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I created an adobe form and sent to several clients. They filled it out and I have tried to combine them and when I do all the documents are there but they are separate docs in one file. I need ONE scrollable document with all the files one after another. I'm using Adobe DC and I'm VERY irritated and frustrated about this. Please HELP!!!!
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Hi;
What steps are you taking in Acrobat DC? From the "File" menu is "Create" -> "Combine Files into a Single PDF" which would do exactly what you are asking for...
Thanks,
Josh
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Hi Josh! Because I'm these forms were created in Adobe when I go to combine them outside portfolio mode I get a message that basically says all the form properties will combine into one form so if I have 20 copies of the same form - only the first document information publishes and it repeats 20 times. It says I have to create in portfolio mode and when I do - all the documents are there BUT it looks like 1 page and you have to select the next document versus having all the documents in one scrollable file. The document reader says 1/1 instead of 1/70 but all 70 files are there you just have to select the next file to see it.
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I see - I get what is happening and will have to follow up a bit to figure out how to get it to do what you want. Would it be possible for you to share an un-filled copy of the PDF so we could experiment a bit? If yes I'll send an email offline...
Thanks,
Josh
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Yes, I sure can and thank you so much! I played around with Adobe DC last night and if I had created the document in DC it could track and send and do all sorts of things with the form but I created in Adobe XI and everyone has already sent their completed forms back to me. Please send me an email and I'd be happy to send my form to you. Thank you so much!!!
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Hi Donna;
I understand what is happening and recall working with this a few years back. The only method I could think of is to "flatten" the form fields which makes the PDFs no longer function like a form and the fields would no longer be editable, but this may suffice...
I asked around and the best suggestion (other than flattening) I received was to use Javascript to rename the form fields (you could rename them manually using Prepare Form in Acrobat DC but it would be very labor intensive). Since the fields are "read only" to Javascript you'd actually "Duplicate" each field and it's value giving the duplicate a new name (append unique identifier) and the same value, after creating new fields the script would delete the original fields. You'd want the script to create unique names to append so that each run of the script on a new file would create a new set of names.
Note that data extraction will not work as expected after renaming the fields in each PDF since they would then have different field names.
Here is the javascript in Acrobat forum for assistance with this:
You would also want to use "Actions" to create an action which runs the script and then run that action on all of the PDFs:
Adobe Acrobat DC Action Wizard
Back to the "flatten" method, you would use "Optimize" to "flatten" the form fields, the forms would no longer be "functional", they are like an image with text at that point, but may serve your purposes just fine. To flatten a form:
1) Tools -> Optimize
2) Advanced Optimization
3) Click the “Discard Objects” tab
4) Check “Flatten form fields”
Again here you'd want to create an "Action" for this that you could run on all of the files in batch. If you do that for all of the forms you would then be able to combine them, but as noted before, flattening the form means the fields no longer work and are not editable etc.
Thanks,
Josh
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Josh,
I am facing the same issue Donna has. I am able to set up a custom action to flatten my form fields however it asks me after each form to save. I had XI Pro and I was able to select hundreds of files to perform the function and it would auto save them so I didn't have to click save each time. This is time consuming.
Is there any way to flatten multiple forms (hundreds) without having to click save?
Thanks!
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I have the same issue and need to combine several forms into a pdf. Please let me know how to flatten several pdfs at the same time. Thank you, K
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In Acrobat Pro use the Action Wizard for this.
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The best solution I came up with was to export each fillable pdf file to jpeg. When exported, select all files to be combined and right click. Scroll down to "Combine files in Acrobat". When all the jpeg files populate, simply click on the Combine button as you would normally to create a pdf binder that can be saved, and each page in the new document retains its own information!
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The easiest way I found around this is to save the .pdf's into word docs, then combine them. Adobe should create a method, then allow us to choose whether to combine the pdfs into one form, or to view each as a separate doc.
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Adobe do have exactly this, Beth. You can choose to make a portfolio, which views each as a separate doc.
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I don't find the portfolio easy - it's like creating a family of documents. They still seem to be separate when editing, deleting pages, etc. To me, and this is probably due to my lack of expertise and time to gain that expertise, it is cumbersome.
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Yes, you're right, it is cumbersome and limited. But it's the only game in town when combining fillable forms, because it will always happen, if you combine two fillable forms with the same field name, that they end up with the same value. Of course, if you don't want the fields to be fillable, there are other options.