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Fillable Saveable Form - Fields appear to be blank but aren't

New Here ,
Feb 27, 2009 Feb 27, 2009

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We have a fillable savable form created with Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional. Sometimes the form emailed back to our office and opened in Reader Version 9 and it the form appears initially to be blank unless you click into the field - you can then see the data. However, you can't print the form with the data displayed. If using Reader version 8, then if you click the highlight button it acts like a toggle switch to view the data in the fields; however you still can't print.

Any ideas on what is causing this and how we can fix it?

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New Here ,
Mar 22, 2010 Mar 22, 2010

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I also have the same problem but not on every field.  The 2nd and 3rd rows of the form can be filled in, and remain as does the name, and date, but other rows in the form have the same problem as above and cannot be printed.  When you put the cursor on the field, the correct data does show up, but when the cursor is moved, its gone again.  i am using Adobe Professional 9.0.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 22, 2010 Mar 22, 2010

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Do you know what the people that are filling in the form are using? This seems to be common occurance when they are using something other than Adobe Reader to fill it out (Mac Preview for example).

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New Here ,
Mar 22, 2010 Mar 22, 2010

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I'm actually filling it out using Adobe Professional 9.0.  I then send the filled out time sheet that I created to someone else. It works if I only have two lines on the sheet (2nd and 3rd rows) but sometimes have more and thus the problem.    I can't see any difference in the other lines on the form.  Seems like this shouldn't be a problem.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 22, 2010 Mar 22, 2010

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It shouldn't be an issue no.

So are the people receiving the form using Reader? If so, are they perhaps using an older version? If it's the latter, check to see what version you are saving the PDF files as. If it's version 9, try using PDF Optimizer (under the "advanced menu) to change the PDF version to something lower (I use PDF 1.4 for the most part).

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New Here ,
Mar 23, 2010 Mar 23, 2010

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The person I sent the filled out form sees exactly what I see.  She has Adobe Reader 9.  where I have Adobe Professional 9..  The form also prints with the fields blank when we both print it except for the 2nd and 3 rows.  (There are many rows in the form for date, place, activity, and time.)

I hate to go back to printing the form, filling in the blanks, scanning the form, then sending it but just can't find anyone who knows what is happening.

Any suggestions are welcome!

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LEGEND ,
Mar 24, 2010 Mar 24, 2010

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Can you post a link to the form so we can look at it?


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New Here ,
Mar 24, 2010 Mar 24, 2010

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Here is a link to the form.

https://acrobat.com/#d=eHIf7tm3RC-1vNPVvmhMRQ

On further testing, it is just the date fields that disappear except for rows 2 and 3 where they show up like they are suppose to.

Thanks for looking at this.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 24, 2010 Mar 24, 2010

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After looking it over, I don't see any difference in the fields short of the names and tool tips.

Replacing them with new fields seems to work just fine. How did you create them? Were they all new fields or did you copy/paste one field and change the names?

Fortunately it's an easy fix since there are only 8(ish) fields effected. Just create new fields or copy/paste the ones that work and rename them.

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New Here ,
Mar 25, 2010 Mar 25, 2010

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I really don't remember how I created the fields. I scanned in the paper form we use and added the fields. I'm guessing I probably did a copy and paste but not sure. Thanks for your help. I deleted the defective fields and recreated them and it now works.

I also signed up for Acrobat.com which made it easy to post a link. Learn something new every day! Thanks again.

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Community Beginner ,
May 03, 2010 May 03, 2010

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We are having the same issue, but ALL fields on a large-ish form.  Also this form was widely distributed for email responses - so re-distributing it will be challenge.

We are using Acrobat 9.10 with livecycle to create/publish. All works well, except that we are getting occasional returns where all data is hidden, unless we 'click' inside the field - then it appears.  If we export data it is empty.

I cannot see any pattern re: version of acrobat reader or Mac vs. PC that the recipients are using.

This is a serious issue for us, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dave B.

Toronto.

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LEGEND ,
May 03, 2010 May 03, 2010

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I wish I had an answer for you but I do have some information that you may be interested in.

Your licensing only allows 500 uses per form so, a "wide" distribution would probably be in violation of the EULA and would put you at risk. Be sure and study up on the EULA before continuing down that path.

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New Here ,
Oct 05, 2010 Oct 05, 2010

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We have several faculty members who create forms using Acrobat 9.3.x, send them to students, and receive the PDFs forms completed.  When the faculty open the PDFs, the data is blank and will only appear when they click on the individual fields.  This is incredibly annoying and we need a fix soon.

Is there a fix / patch / setting / workaround for this?

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 05, 2010 Oct 05, 2010

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We continue to have the same problem....

The ONLY workaround we have come up with is to use a different reader to view/print the returned forms.  We use FoxIt.

I'm still amazed that adobe cannot fix this issue. I'll never purchase another adobe product if I can avoid it.

Dave B.

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LEGEND ,
Oct 05, 2010 Oct 05, 2010

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Dave B.,

It's not really fair to blame Adobe for this. The problem is almost certainly that some user are not using Adobe Reader or Acrobat to complete and save the Forms. The most recent version of Foxit Reader happens to be a PDF viewer that works relatively well with PDF forms, but programs such as Preview on the Mac have very limited support for forms. I'd be surprised if you saw this behavior from a PDF that was saved with Reader.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 06, 2010 Oct 06, 2010

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I don't make comments like this lightly.

We have tested and diagnosed this issue thoroughly - and I can guarantee that the problem is SPECIFIC to using Adobe Reader (any version after 8.x) to complete the forms and Adobe 9.x or later to receive them.

I have had Adobe support on the phone several times; demonstrated the problem to them, and never received anything more than a 'gee that's odd' response.  yet I have seen on several web forums that many organizations have the exact problem.

Believe me: if Adobe was even willing to assist in a resolution, I'd retract the satement. Until then, we are avoiding them.

Dave B.

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LEGEND ,
Oct 06, 2010 Oct 06, 2010

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Dave B,

OK. In re-reading all of the posts in this topic, it seems as though folks have described at least three separate problems. I was thinking that yours related to using Preview, but that's obviously not the case.

Since your forms are created with LiveCycle Designer, if you're still interested in looking for a solution, I would urge you to start a new topic in the LiveCycle Designer forum here (if you haven't already done so), and be prepared to provide a sample form so the folks there can take a look.

Good luck.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 10, 2012 Apr 10, 2012

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Wrong.  I created a file with Acrobat Pro and when opening on another computer with Acrobat Pro, all fields are blank.  If I hit the arrow down, then all fields magically show up.

It is inconvenient having to explain this to a customer when gets my email attachment is BLANK.

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LEGEND ,
Apr 10, 2012 Apr 10, 2012

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I would be very interested in looking at a sample that behaves this way. If you'd like my help diagnosing the problem you're experiencing, you can email me a sample at: acroscript at gmail dot com

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New Here ,
Aug 31, 2018 Aug 31, 2018

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I use Adobe Acrobat to create and save the form in PDF.  When you open it you can see all the filled in areas.  When you click print, they disappear and will not print.

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LEGEND ,
Aug 31, 2018 Aug 31, 2018

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CrombieVA,

Did you happen to set the fields to "Visible but doesn't print"? You'll find this setting on the General tab of the field properties dialog.

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New Here ,
Aug 31, 2018 Aug 31, 2018

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No, I double-checked. I finally figured out a work-around and hope I

remember what I did for next time. Thank you for caring enough to reply.

On Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 3:27 PM George_Johnson <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

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New Here ,
Mar 06, 2014 Mar 06, 2014

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We had similar issues.  I went into the form fields and changed the arial and the font size to a 10.  I asked people with the MACS either to use FOXIT or the latest version of their reader.  I had another Professor (in Comp Sc) with both systems try it.  Worked fine.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 06, 2014 Mar 06, 2014

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Its fine to ask people to change their settings, but when you receive 20,000 forms a week this is not possible. We made a strategic decision based on Adobe not willing to make their product work to replace it with another PDF reader, which cost us time and money but has a return on investment. If Adobe could be bothered to amend their product to work with 'blank' pdfs then we wouldn't have had to replace their product in our environment. It doesn't matter that Apple is in the wrong, Adobe's strategy is not right.

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Guest
Oct 08, 2010 Oct 08, 2010

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I had the same problem with forms being returned and the data only showing when the cursor was on the field. Downloaded FoxIt Reader and now I can read and print these forms. simple fix for those pesky forms that you can't read otherwise.

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