STILL....Filled out Form printing blank. Why hasn't Adobe corrected this?

[PringleCSFD]

Very frustrated! And when I look here for help, I see the problem has been going on for years, and still exists. 

Problem: I created a Form using Adobe Pro (I have the latest version, installed only a few weeks ago). When we type in a form field that can contain a lot of text, it doesn't "stay" and it doesn't print.  If I click in the field, the text is still there, but it will not print.

Note: This has nothing to do with Apple Preview or any other previewer/reader...this is all happening right in Adobe Pro.   Saving it as a Reader Extended PDF does not fix the problem. 

Does anyone have a fix for this yet???

On a separate note with Forms, I've noticed that if I want to combine PDFs into a larger document, it will combine and merge unique forms as one, and basically erase the others.  Adobe should have a way to save a completed form as an Read Only PDF. This seems like it would be a simple thing but in 2020 it still doesn't exist?

Sorry for the annoyed tone...but it's super annoying 😕

[Bernd Alheit]

Can you share the form?

[PringleCSFD]

It has somewhat confidential info that I can't share as is, but I will try to recreate the situation with a dummy document and attach that...thank you!

[try67]

Re issue #2: This happens because you're merging forms that have fields with the same names, which means they will also have the same values in the merged file. To avoid it you can rename the fields, merge the files as a Portfolio or flatten the files before merging them. All of that is possible in Acrobat, and has been for a long time.

[PringleCSFD]

Thanks for the reply...Flattening didn't work for whatever reason, and saving them as a portfolio wasn't what we needed for this project...but you are right about the reason, and since I couldn't change the names of the fields, I did a workaround by printing and scanning the document and using the scanned PDF which was then what I wanted: Read Only. I appreciate the quick reply.

[try67]

Flattening should have worked. How did you flatten them, exactly?

[PringleCSFD]

I googled "how to make an editable pdf read only" to find the answer and found instructions to do this:

Save as Optimized PDF

got an error message that says I don't have sufficient permissions to perform this task (even though I created the form). Please change the security settings from the Document Properties dialog and retry.

Went to File, Save As Other, Optimized and got THIS error message:

This document restricts some Adobe Acrobat features to allow for extended features in Adobe Acrobat Reader. To create a copy that is not restricted, click save a copy.

Clicked on Save a Copy.

Clicked on Save As Other, (optimized now grayed out) clicked on Reader extended PDF, Enable more tools

got another error message:

This document already has enabled usage rights in Adobe Acrobat Reader

To remove reader enablement, use File, Save a copy...and so on and so on...

I was finally able to click on something (sorry...don't remember what it was) that got me to a window where I had to check "discard objects" and then "flatten form fields" but got similar error messages to the above. 

[try67]

You don't need any of that. All you need is to execute the following JavaScript command:

this.flattenPages();

This can be done through an Action in the Action Wizard, for example.

[PringleCSFD]

try67
Most Valuable Participant , Aug 11, 2020
You don't need any of that. All you need is to execute the following JavaScript command:
this.flattenPages();
This can be done through an Action in the Action Wizard, for example.

Will try that...thank you!!

[PringleCSFD]

OK...I just found another way by "printing" to Adobe PDF instead of a printer. It basically flattens it while creating the Read Only PDF which is what I was looking to do. Anyway, if you know of another way, I'd be interested to hear it and I appreciate your taking the time to reply. Now if I can just figure out the answer to part one.... 🙂

[Bernd Alheit]

To remove the reader extension:

• Use Tools > Save a Copy
• Open the copy

[PringleCSFD]

To remove the reader extension:
Use Tools > Save a Copy
Open the copy

Tried this but it didn't work 😕

[swapnilsrivastava · Accepted solution]

Hi There,

Thanks for reporting the same here.

We already have a pending issue with us regarding a similar query. The bug is with us, and will be prioritized accordingly. We will update the comment-line over here with any update on the bug.

Also, in the meanwhile one can try Printing the PDF file for the filled form and then print to actual printer if required. 

Please let us know, if this workaround works for you.

If the issue still persists; please share more info regarding the issue :

1. OS version
2. Acrobat/Reader version installed
3. Printer used (and driver)
4. Is the same happening for all the data in the Form or only to the DropDown menu's in the Form

Regards,
Swapnil Srivastava

[PringleCSFD]

Thank you!!!!!

Windows 10

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

Printer is a Konica . not sure what you mean by Driver?

It happens with some of the form fields, not all. But they are not drop downs.