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Where is PDF preview tab in designer?

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Level 1

I have read a number of forums, however none of the suggested solutions have remedied this issue. I have Designer ES 8.2, Reader 9.1 & Acrobat Extended 9.1.  I run reader to show clients how an extended form will look when they opened in reader.  has anybody resolved this issue?

17 Replies

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Level 2

Hi,

After opening the livecycle designer, goto View menu and in that select Preview PDF option then you will see the Preview PDF tab beside Design View Tab or Master Page View Tab.

Thanks,

Madhu.

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Former Community Member

Also, make sure that the option "Display PDF in Browser" in Edit>Preferences>Internet is selected or enable in Adobe Acrobat Reader or Adobe Acrobat Professional in order for the Preview Tab to be able to enable in LiveCycle Designer. Otherwise, it will disable or greyed out. Hope it helps!

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Level 1

I have confirmed that the option "Display PDF in Browser" is enabled and I have also checked to make sure that all add ins in IE are enabled. I have tried this with both Livecycle and Acrobat Professional (8.1.3 , which includes Livecycle) and it fails to work on either. I have blown away my profile and recreated it. Still no joy.

I am not able to add the tab by right clicking ( master and xml are there ) and under view it is grayed out.

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Former Community Member

I was having the same problem and you've probably found the solution by now.  Anyway, I found that if I opened the file with Adobe Acrobat, then from the Form menu select Edit form in designer, the Preview PDF tab became available again.

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Level 1

Hi all,

I have tried all of the above, yet am still unable to utilise the preview PDF tab (remains greyed out).

Actobat Professional 8.1.3 with LiveCycle Designer 8.0.

This happenens even with the inbuilt samples in LiveCycle.

I noticed in this thread that pguerett mentions the ActiveX controls in the browser. I have checked in IE and confirmed the AcroIEFavClient.dll and AcroIEHelp.dll files are installed and enabled. Are they the controls I need?

Any other suggestions?

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Level 1

Hmm.

On further inspection, I think something funky is going on.

I performed a fresh upgrade of Acrobat 8.1.3 Standard to Professional. Checked all the settings and it looks fine, but the preview tab still isn't available.

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll

I tried to re-register (regsrv32) both of the DLLs but I get the following error:

DllRegister Server in AcroIEHelper.dll failed. Return code was: 0x80004005.

A quick Google says this is an authorisation error. So the file might be in use. I used Process Explorer to see if LiveCycle (or anything) was loading either of those two DLLs - it doesn't look like it. When I open IE I can see the handles, but it seems to be the only thing using them.

Suggestions?

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Level 1

My preview pdf tab is sometimes there and sometimes not. I found that if it is not there the following gets it back.

I save the form and then do File>distribute form. When the wizard comes up I just cancel it. This opens Acrobat and displays the form, which I can then close. When I go back to designer my original form is closed and I have to open it again, but magically when I do, the preview pdf tab appears. It stays put for session once I have done this, so I don’t have to do the dummy distribute form every time.

Not sure why this works or if its going to work all the time, but I hope it helps someone else

Liz

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Former Community Member

Thanks Liz.  Your solution works for me - as you said for the current session only.  Excellent.

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Level 1

Great

I also tried your solution - opening the file in acrobat first and then selecting "edit form in designer" from the Form menu and it also worked for me. Seems like two relatively easy fixes. Hope they work for others as well

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Level 1

Well neither works for me. And again another total bloody unneccessary waste of a users time trying find a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist. Working perfectly yesterday not today.

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Level 1

None of the solutions listed here work. As ever, silence from Adobe and all the users of the software trying find solutions to f*cking unneccessary problems. You people make sick to death with the amount of time you make your 'customers' wate.

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Level 1

Mr Ashmi - I am specifically referring to Lc Designer ES4 - new version of Lc Designer that is part of the new Adobe XI Pro. None of the responses have specifically referred to my exact question of client based vs. server based. I have been working in Lc Designer ES2 for almost 5 yrs. so I understand what people are expresssing in thier solutios however they are all referring to the earlier versions like 8.0; 8.1.3, 8.2 (which is ES2) and those designer versions can be and are funcitonal on a client base application. In ES4 the option for a Preview PDF tab is grayed out. Is this because you cannot develop applications on a client base? If there is, than there has to be some setting that provides you to view PDF during design and development process as is with ES2 and develop for client based and not server based applcations. I am shocked that Adobe cannot answer this rather simple question.

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Level 2

Guessing this is just a permanent problem with ES4?

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Level 5

The Adobe company is such a joke. I have the same problem as above with ES4. Good riddance!

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Level 2

I am having the same problem and non of the solutions listed here have worked.  I just upgraded to AdobeCC, reinstalled my LiveCycle ES4 and found that I no longer can preview with PDF.  Anoying, but I save the form open my AcrobatDC Reader, check the form, then make the adjustments.  It's extra time and extra clicks which really bothers me.  And yes Adobe does not seem to want to support LiveCycle.  Because I've created so many forms with this program, it would be a real pain to have to redo everything with their new AcrobatDC.  What gives here?

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Level 1

Hello,

I just solved the problem with the preview tab for me,I hope it will help someone.

Go to Uninstall Programs

Click on Adobe Acrobat

Click on Change

Click on Repair

After repair process it should be all ok.

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Level 1

Solution that worked from Adobe:

1. In Internet Explorer under Gear icon (top right) go to Manage add-ons.

2. In the Show drop down select All add-ons.

3. Under Adobe header find Adobe PDF Reader add-on and select it.

4. Click Enable.

Reopen Livecycle Designer and the option and tab to Preview PDF should be available now.