Editing Action Wizards - Actrobat X to Acrobat XI

[Guest]

Hi-

I was recently migrated from Acrobat Pro X to Acrobat Pro XI.

I have some Action Wizard sequences that I created (and could edit) in Acrobat X, but I can only execute them in Acrobat XI.  When I imported them, I got a dialog to the effect that although they could be used they would not access the full power of Acrobat XI.  Fine.  Being based on an older version of the host software, how could they?

But now I find that I cannot even edit them.  In the list of available actions the little icon next to them is a darker gray than the OOB actions, and also darker than the newly-created test action I made (and could edit) with Acrobat XI.  The three older actions are in the red box in the screen shot below.

Notice that the "Edit" button is disabled for my Acrobat X-vintage action.

Is there some bit of magic or voodoo I can / need to perform that would let me edit the old wizards?

I cannot find anything, anywhere, that says either explicitly or by implication that older sequences can be run but not edited in Acrobat XI.  Maybe I just do not have strong enough Google-Foo.

And, before anyone suggests either reverting to Acrobat X or jumping to Acrobat DC: I do not control the version of the software installed on my machine.  That is controlled by the enterprise and I have no say in the matter.  (I was not even notified that the update was about to occur.  It simply happened, one night when I was not looking.)

Thanks-

[try67 · Accepted solution]

I'm sure this information was available at the time Acrobat XI was first released, although I'm not seeing it now. There is some text to that effect here: Acrobat XI Help | Action wizard (Acrobat Pro)

Anyway, there's nothing you can do about it. If you want to be able to edit your Actions you need to re-create them in the format used by Acrobat XI (and DC). The old format is deprecated and can only be executed, not edited.

[Guest]

Thanks.  That was not what I was *hoping* for but it certainly leaves no room for interpretation.  I've opened both old and new sequence files in my favorite text editor and can easily see the format difference.

Looks like I have some work ahead of me to copy, translate, and paste the guts (a complicated javascript) from old to new.

[try67]

If you still have access to a machine with Acrobat X or earlier you should be able to copy the JS code from there and then paste it into a new Action in XI... As a general rule, it's always recommended to keep a copy of your scripts (especially complicated ones) saved in a separate text file.