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?

[Guest]

Hopefully this is helpful to someone else, but I had a similar issue. I sent a PDF to someone, and they couldn't see any of my data (thought it would show up in preview mode). If they tabbed to a specific field, they would see the data.

The problem was simply the "Highlight Existing Fields" button. By turning that off, all the blue highlights went away, and my data showed up. He was using Reader version 10 and couldn't find the same option so he couldn't turn off the highlighting.

[dianaunbc]

Hi,

We are having similar issues.  In some case the font field itself was blank. So once that clicked on indicating a font, the fields were populated on our side.  

[KAF72]

I found a workaround that consistently works for me if the person has filled out the form on a Mac. Instead of opening it in Reader or Acrobat for viewing, I open it in a program called Fox-It. They have a free viewer you can download that works just like Adobe Reader only it can read fields typed in by a Mac.

The other workaround I found is to export the data from the form and then reimport it. That seems to work as well.

On the rare occassion when one of those doesn't work, I assume the person forgot to save it.

[Guest]

People need to consider the possibilty that color is the issue.  I found this problem with IRS tax forms.

If the form entry is blue text and you have no blue ink, the printout might exclude that blue text. I have a Cannon PX 160 printer. The color ink cartriges are expensive and run out faster than beer. The print driver software for Mac is completely indecipherable (it has more selections  than a 747 dashboard). There is no button for selecting black and white print. The windows version of the driver is much more user-friendly.

In my case, I had to open the form in Acrobat and change the text color to black to make the form entry show.

[Pkinblue]

Hi,

I created 2 different forms in LifeCycle Designer v9. Once saved I re-open in Acrobat Pro XI and add the extended user options to make the forms fillable and saveable.

I sent the forms to a different user.

One form works great. The second I can type in values and save but when I reopen (whether in Acrobat, Pro, LCD or Foxit) I see no data. Both forms indicate in the purple text that they are fillable and saveable. I have checked security and both docs are identical.

I have tried to alter the fonts --but doesn't help. Not totally sure in which program I should do this as I don't see any options that match the instructions given in an earlier post.

I have tried turning on and off the highlight fields option--doesn't change behavior.

I would be most grateful for any other suggestions as to how to make this work.

[George_Johnson]

If you can post the form somewhere, I'd be happy to take a look at it and try to figure out what the issue is. If you can't or don't want to, feel free to email it to me at: acroscript at gmail dot com

[amyindallas]

After looking for months, I have found a workaround that is actually quite simple.  Many print drivers and other PDF readers, like Mac's Preview, will allow you to "Print" to PDF.  Here are the steps.

1) Once the form is filled in using Adobe Reader, save it with a different name.

2) Reopen that filled form in a program like Mac Preview, which is part of the bundle in Macs and iPads.  (There are probably other PDF Readers that will work, too.)

3) Choose the command Print.

4) Possibly depending on your print driver, in the lower left, you'll see an option that says PDF.

5) Rename it.

When you reopen the PDF in any program (I've so far tested three, including Adobe Reader, the forms will no longer show up or be alterable.)

[hottubmegan]

You state it is a Mac Quartz problem.  With Apple closing on 10% of the Market you would think that Adobe would be designing for Mac users.  After all, Adobe has been working continuously for almost 2 decades with Apple to create Photoshop, Indesign etc for the (almost Mac exclusive) print & design industry.

It seems like a pretty simple fix.  Make Acrobat work on a Mac.  Apple will not change for you.  (Unless Adobe stock prices have magically gone up 20x since I last checked.)

[George_Johnson]

Acrobat has always worked on the Mac. Version 1 was first released for the Mac.

The problem isn't with Quartz, it's with Preview. If people decide to use a non-conforming PDF viewer/editor to work with PDF (which is now standardized by ISO), that is not Adobe's problem.

[Newlands33]

Apologies if this is stupid/obvious, but I had what I thought was a similar problem of some users seeing filled in versions of a form and others blank versions, until I saw the button on the right of the purple bar which says "Highlight existing fields".  And hey presto......

[Midimistro]

To All Above:

If I am reading your posts correctly, you experienced the same problem I did. What happened is that the form data saved, but the application did not close correctly and/or save normally the last time the document was edited. In order to correct this, all you simply need to do is edit the text in the text field of the form. This means if you have a phone number in the form, add or take away ways to write down the number. As for Names, completely retype the name. For Description fields, simply add a phrase or two or delete any undesired text while editing. After doing this and clicking on a different field in the form, the text/data that was there but wasn't visible  earlier will become visible and prinable again. Note:  You may need Reader 9.1.2 in order to do this, as well as the document Assembly and Creation of Template Pages to be set as "Not Allowed" (set up from "Document">Security" and apply fields according to previously stated if you are the creator of the form;  users already under the "Not Allowed"s should be able to fix the problem without being the creator by doing the what I first stated). If the above doesn't work, then I can't help. If I find time I will update this post.

PS-This problem was sovled by a high school junior who only experienced and solved the problem between 2:00pm and 3:00pm today (see post info above for date, post time is 2 hours later than seen)

Midimistro

[AVTTCLC]

We just ran into the same problem.  The forms were we received back have "Mac OS X 10.6.8 Quartz PDFContext" as the PDF Producer.  They were created using Acrobat Pro X, and we tried viewing them with both Acrobat and Reader X, and had the issue where all the fields show up blank until you click on it.

Changing the font size made the fields visible again, but this is a clumsy workaround at best, as the users who receive these forms don't have Acrobat, and I don't know of a way to refresh the fields in Reader.

I can't believe that this issue has been around for 3 years, across 4 different revisions of Acrobat and Reader, and it still hasn't been resolved!

[George_Johnson]

The script shown here will work with Reader: http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/885/cpsid_88564.html

I don't expect Apple to fix this major problem with Preview any time soon. That is a long time that Apple has ignored this problem.

Acrobat and Reader's behavior is according to standard. It is not a problem with Acrobat or Reader, it is a problem with Apple and their application that creates corrupted documents.

[Barry34b]

We have had this issue for a while but have lived with it. Ours is a locked-down desktop environment so we are unable to use any of the workarounds offered on this forum using Professional and are limited to opening these "blank" forms with Reader. We have to extract the data from each field of our forms and copy it into our system - excruciating!!

We now have a note on our website and in the downloadable forms asking our customers to not fill them out with Apple devices, not very customer friendly when iPads etc are prevalent.

I have read it is not an Adobe issue but rather an Apple issue. To be honest I don't care where the fault lies, but Adobe need to be fixing this because it is their customers being affected. Other freeware PDF software gets around this issue so Adobe should as well.

Does anyone know if it is fixed with Reader XI?

[Test Screen Name]

No, because Reader isn't broken.

[Barry34b]

See that is just not helpful  !!

I'll just remove Adobe Reader from 2000 desktops and replace it with a PDF freeware that does work then. DA

[Test Screen Name]

It's not helpful but it's true. Adobe don't just make up how PDF should be any more, there is a 1000 page book published by the international standards organisation. Apple choose to ignore what it says, so they make broken forms.

[mcoastsports]

I've have had online tournament entry forms in adobe, with submit buttons for a long time. I've had many people complain the buttons don't work, or I get the forms but the fields are blank. Or the fields are visible only when clicked.

My daughter has a Mac and while she could fill out the form, the buttons didn't work. Through trial and error we found out it was the Mac Previewer. Once it was turned off the form worked perfectly and submitted to me as they should. That was part of the problem. The other part was the forms coming to me blank. I found out the problem was usually the person had a really old version of adobe reader. Once upgraded the forms worked. I have extended my form to older versions but obviously not all the way back to the 90's. I still get the complaint from time to time--I think it's some version of a faux adobe reader taking over. Always I tell them to open the real program and open the file from there and upgrade if necessary. Or if all else fails save as a picture or just scan the form and send it and I can deal with it on my end. Limits printouts and data extraction but these problems are minor really.

[earthcub]

I didn't read thru the entire thread but found the solution that worked for me.  I'll tell you some details about my forms first.

1. I created them in Acrobat Professional on Mac OSX 10.6.8
2. I can view them perfectly in Preview (OSX native app).
3. I can send them to others and they've been sent back and can still be read correctly in Preview but not in Acrobat Professional on Mac OSX. 
4. The same forms cannot be viewed properly in Windows 7, Acrobat Reader.

What I did to fix the problem was open a returned and filled in form in Acrobat Professional and following many other suggestions, opened Forms > edit mode, select all, change the font size to 9 and close.  Now everything is readable.

I believe the problem to be font metrics between operating systems.  It seems that if the field is too small for the font size, the font simply can't display, after it's run between different operating systems. I fully tested this by recreating the pdf with a consistent font size 9, copied to Windows, filled out the form, sent it back to OSX and opened in Acrobat Pro on OSX and everything was visible and readable.  Opened in Acrobat Reader on Windows 7,same.

I hope this helps.

[AndrewJW1313]

I have been experiencing the same issue.

Here are the details of my form:

• Created form in Acrobat X on Mac
• Form includes calculation fields
• Field font set to Arial as it is common on 99.9999999% of ALL machines
• Password protected from changes

Here are issues with my form:

• When completed in Acrobat or Reader and submitted, everything appears fine
• When completed by Mac users within Preview the calculation fields are not calculated as the calculation script is removed and many properties assigned to text fields are erased/ignored
• Some Reader/Acrobat users systems erases the font property
• The latter two bullets result in a "blank" form being submitted unless I click within each field and then I can see the data, but I cannot print - here's something fun for you, regardless of how it was submitted, I can open and see everything in Preview AND when opened in any previous version of Acrobat, such as version 8, but I cannot see anything without clicking the fields within Acrobat X

Here is only "resolution" to date:

• Open the submitted form in Acrobat
• Choose Form > Edit and select each field, right-click and choose properties
• Change the font family to anything and voila, the data appears
• If saved and submitted through Preview though, the calculation fields are blank and have to be reformatted to calculate data

Final thoughts (just like Jerry Springer's, these really don't matter):

Even though I password protected my document from editing, preview allowed for the formating of the fields to be overriden by Preview. By simply opening and saving a Password protected PDF in Preview and then opening in Acrobat, a user can have full control over editing your form

Since the simplest solution is to change the font family, Adobe should allow for a "default" font setting so that the form displays a default font on the users machine and then when opened on another, it will use a default font there, ensuring the data is always visible, accessible and printable.

I have seen one user within this thread defending Adobe, stating this isn't their fault and I can't agree with that totally. I have been an Adobe user for over 10 years, and ever since Acrobat 7, there have been known issues by Adobe and when contacted regarding the issues, it has been made very evident that Adobe would address the issue in the next release of the product, but not worry about a patch for existing customers. I'm sure there is something Adobe could do to offer support for this issue, but they haven't. In fact, the only "resolution" that has truly been offered for this problem was by a poster on this board.

Knowing that there are many users opening, completing and saving PDF fillable forms in Preview, Adobe should consider looking into this and developing some kind of patch.

[George_Johnson]

The calculated fields don't calculate in Preview because it doesn't support JavaScript in PDF forms. This also affects all other scripts that may be present, including those used to control keystrokes, formatting, and validation. Preview goes further when it corrupts the form by removing all scripting and digital signature fields. The list of things that Preview screws up is too long to get into here. There is absolutely nothing Adobe can do to reverse the extensive damage that Preview does.

Any sort of attempt by Adobe to simply fix the field appearance would be counterproductive in my opinion, as it would merely make it appear that the form is fixed when it is far from it. Simply masking the problem is no fix and can lead to unexpected and incorrect results and Acrobat/Reader should not automatically attempt it. If a user chooses to do this with one of the scripts that are available, that's a different matter, but they should be informed about the significant pitfalls of this approach.

There is a much easier way to deal with forms that have been corrupted by Preview than what you mentioned. You can use Acrobat to export the form data and import it into a blank form. This is far easier, and you don't end up with a form that is still corrupted as your method does.

Also, it is almost always a mistake to use Arial for a form field font. You should use Helvetica instead. Acrobat/Reader end up using a private version of Arial anyway, so selecting Arial only causes the file size to increase unnecessarily since the entire font must be embedded. Here are some links where this issue is discussed in more detail:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1109176

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1276386

[pritcharddesign]

I have read this whole thread, and others. I am having this issue, receiving 'blank' forms. I created the form in Acrobat Pro XI on a Mac. I can not see entries in the form fields...when I click in them, when I change the font size, when I make the fields 'visible'... I have not been told what was used when filling in the forms, but I believe it is a Mac/PC issue, especially after reading this forum. It looks like above people have done the opposite: created forms on PC and gotten blank forms from people who filled it in on a Mac.

Since I'm on a Mac, I can't use Foxit. Also, as mentioned above, Adobe was originally created for Mac. Does anyone have a way I can read the form fields for Mac, not PC?

Thank you.

[Test Screen Name]

You shouldn't have to be told what was used. The user MUST use Adobe Reader, and you need to both tell them that, and explain how to do so. The fact is that many people assume that because Reader is on their system it _must_ be what is reading a PDF.

[Barry34b]

Just download another PDF reader for Apple that will view 'blank' forms, I did the same for Windows and have now replaced Adobe across the network to get around this issue.

Adobe can claim its not their issue all they like, but its their product that I've replaced so that my company can read all PDFs sent to us including 'blank' ones updated by Apple products.

If I worked for Adobe, I'd be fixing this instead of bleating that its an Apple problem. And no I'm not an Apple supporter either, but its not their product I've replaced!

[Test Screen Name]

It's a difficult issue, since Apple doing it wrong is so influential. But the rules of PDF are clear, and written down in a big book now published by ISO - Adobe can't even change the rules any more. If they changed their software, their software wouldn't be accommodating, it would be WRONG. Since there are two places to look. One is easy and one is right. Or so I've had it explained to me.