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GB123
GB123
Inspiring
March 21, 2019
Answered

Interactive form

  • March 21, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1392 views

Hello Adobe Users

I recently created an interactive PDF using indesign. Primarily using the combo box option to create a fillable form with drop downs.

I want to be able to fill out the form, save the content selected in the dropdown, and then send on to clients without them being able to access the form fields (just to read the selected info)

I did some research that the only way to send on the PDF and not have the form fields accesible is to print to PDF or to flatten the pages. When I do either of these actions little black lines appear on the page where there are empty form fields (the type that appears on photocopied documents). I cannot figure out how to get rid of them or why they are there.

any help would be appreciated!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer GB123

    You could try this In Acrobat: "Save as" the PDF with password, including this restriction [filling of form fields not allowed]. This will remove the form field, but retain the choice you made from the drop downs, and convert the choice to text. This option will not work if you need to keep some of the form fields live.


    Thanks for your help, i found if i made changes in the field in acrobat (enter custom text manually) it removes the problem.

    2 replies

    GB123
    GB123Author
    Inspiring
    April 1, 2019

    Hi all - me again.

    So i got the form to work after editing each field in acrobat. It looked fine. However, when opening up in acrobat on my mac i notice that there is no option to print to PDF. I want to be able to print to pdf for clients so that it flattens the form fields and doesn't send the fillable boxes to them. I note it has the option to save as PDF but that just sends the live form.

    Is there an easy way to flatten the pdf when saving it without having to go through the optimise or flatten preflight steps? Print to PDF seemed to be the easiest and quickest option when using acrobat in Windows, not sure why I can't do it on the Mac.

    Thanks

    GBC

    Derek Cross
    Community Expert
    Derek CrossCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 21, 2019

    Did you export your InDesign form as an Interactive PDF?

    GB123
    GB123Author
    Inspiring
    March 21, 2019

    Yes I exported from indesign as an interactive pdf.  And the form itself works beautifully in acrobat pro and even when you save a copy and view it all looks fine remaining as an interactive PDF. The form fields do not have borders or shading, so any that I haven’t selected a drop down should look white/or blank when “printing“ but it has these fine broken lines where the form fields/boxes would be. Even when I print to a printer it prints off these lines. They don’t even look like straight/solid borders. More like hand ruled pencil lines

    Derek Cross
    Community Expert
    Derek CrossCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 21, 2019

    Which version of InDesign and OS?

    Maybe a screen shot of the form on here might help.

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