How to Combine Forms with .PDF files?

[Former Community Member]

Hello. Several employees at my company frequently generate reports which are then edited in Acrobat 7. Life was good in the days of Acrobat 5. Then something changed between Acrobat 5 and 6, making this virtually impossible.



Then along came Acrobat 7. We rejoiced when we realized we could edit all but one table in Acrobat 7, and that one could be edited using ALCD 7. Now here's the rub:



The tables are generated individually using Crystal Reports as the compiler. Separate .PDFs are generated for each table and edited in Acrobat or ALCD when necessary. When all editing is complete, the reports are compiled in one .PDF for printing/publication.



The problem is that once we edit a table in Designer, it cannot then be merged with the other .PDFs.



Is there anything we can do to get around this? Thanks!

[Former Community Member]

Hi Katherine,



Unfortunately Designer creates an XFA PDF form, which is not inherently compatible with AcroPDF files. (Their internal structure is different.)



You could try one or both of the following things and see if they work - I haven't the opportunity to test these just now myself, but this is what I would try..



Option 1 - When saving the table in Designer, select save as type option of "Acrobat 6 compatible static PDF" option and try if this can be merged into the rest of the file.



Option 2 - After completing all changes, see if you can set up a batch process in Acrobat professional to print the Design files back to AcroPDF format, and then merge into the bigger file.



I hope this helps,

Sanna

[Former Community Member]

I'm having a similar issue with Designer. I have a form that I'd like my employees to fill out, then insert photos as pages into the resulting PDF and save the final version for future review.



A work-around I've found is to use a print button on the form and send it to Adobe PDF as the printer. It will create a static form automatically, which can then be edited.



Right now, though, I'm trying to find an easier solution. I've edited the print method in formcalc so that it doesn't pull up the printer option menu, and so long as Adobe PDF is the default printer, you're golden. What I'd really like is a button that would automatically print to Adobe PDF to streamline the process for my employees. Does anyone know how to do this?