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How do I prevent people from saving a form

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Former Community Member
All,



I created a form for online fill in, but I do not want anyone to have the ability to save their data on the original form; they can "Save As" and rename it anything else with their data, but I want to keep the original form blank...not sure if this is so simple I am tripping all over it, but I can't find this simple procedure anywhere...



..any help?



thanks



Ed
27 Replies

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Former Community Member
Hi Ed - Unless you enable document rights in Professional, NO ONE will be able to save their data in that form. You should see a little default message when you open the form in Reader that says "Please fill out the following form. You cannot save data typed into this form..."



Try testing yourself. Hope that answers your question.

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Former Community Member
Gretchen,<br /><br />Thanks for the response..I'm using Lifecycle Designer 7.0 and I don't see the default message. When I open my form, it opens fine with reader, I can fill it in, print it, email it fine. But when I close it without saving, it asks me if I want to save it; I do and the data is there next time I open it. I have gone into Form Properties, Security Tab and tried the different options to no avail. I am really new to this program so I could easily be building my form completely wrong from the ground up. But it just seems it would be much easier (like in <shudder> Word) to make a document "Read Only" and allow people to fill it in and, if they wanted a copy saved, to rename their copy something else. That is what I am looking for...<br /><br />Ed

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Former Community Member
Hi again Ed -



The default message is only found when viewing the form/PDF using either Reader or Professional, NOT while in Designer. Designer is the program to CREATE the PDFs - so anything you place on that form, will naturally save. It is NOT meant to be the program you fill in the forms, save as, etc. I'm guessing when you're in Designer, you're viewing the form in the PDF Preview tab? Despite it looking like Reader and showing you how the form "looks in Reader", this ISN'T Reader.

Close out of Designer completely and try re-opening the form with Reader only (close out your Professional if it opens...Professional WILL save your data).

See if that doesn't work for you.

You can email me directly too, if you need more assistance:

gretchen.payne@wch-rcc.com

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Former Community Member
Hey there,



I am creating forms for my office and I want the people in my office to be able to save their documents but not the original. Is there any way that I can do a "SAVE AS" ONLY??



Help...

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Former Community Member
Is your "original" a PDF form (interactive and fillable?) If it is, the only way anyone could save their data, is if the form is enabled through Professional. Without that, they'll be unable to save it. If you open your form with Reader, you'll only get the options to either "Save As Text" or "Save a Copy".

Does this answer your question?

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Former Community Member
Thank you for your help. When I opened my document in Reader I was not allowed to save it but I could print it. (I could only save a "Blank Copy") Is there any way I can make it so it will "SAVE AS" or "SAVE a COPY"?



Thanks

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Former Community Member
To "Save As" or "Save a Copy", the form must first be enabled using Acrobat Professional (you may or may not have this). If you do, open Pro, then open your form (or document). From the menu bar, select Advanced>Enabled Usage Rights in Reader. It'll prompt you to save the document again.

Close out your professional and try reopening the newly-saved/newly-enabled form from Reader. It should now allow you to "Save As" or "Save a Copy."

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Former Community Member
Hi, I have created a form and do not want the information saved if a person closes the form. Could you tell me where the setting is to disable that? (if there is such a thing).



Thanks

Sheryl

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Former Community Member
I have a similar question. I created a survey form in LiveCycle Designer 8.0 that I want to be submitted by email as PDF but not allow those who fill the form to save the form. First I included a Submit by Email button which when clicked sends an email but the form is attached in XML format. The filled form cannot be saved.



One of the postings here suggested changing the Submit by Email button to a regular button, define it as Submit, enter the email address, and use PDF as the format. And use Enable Usage Rights in Reader under Advanced of Acrobat Pro. This time, when the Submit by Email button is clicked, the email is triggered, the form is attached in PDF format and the filled form CAN be saved.



But is there a way to allow sending the form by email in PDF format and DO NOT allow saving of the filled form?



Thank you for your help.

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Former Community Member
I understand that when opening the fillable document in Reader, they cannot save it, only print it. However, a few people in our company do have the Acrobat Pro as their default and when they open my fillable document, they may be able to save is with their info when they close it. Anyway around that???

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Former Community Member
I simply changed the properties of all my PDF forms to Read only so they have to give it a new file name. After they finish typing into it and click the save button they get the message,"The Document Could Not Be Saved. The file may be read only or another user may have it open. Please save the document with a different name or a different folder."

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Former Community Member
After upgrading to Reader 8.10, when I open up some documents in LiveCycle, the pdf reader (preview) does not work. Upon attempting to open the document, it gives me an error message "there is a problem with Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and try again.' Then it will open the document as a "new untitled document". Sometimes it will shut down the application. Is there a fix for this??

Thanks.

Paula

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Level 7
LiveCycle Designer uses Acrobat as the previewer, so installing Reader may have changed the file associations at the OS level. Try uninstalling Acrobat and and reinstalling. I suspect there will be other problems with your configuration, like Reader being opened when one double clicks on a PDF file and your web browser uses the Reader plugin rather then the Acrobat plugin and forms no longer work the way you expect them to.

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Former Community Member
BOBBIE: you seem to have cottoned onto what everyone is on about!

the issue isn't people who are using reader, its other employings/ppl who are using PRO as well, but keep saving there data over the top of the forms that are meant to stay BLANK



So i get what you're saying about making it a read only file, but when i do that, it seems pro overides it and still allows people to save over the top? Surely theres something in Pro that allows the restriction of saving by ANY ONE ELSE - no matter what they're using to view the pdf....



Help please im going bananas.

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Level 7
I think the key thing that has been missed here is that this isn't

about Acrobat protection or security at all. If you don't want a file

to be overwritten, you protect it. You use Windows security, server

security, Windows group policies, whatever works in your organisation.

If you don't know how to do this, talk to your local systems

administrator.



You will probably need to protect the folder AND the file, since it is

always possible to replace a file that cannot be written to.



Aandi Inston

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Former Community Member
I have created a form in Adobe professional 6.0. This has fillable fields that I wish a supplier to complete and send back to me. this is saftey documentation and I can type in when opened in professional but when sent to another person and opened in Reader 7.0 it says that I cannot save data typed into this form. I really need this functionality to save, Can someone assist??

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Former Community Member
Hi Alan,



I do not believe that is a feature for Adobe Professional 6.0.



If you had Adobe Professional 8 you can do the following:

Open the form in Adobe Professional. Click on the Advanced Menu item. Select "Enable Usage Rights for Adobe Reader".



The program will prompt you to save the document.



Close out of Adobe Professional and open the form in Adobe Reader. You will now be allowed to type into the form and save your data.



However, if any modifications are done to the form in the future with LiveCycle Designer you will need to go through the steps again to enable the rights from Adobe Professional.



Have a great day.

Pam

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Former Community Member
I would like to create a PDF Document

where users fill in blank areas such as name

users CANNOT save on Computer or e mail this document

They can only print form

Please describe it step by step. I am using Adobe Acrobat Prof8 Thanks a lot.

George

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Former Community Member
Hi..,

I ve created a dynamic form using Adobe Livecycle designer 7.1.

Everything works fine..but when i try to save the form after filling., the dat typed is not saved. only a blank copy of the form is saved. please help me resolve this issue..I am getting a message that "data typed in this form cannot be saved..please take a print of the filled document".



Regards,

Karthikeyan

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Former Community Member
Willy RJ - 12:52am Jul 29, 07 PST (#9 of 20)



I have a similar question. I created a survey form in LiveCycle Designer 8.0 that I want to be submitted by email as PDF but not allow those who fill the form to save the form. First I included a Submit by Email button which when clicked sends an email but the form is attached in XML format. The filled form cannot be saved.



One of the postings here suggested changing the Submit by Email button to a regular button, define it as Submit, enter the email address, and use PDF as the format. And use Enable Usage Rights in Reader under Advanced of Acrobat Pro. This time, when the Submit by Email button is clicked, the email is triggered, the form is attached in PDF format and the filled form CAN be saved.



But is there a way to allow sending the form by email in PDF format and DO NOT allow saving of the filled form?



Thank you for your help.



--------



I do need the exact functionality, but in my case PDF is submitted to the web server. Usage rights have been enabled, cause otherwise you cannot submit the entire PDF to the server. I've played with security and removed ability to comment, print, but still cannot apply a restriction to prohibit users from SAVING filled out local copy.

Is there a work-around for this?