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A
Anonymous
November 10, 2009
Answered

Why can't I edit pdf's sent to me?

  • November 10, 2009
  • 2 replies
  • 10434 views

I have the free downloadable version of Adobe Reader 9 and I have fillable forms that are in pdf Adobe format that I purchased on the internet, but I cannot fill in the forms even though it says"Filling of form fields: Allowed"  in theDocument-- Security--- Properties.  How can I edit these forms in PDF? Any help would be very much appreciated.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Ildhund

    There are no form fields in that PDF. There might have been in the Word document it was created from, but those didn't make it through the PDF creation process. It's a good example of the sort of stuff too many companies make available for download. Since it has to be signed anyway, it will have to be printed first. You could

    • pay out lots of money for Acrobat;
    • go back to where you got it from and see if the original Word doc is available;
    • copy all the text into a new Word doc, replace the underlined bits with spaces and then print it and sign it;
    • print it as is, white out the underlined bits, photocopy the result and sign that;
    • suggest to whoever produced this that they find out about how to prepare forms for download, fillable PDFs and digital signatures.

    Noel

    2 replies

    A
    Anonymous
    November 11, 2009

    Thank you for your help!!  Your answers were very helpful.  Sorry, I didn't have any idea I posted this question in the wrong forum.  Thanks again!

    A
    Anonymous
    November 10, 2009

    Here is a sample of the unfillable PDF adobe file.

    Claudio González
    Claudio González
    Legend
    November 10, 2009

    Youd'd be much better off posting your question in the Reader forum, here:

    http://forums.adobe.com/community/adobe_reader_forums/adobe_reader

    This forum is for discussing the forums themselves.


    In any case, filling allowed only means that you could fill in fields if they were there.

    John_Levine_IOPHFI_INH
    John_Levine_IOPHFI_INH
    Participating Frequently
    November 11, 2009

    You can't edit documents with just Adobe Reader. You need the full version of Acrobat.

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