LiveCycle Created Form, Rights Enabled for Reader, User Opens, Rights disabled!

[thenumberonebes]

Hi, I create forms for my company using LiveCycle Designer on PC. I have been doing so for 3 years. Using XP, then Windows 7 and now Windows 8. I have created over 100 forms this way, both static and dynamic, usually with digital signatures and multiple pages. I upload to our company's employees' portal and they are downloaded and sent in from locations across the United States and Puerto Rico. My normal process is to create them in LiveCycle, open them in Acrobat Pro, Extend the rights to Reader, then save and upload for employees.

After the release of Reader X I started getting complaints from employees that their forms were not allowing them to save or sign. After a few months of this i realized that almost all my forms were doing this and I can not find a common thread among them! Some of them are dynamic, some static, some have signatures, some don't, some have complicated calculations, some don't...etc.

Today I did some experiementing and created a simple form with just basic text fields, i saved it on my computer, extended the rights, then opened it in Reader XI on the same computer. No problem. Then emailed it to myself, opened it on my laptop using Reader XI. Problem. Here is the message that I got and that all my employees are getting.

"This document contained certain rights to enable special features in Adobe Reader. The document has been changed since it was created and these rights are no longer valid. Please contact the author for the original version of this document."

As you can imagine, this is a huge problem for my company as we rely on this forms for work flow everyday. I have searched the forums here and tried a few solutions but none seemed to be anywhere close to target. Thanks for any help or advice anyone can give. (sorry for the long question, but i thought it best to be throughout!)

[Josh_Geurian]

A PDF is really just a collection of objects and when you enable the rights within Reader, it goes though the structure and selects the structural objects that shouldn't change. Then a has signature is created for the objects that shouldn't change. When the PDF opens that hash signauture is checked to make sure these objects have not been changed. It sounds like the old issue that perhaps these forms you are making use Javascript to change the visibility of objects. When the end user make the visibility change, the hash signature needs to be redone the next time the PDF is opened. However this is where the error pops up at. Unfortunatley this error has been somewhat common for years now. Generally people have responded back that the date/time settings on the machine are older than the PDF file creation date. Or other uses have reported that the version the PDF was saved to be optimized for is not set correctly. Sometimes the setting is set too far forward/backward to be optimized for current Adobe Reader software. Just a few things to check out. And what Reader rights are you extending? Do you use the "Additional Features"? And what version of Acrobat Pro are you using?

[thenumberonebes]

Hi, thanks for taking the time to read my question and respond. I have read about some of the time stamp and version issues and elimatinated them as possible causes of my problem.

I do use the Additional Features option when extending, and use Acrobat Pro X. Although when the problem first began I was still using 9 and anyone who opened a form using Reader X would get an error (which is why I upgraded a while ago thinking that was the issue, though clearly it was not).

I am not a formally trained in this field, just got asked to pick up the task and taught myself to do it about 2 years ago so there is room for user error but I doubt I could be missing something across 100+ forms suddenly now. My best guess if is user error is that I'm misusing the updated software but i've been over and over it and through all these forums.

Thanks again,

[Josh_Geurian]

"I am not a formally trained in this field, just got asked to pick up the task and taught myself"

Bud, I am beginning to think that is the case with everyone, except maybe Radzmar (LOL). I was in the same boat with Livecycle was dumped in my lap. Honestly it sounds more like a specific user issue such as software or machine settings that is causing a problem. The only reason I say that is that I literally in the same boat with probably 50+ PDFs I have made with Livecycle in the past 4 years; however mine open in Adobe Reader/Acrobat 7, 8, 9, 10, & 11 no problem (knock on wood). This may be due to my forms not having any data connections and most of the visibility/Javascript options are very limited, so it really depends on what your form is and what the user is doing to open the form. Also I have found custom Javascriptting to cause issues sometimes whereas using the built-in Action Builder lessens those issues. I might ask if you have some time send me one of your forms that is having a problem. I can always take a few minutes to see if anything pops out. Not promising anything, but sometimes 2 heads are better than 1. I put a public email address I use below.

flubby1982@hotmail.com

[thenumberonebes · Accepted solution]

Well, I was hoping in the begining that it was my employees' computers but they are spread out over the east coast with altering levels of computer competency and I just couldn't nail down a commonality between them. Varying versions, time zones, and OS (some XP and some Windows 7). I went ahead and sent you an email. thanks!!!

[Josh_Geurian]

Well lets see what we can figure out. I just sent you 2 emails with the forms you sent me back. I think perhaps I stumbled acorss something with the embedded fonts, but I am not sure. Could just be something not connected to it, but I will check a few more things. I am going to check at my house which has Windows 7 and also Windows 8 installed with Adobe Reader XI so I can see if it is also an OS issue. 

[George_Johnson]

Font problems are a common cause of this. I'd be interested to hear what you find.

[Josh_Geurian]

Well it seemed like it was the embedded fonts. After I got the sample PDFs I removed the fonts and tried them in Reader 8,9,10, and 11 and that error went away. I have seen all manner of explanation for this error in the past few years, so this is nice to see finally in practice. Both thenumberonebestdesigner and myself verifed that the error ceased once the fonts were not embedded. Hope this helps others.