Signatures disappearing!

[dcleslie07]

I have a few documents I need to merge into a single PDF file through acrobat 9.0. One of them is a pdf form with electronic signatures. When I combine into a single PDF file (using the Combine > Merge Files Into a Single PDF File), the signature disappears! Please help!

[dcleslie07]

actually...maybe that's the way it's built, so people couldn't add pages into a document and make it appear that the signatore signed off on them... anyone have confirmation of that or a work-around? We have a doctor signature and want to combine the study, consent and eligibility to it, for example, for a board to review. Thoughts?

[MikelKlink]

Actually you can be happy if the signature simply disappears. If it didn't disappear but instead was copied as is into a merged document, it would display as invalid, either due to changes to the signed content or due to added content.

In your own comment you indicated reasons why in the course of a document merge signatures should break, and Adobe and their software have become more and and sensitive concerning the changes allowed to signed documents.

Concerning your use case. Have you considered creating a PDF portfolio instead? This is the alternative option in the Combine > submenu.

[dcleslie07]

The portfolio is not optimal, BUT... definitely better than nothing

When fooling around with the quickest way of combining PDFs, I had tried the portfolio but then abandoned it for the other (as 'combine files into a single pdf' bookmarks everything rather than keeping them as separate documents), so I kind of forgot about the portfolio function completely. Thanks for reminding me about it! We can use that as a work around.

[dk73391689]

If you print the file to adobe and save it with a different name, the signature should stay when you add additional files.

[patrickvan]

This doesn't work for me. When I print to Adobe PDF. It opens and tries to save the file as a .log file instead of pdf, even when pdf is selected. Yes, I have used this method on other documents and they create a pdf file normally.