4 Replies Latest reply: May 22, 2014 4:02 PM by George_Johnson RSS

    Fillable PDF created on Mac, filled in on Mac's/PC's have empty fields when emailed to iPhone/iPad

    DianeMarieDennis Community Member

      Hi!

       

      I create fillable forms on my Mac using Adobe Acrobat and both PC and Mac customers fill in the forms and submit them to their own customers.

       

      When I fill in the form on my Mac (using Adobe Acrobat) and email it to me and open the PDF on my Android the filled-in information is there.

       

      When I fill in the form on my Mac (using Adobe Acrobat) and email it to my customer and he opens the PDF on his iPhone/iPad all the filled-in information is gone, the fields are blank.

       

      When he fills in the form on his PC (I'm assuming he's on a PC, he may be on Mac but regardless he's having the problem) using the free Reader and emails it to himself and opens the PDF on his iPhone/iPad all the filled-in information is gone, the fields are blank.

       

      What can I do on my end, when using the full Adobe Acrobat on my Mac to create forms, to make them in such a way that when my customer emails a filled-in PDF from their computer the filled-in info stays intact on the iPhones/iPads?

       

      I can't tell each customer individually that he/she has to download a particular app because the PDF viewer on their phone won't show the filled-in information, that would a logistics nightmare, so I need to figure out what to do on my end when initially creating the forms so that the filled-in information will show up on their iPhones/iPads.

       

      Help please?

       

      Thank you so much!!

      Diane

        • 1. Re: Fillable PDF created on Mac, filled in on Mac's/PC's have empty fields when emailed to iPhone/iPad
          GKaiseril CommunityMVP

          Well since not all apps for mobile devices support PDF forms created in Acrobat and none support forms created with LiveCycle and you need to provide some general information as the minimum equipment and software that is needed and then let them decide what they want to do. The Mobile Adobe Reader would be a good choice.

           

          If the users do not want to download the needed software, then they need to find another approach to filling in the form.

          • 2. Re: Fillable PDF created on Mac, filled in on Mac's/PC's have empty fields when emailed to iPhone/iPad
            George_Johnson CommunityMVP

            There are two basic approaches to this problem:

             

            1. Convince every user to use a compliant PDF viewer, one that supports forms (e.g., Adobe Reader, PDF Expert on iOS)

            2. Flatten the form after filling it in and before sending it along for other users to view

             

            You mentioned some of the problems with #1.

             

            For #2, if a form is flattened, the form fields will get converted to regular page contents, allowing non-forms-capable PDF viewers to see the data. Acrobat users can flatten a form a number of ways. The problem is with Reader, which doesn't have a specific form flattening feature. Desktop versions of Reader (Mac/Windows) flatten forms when they are signed with the new EchoSign e-signature feature and saved, but this feature is not available with forms that are Reader-enabled. All this means there is currently no way to guarantee that the data in a filled-in form will be viewable on all mobile PDF viewers, but there are some things you can do to increase the odds.

            • 3. Re: Fillable PDF created on Mac, filled in on Mac's/PC's have empty fields when emailed to iPhone/iPad
              wxel Community Member

              Hello,

               

              We're currently dealing with the EXACT same issue.  We've created a fillable form .PDF for internal use, that once it is filled out, is then emailed to various people within the organization for record-keeping. When our recipients attempt to view it/open it (most commonly on their iPhone or iPad) the form appears blank, even though information has been filled out within.

               

              As you previously stated, we'd also like to avoid having everyone separately install a particular app since that would involve adding unnecessary steps to a fairly straightforward and simple process.

               

              Has anyone found a resolution to this aside from installing the Adobe Reader app?  Is there perhaps some settings we can modify within Acrobat while creating the initial document that would allow for the filled information to be displayed? Any insight or help would be greatly appreciated.

               

              Thank you!

              • 4. Re: Fillable PDF created on Mac, filled in on Mac's/PC's have empty fields when emailed to iPhone/iPad
                George_Johnson CommunityMVP

                wxel,

                 

                As I mentioned above, you can flatten the filled-in form in Acrobat before emailing it out and the filled-in form data will be visible in (probably) all PDF viewers.