081

Windows 10

[Adorobat]

Hi Lindquist,

Thanks for the info. Would it be possible to share the pdf file you are working with to replicate the issue at our end? To share the file here in the forums, refer to the steps given in this link: How to share a file using Adobe Document Cloud

You may also share the link for the pdf via private message - How Do I Send Private Message

Let us know if you need any help.

Shivam

[Lindquist]

I could upload a document, but the problem is not exclusive to one file. This happens in every PDF I use Fill & Sign on. Any space that looks like it could be a form field is highlighted. Sometimes it's just a horizontal line and other times it's a table cell. It's actually a pretty smart system; I just want to turn it off.

[Lindquist]

I found more information about this feature by researching the new features added to Adobe Acrobat recently. It is a new feature introduced in October 2018 that uses Adobe Sensei to automatically detect the form fields and use the appropriate tool.

• What's new in Adobe Acrobat DC
• Fill and sign PDF forms using Adobe Acrobat Fill & Sign

Unfortunately, I have to assume it cannot be turned off since the help documents do not mention this.

As previously mentioned, the text size it selects is based on each field and not the document as a whole. This leads to inconsistent looking documents. Trying to manually resize every text field individually to match is really frustrating.

I am sure this feature is useful to someone, but it has done nothing but slow down my entire work flow. Filling out these forms takes considerably longer for me now than I did in September.

[Adorobat · Accepted solution]

Hi Lindquist,

You may visit  the following link to share your feedback to the team: Feature Request/Bug Report Form

Thanks,

Shivam

[jerryb21992160]

I hope Adobe proves me wrong but my bet is they won't fix this serious bug. Afterall it has been over a year since it was reported here to them. This problem causes major problems every day in my job as a loan signing agent since the font sizes are now inconsistent from field to field.  Sometimes information like a client name can be made to fit a field perfectly but in other siimilar size fields it is too big and when you select the next smaller font size to make it fit, it is then too small to read.  This is a MAJOR MAJOR PROBLEM. Adobe, please stop ignoring this problem.