Fillable Saveable Form - Fields appear to be blank but aren't

[_Tricia_Tate_]

We have a fillable savable form created with Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional. Sometimes the form emailed back to our office and opened in Reader Version 9 and it the form appears initially to be blank unless you click into the field - you can then see the data. However, you can't print the form with the data displayed. If using Reader version 8, then if you click the highlight button it acts like a toggle switch to view the data in the fields; however you still can't print.

Any ideas on what is causing this and how we can fix it?

[George_Johnson]

pritcharddesign,

In the post right before yours I told you how you can export the form data from a corrupted form using Acrobat, which you have, and importing the data into a blank form. That is the best way to deal with this if you have Acrobat and access to a blank, non-corrupted form, which you do since you created the form with Acrobat in the first place.

[George_Johnson]

I should say it is the best way to deal with it after the fact. As TSN mentioned, the best way to deal with it is to have your users not use Preview or other faulty PDF viewers.

[Robin_Day]

I have read through this entire thread because initially it appeared to be describing a problem similar to mine: I have been using Acrobat to create forms for years. Now, suddenly, every time I print a WordPerfect file to Acrobat and then create a form from it for clients to fill out in Acrobat Reader, all the form fields appear black. By editing preferences and the appearance properties of  particular fields, I can eventually cause the fields to use light blue, but they turn black again as soon as I save and reopen the file. I am using a Windows Pro machine to create the forms. I have never used a Mac. I was interested to see that you repeatedly blamed the problems described in this thread on non-Adobe viewers even though the earlier commenters (who eventually  dropped out of the thread) repeatedly told you that they were not using a non-Windows machine to create the forms and that no non-Adobe viewer was involved. Your attitude is probably the same one that has kept Adobe from actually trying to fix these problems instead of insisting that they do not exist.

[George_Johnson]

I'd be more than happy to take a look at a form that behaves the way you're describing if you want to email one or two samples to me at: acroscript at gmail dot com

Your problem sounds different than most others described here. I spend a lot of time trying to track down problems like this, and the reason I often mention non-Adobe PDF viewers is because they are overwhelmingly the cause of such problems. Microsoft Reader has proven to corrupt PDF forms as well, in some ways that are worse than what Preview does. I know this because of files that users have sent me and through my own testing.

For what it's worth, I've had people claim that Preview wasn't used only to discover later that it in fact was. Same thing with Microsoft Reader. That is why I often ask for files. It allows me to determine the cause in many cases and rule out potential causes in others.

If the problem you're experiencing is due to a deficiency in Acrobat or Reader, I'll be very interested in knowing  that and will not hesitate to report it to Adobe, as should you and anyone else who experiences the same thing. I will also let others know if they experience the same thing.

[Robin_Day]

I apologize for blasting you with my frustration. Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours with our off-site IT guy, working on this issue. Eventually, we got my setup working. Some of my problem was caused by the fact that I had selected "generate a tagged PDF" because I erroneously believed it would be necessary in order to generate bookmarks automatically. I did not realize that WordPerfect will automatically generate bookmarked files in the conversion process using the direct option for doing so and does not rely on tags for the bookmarks. The tags were corrupting the files. Now that I have unchecked that option when publishing to PDF, I can create workable forms again. However, the first time in a session that I try to open one of these form files in Adobe Acrobat (not Reader), I get the error message "bad parameter" and it does not open. When I try to open the file a second time, the file opens and functions properly. I will email you one of these files so you can take a looksee. Thanks for your work in this forum.

[George_Johnson]

Robin,

No problem. Can you clarify whether you're using Acrobat to generate the PDFs from WordPerfect, or are you using some sort of export to PDF feature of WordPerfect?

When Acrobat opens a file, it can detect and automatically repair certain types of problems, so this is probably why you see the error when first opening a file, but not after it's saved and reopened. It can be hard to determine the cause because of this autocorrection that Acrobat does.

[Erik_HCOE]

Hello,

I am having trouble trying to use the script referenced on the previous page. The user has Windows 7 and Reader 11.0. There was no JavaScripts folder inside /C/Users/George/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Acrobat/11.0/. There was a JSCache folder, putting the script in there didn't seem to work, nor did creating a Javascripts folder and putting it there.

I found a Javascripts folder in, I believe, /C/Program Files/Adobe/Reader 11.0/, but before I hunt down an admin to give me permission to put the script in there, does anyone know if putting it there will work? Or if not, any ideas as to what else to try?

[George_Johnson]

They changed the way this works with Windows. You have to manaully create several folders, as explained here: http://acrobatninja.blogspot.com/2011/09/acrobat-1011-javascript-changes.html

[Erik_HCOE]

Thank you for the clarification, worked great! I'd have said so last week but the forums were down

[Guest]

And to think I thought I was the only one experiencing this problem. Suffering from similar symptoms except it's about 90% of fields (tick boxes show up).  I created the form in InDesign 6 and exported to Adobe Pro 10 to create the fields.

I'm in a state government dept and the only one with Acrobat Pro so don't relish the idea of amending each form as they come in. Sounds like it wasn't an issue before Acrobat 8 or 9. Will try some of the fixes but looks like an overall solution to the problem cannot (or will not) be found.  Thanks for all contributions.

[Guest]

I have had the same problem, using OSX 10.9.3 and Adobe Professional 8.3.1 I "optimized" the form (Advanced / PDF Optimizer / Standard) it seems to work now...

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[J_Rupel]

Thank you JCRoberts and DanielIT for your solutions!

George Johnson and Graffiti--you are pathetic shills for Adobe and ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Of course your "not our problem" responses are 100% typical of the customer support Adobe offers. This is a problem with Reader and Acrobat, stop trying to blame Apple.

[Guest]

Hi-

I have this issue with our fillable employment application. I just downloaded the Foxit Reader, opened the application and then imported it to a new file. Once saved, the data is now showing.

Thank you for the suggestions!

[George_Johnson]

eswhitmore,

A better solution is to use Acrobat to export the form data, open a uncorrupted blank form, and import the form data. Otherwise, the form is still corrupted and may not display the data correctly, depending on whether any JavaScript for formatting, calculations, etc. are used. Since Preview wipes out all JavaScripts that are present, these won't be available in the form saved with Foxit. It's not a problem with Foxit, the problem is the form that has been corrupted by Preview.

[clordqb]

This just cost me a huge delay and confusion in a very critical meeting with senior executives!  We are spending all sorts of time trying to figure out why some people can read it and some can't.  This is INSANE.  Adobe - get it fixed.  period. 

I had to resort to doing screen captures, page by page, pasting into Powerpoint.  Print to PDF / Save as PDF.  The quality is lousy.

THE PDF 'brand promise' is its reliability on all platforms.

[~graffiti]

clordqb wrote:

Adobe - get it fixed.  period. 

Maybe they will when they take over Apple but before then...

[try67]

This is a long-standing bug in an Apple application. What do you expect Adobe to do about it, exactly?

[clordqb]

standing around blaming it on another vendor is useless, ineffectual and toxic as far as customers go.  Vendors should not tolerate this kind of behavior in their product teams.  Sure, the "other guys" product might be buggy but so what?  Deal with it. 

My red face will disappear from my meeting when the product didn't work,  but the sting of my disappointment at Adobe probably won't. 

Here's an idea:   forget viewers.  Just fix the "print to pdf" in fillable forms on the Mac.  If the print function hadn't been intercepted by Adobe, I would at least have had an option on the Mac and had some confidence that I could distribute a readable form to everyone.

[try67]

So Adobe should cripple their application to accommodate for Apple's bug? That's ridiculous.

The printing issue is also caused by Apple, by the way, who forbids installing virtual printers. But you don't seem to be able to realize the distinction between the two companies, so I guess in your mind that would be Adobe's fault as well.

[clordqb]

Here are some fixes that are within Adobe's control that eliminate the need to touch the Print Setup dialog box provided by the operating system. It seems that is a problem area.

For Adobe Acrobat XI 11.0.10.  Here are 3 solutions that I was intuitively looking for --

1.  File-> Export -> export to non-editable PDF  (that can be read on any system, universally)

2.  File-> Save As -> save as non-editable PDF

3.  File-> Print -> Comments & Forms -> add a button beside "Summarize Comments" for "Non Editable PDF.

Use Case:  exporting forms to a broad range of customers - you have no knowledge or control of which readers they are using. 

One more idea:

4.  Save As -> Reduced Size PDF, Optimized PDF, Certified PDF, Reader Extended PDF -- does anyone know if any of these would eliminate the invisible form content problem?  In this use case, there is no way to try it.  I was unable to reproduce the problem since all the systems in my company worked.

Adobe - I hope you will seriously consider these fixes.  I am available through my Adobe ID if your PMs or engineers want more info on the use case.  thanks

[try67]

You can make your feature requests here: Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[clordqb]

thanks -  I'll make a feature request.

[Guest]

I also have the may be the same issue.  All Adobe products here, nothing on the Mac, all on Window 7.

We have couple of old PDF forms that have to change using Acrobat Livecycle Designer Version 9.0.  All the form work previously.

However once I update the PDF form with the Livecycle Designer, the read-only auto-calculated fields no longer show any data.  But the data is there.  The user have to click on the field to see the data, and once the cursor moves to another field, the data is hidden.  This is just beyond annoying.  I have a sample PDF file if an Adobe personnel wants to look at and help trouble-shoot.

[quiksillvr82]

Extra step, but solves the problem by rasterizing the inputs to the pdf.

Print > PDF (CutePDF)

See link below:

Solving the mystery of the empty PDF form | Macworld