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karent-sysponys
karent-sysponys
Participating Frequently
March 13, 2020
Answered

Delete all Form Fields - Any way to automate?

  • March 13, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 10500 views

In the 2020 version of Acrobat DC, is there a way to automate deleting all form fields in the PDF? I looked at Action Wizard and it doesn't look like you can use it to do this. I can't write JavaScript. Here is how I manually do this for each PDF.

  1. Open the PDF.
  2. In the PDF, select Tools > Prepare Form.
  3. In the Fields pane, change the sort order to Alphabetical order. (You can't do the next step in the default Tab order.)
  4. Select all the fields in the list by selecting the first field, hold down Shift, and then select the last field.
  5. Right-click the selection and then click Delete.
  6. Save the PDF.

I would like to repeat this process for an entire folder of files. (I am deleting "buttons" that use the form field to perform an action. If I use Redact > Remove Hidden Information and select "Form fields" and then execute, it deletes the field's entry from the PDF but leaves behind the button. When I perform the above procedure it deletes both the field and the button.) 

Any help will be appreciated!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer try67

    Have your Action execute the following JavaScript code:

     

    for (var i=this.numFields-1; i>=0; i--) {
	var f = this.getField(this.getNthFieldName(i));
	if (f==null) continue;
	this.removeField(f.name);
}

    1 reply

    try67
    Community Expert
    try67Community ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    March 13, 2020

    Have your Action execute the following JavaScript code:

     

    for (var i=this.numFields-1; i>=0; i--) {
	var f = this.getField(this.getNthFieldName(i));
	if (f==null) continue;
	this.removeField(f.name);
}
      karent-sysponys
      karent-sysponysAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      March 13, 2020

      Thank you so much! This will save me time.

       

      I realize that this might be too much work but if it is not, I'd also like to know how to delete fields that start with the same name. For example, Search1, Search2, Search3...

      try67
      Community Expert
      try67Community Expert
      Community Expert
      March 13, 2020

      Change this line:

      this.removeField(f.name);

      To:

      if (/^Search/.test(f.name)) this.removeField(f.name);

      This will remove all fields whose name starts with "Search".

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