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Editing Form Fields inside Acrobat? (after using LiveCycle Designer)

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Level 1

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended ==  Acrobat

LiveCycle Designer ES 8.2 == LiveCycle Designer

=========================================

Say I downloaded a new PDF from the interwebs.

I want to add some forms fields so I go to Forms ==> Add or Edit Fields... (inside Acrobat)

Now Acrobat will detect possible places where to add the form fields. I make changes etc. Then I am  satisfied with my form fields.

Now say I want to remove a particular object from the PDF, lets take an image as an example.

So I fire up  LiveCycle Designer; File ==> New ==> Import a PDF document ==>  Create an Interactive Form with a Flowable Layout.

I remove that pesky little object.

In LiveCycle Designer, I save the file as PDF.

I open up Acrobat. I realize I need to make some more changes to some of the Form  Fields.

But now instead of "Add or Edit Fields..." option I get "Edit Form in  Designer..."

I hate the GUI of LiveCycle Designer --- I had rather edit the form  fields from inside Acrobat, as it is easy and fast to change multiple  form fields in a few clicks.

0 Replies

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Level 10

Hi,

AcroForms (forms created in Acrobat) and XFA forms (forms created in LC Designer) are two different animals. When you open an XFA form in Acrobat, you can fill in the form data into the fields and interact with the form, but you cannot change the form structure and layout. You would need to re-open the form in LC Designer.

You could stay in Acrobat and develop the AcroForm, not going into LC Designer at all. If the existing form is not flattened, then you may be able to slect the object you want to remove using the "Touch up Object Tool".

Acrobat1.png

Hope that helps,

Niall

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Level 1

Thank you for your response Niall.

I do not understand what you mean by "If the existing form is not flattened"

I am uploading a PDF. I am trying to remove "Sample" image from it without loss of content.

This is how it looks in Acrobat:

with sample.jpg

The "Sample" object becomes a circle in LC designer and it is very easy to remove.

sample removed.jpg

Here is the link to PDF file:

http://www.mediafire.com/?tnxdhdb4mzm

(I cant seem to attach it in this message)

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Level 10

Hi,

If the PDF was flattened, all objects / text / graphics would not be selectable individually. As it is the PDF is not flattened, so if you open the PDF in Acrobat and use the Touch-up Object Tool you can select each letter in turn and delete it.

Acrobat2.png

Acrobat3.png

All done in Acrobat and not LC Designer.

If its your own organisations' PDF then fair enough. However if it belongs to someone else you may be contravening copyright.

Niall

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Level 1

Thank you Niall for giving me a solution to my problem.

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Level 1

I have a problem with your method:

When I click first after turning on the Touch up Object Tool, Acrobat selects another object:

first click.jpg

The only way for me to do any thing else (i.e. select S) is to press Delete which deletes the object it selects:

after deleting object.jpg

As you can see from the above image, that the formating is spoiles now (there are lines under and above "Ability to communicate").

Now when I click again, it selects another object:

second click.jpg

Deleting this other object doesnt seem to ruin any formatting, but I still have to do it in order to select the S.

Any suggestions? What am I doing wrong?  Why is it doing this?

Here is the file:

http://www.mediafire.com/?nwjw5gmtmyt

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Level 10

Hi,

You just need to take your time. If you select another object, just click out to the side to deselect and then try again. The Touch-up Object Tool will need to be directly over a line of a letter and not over another object. It is possible:

Acrobat.png

Niall

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Level 1

Yes it works now.

Thanks for showing me how to do it.

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Level 1

Thank you for your guidance above on how to remove objects using TouchUp Object tool. Earlier, I assumed that in order to select the object I needed to select a part of the object, now I was able to remove the "Sample" object, by just click a part of it.

Now, I am trying to remove this line using TouchUp Object tool:

this line1.jpg

The reason being that when I type in text I don't want the line to make it seem like a strike through.

I managed to remove the second line, but when I go to select the first line (as shown by the arrow above), it keeps selecting the box:

selects the box.jpg

I have tried more than 5 times, selecting the area outside to unselect the box, and tried again to point my mouse to the line, but it keeps selecting the box. Any suggestions?

============

I also want to edit the box which it has currently selected to remove the top line i.e. the line that is under the "Comments:", but since it is part of the box I do not know how to (inside Acrobat). Any suggestions?

I tried Right Click and Edit object it says "Before editing an object from Acrobat, go to the TouchUp panel in Preferences and click Choose Page/Object Editor to specify where an object editing application (for example, Adobe Illustrator) is located on your computer."

The following softwares were bundled with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended: Acrobat Distiller 9, Adobe 3D Reviewer, and Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES 8.2. (There is also Adobe Presenter which I have not installed).

=============

Here is the updated PDF with the form fields I have added:

http://www.mediafire.com/?emqmknytgjj

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Level 10

Hi,

I was able to select it on the right hand side of the line.

Acrobat1.png

If you want to edit the box, Acrobat will look for a graphics program, like Illustrator or similar (possibly Photoshop or InDesign might do as well). The Acrobat bundle will not have the required tools for this. Maybe GIMP or some other open source tool might work.

Hope that helps,

Niall

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Level 1

Thank you Niall for the above response; Your response gave me an idea which allowed me to remove that line by zooming in to 200%

You know Acrobat detects Form Fields for you.

But many times it makes mistakes, for example in the screenshot below it made the boxes that came with the PDF as text fields instead of check boxes.

detects as text boxes.jpg


The thing is rather than me delete the (form) fields it detected, and start over by making new check boxes, I will not be able to place my new check box in exact locations as Acrobat has done.

When I imported the fields that Acrobat made into LC (by saving the PDF in Acrobat and then opening it with LC) I get option to change the Object Type from Text Field to Check Box when I right click the object.

Change Object Type LC.jpg

Is there a similar way to change the Object Type from Text Field to Check Box inside Acrobat? Any suggestions?

===========

I would really like to do it inside Acrobat because then if I have to make some minor changes to some field properties, all my hard work which I did by filling the fields gets deleted, as I am forced to use LC. The text I add to the fields don't get deleted when I edit the field properties inside Acrobat. I don't know why LC decides to delete all the text which is filled out in the form fields even though the PDF is saved in Acrobat before being imported into LC?

Here is the above PDF file with the text boxes:

http://www.mediafire.com/?lnn32jm5am5

Again thanks for all your guidance so far.

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Level 10

Hi,

If working on the form in Acrobat, I would stick to that and not change back and forth between Acrobat and LC Designer. Once you develop a form in LC Designer - it can be opened in Acrobat, but a lot of the editability in Acrobat is gone.

When auto detecting the fields, Acrobat should consider a small square box as a checkbox. To be honest I don't know why it didn't.

I would delete the fields that Acrobat has inserted and start adding the checkboxes manually.

Add one checkbox and amend the size and style to what you want. Then right click on it and select "Place multiple fields". Copy the checkbox across the page.

Acrobat8.png

Then position them across the page.

Select all four and repeat the process, copying them down the page:

Acrobat9.png

Select four at a time and click and drag downwards (while holding the shift key) and place over each of the rows.

Acrobat will take care of the field names for you.

Here is an example: https://acrobat.com/#d=7bq*Y2iX1EDq7mkTnFbeew

Hope that helps,

Niall