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November 10, 2009
Answered

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

  • November 10, 2009
  • 2 replies
  • 10440 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

    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!

    November 10, 2009

    Here is a sample of the unfillable PDF adobe file.

    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.

    Claudio González
    Legend
    November 11, 2009

    He posted an example which did not have any form fields in it. 'Fillable' is an elastic term.

    Noel


    Noel, Phillip, discussions about poducts are best carried out in their specific product forums. Such discussions are not only for answering the questions of the original posters. We are all supossed to benefit from them, and whatever conclusions are drawn should become available to all those entering the respective forums. Specially those facing the same problems in the future, who hopefully should not have to ask the same questions again.


    No matter how complete and informative the posts you are writing here are, but for all practical porpuses they are non existent for the participants in the Reader forum, which to me looks as an almost complete waste. And I am not counting the fact that the OP here has not given any sign of having come back to the forums after posting the PDF s/he cannot fill...