File Attachments not "enabled" in Acrobat Reader 9

What you are seeing in Reader 8 is a security hole that was plugged in Reader 9.

The attached form is still enabled for save in Reader. Attaching it does not change this. However, it's embedded into another document. In order to modifiy it within an embedded file the main PDF has to have Reader Embedding Rights as well as Reader Save Rights. If you use the regular file attachments, instead of the attachement annotation, you'll see this same restriction in Acrobat 8. For some reason this restriction got past the developers for the file annot in Reader 8.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

Thanks a lot for for responding to my post!

How do I give a pdf "Reader Embedding Rights" and "Reader Save Rights" as you mentioned? When a fillable form is "enabled" in Acrobat Professional version 8.x, doesn't the form automatically have "embedding" and "save" rights? Our users attach the 2nd form using their Reader program ("Attach a file as a comment" feature). We don't use the "Attach a file" feature as it is only available in Acrobat Professional. Our users add text/data to this form and save it (while it is attached to the main form). So we also need the ability to modify the attached form. How can we do this in Reader version 9.x? It can be done in Reader version 8.x.

Any recommendations or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The file attachment comment creates an odd issue that Adobe hasn't quite figure out how to deal with.

Enabling for Reader in Acrobat Pro adds Form Filling, Save, Commenting, and Signing rights. It does not add embedding rights. Howerver, since the file attachment annotation is a "comment", it can be used in Reader. But all those other embedded file features like modifying the file, don't apply. What you saw in Reader 8 was a mistake on Adobe's part, it wasn't supposed to work.

To get a specific right for your form you have to either buy that right from Adobe or purchase the LiveCycle ES Rights Server (very expensive, like in the 10's of thousands of dollars).

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

Hi Thom
As so often, came across your post while trying to see why my form button to 'attach a file' created in Pro8 won't work in Reader 8. The asterisk tells me this function will be available in rights-enabled forms, but as seems to be the story of my life with Acrobat, the rights are not the ones I can dish out for the $400 investment.
I too will have to get around the problem by getting users to 'attach the file as a comment' or put it in the submitted email with the form (why do a job neatly when you can do it messily?).
This follows close on the heels of having to freeze our use of Acrobat at 8.1 because it now locks out the ability to link to Windows Explorer folders with links created by conversion of MS hyperlinks.
As a lay user I know nothing about security vulnerabilities, but Acrobat & Reader are becoming useless as an interactive document presentation/retrieval/submission system, which is a shame having invested hundreds of hours in such a system over the last ten years. If security is such a problem, how come we can still do all these things in MS apps? (but which are no good for all the other linking, buttoning and interactive features we have in Acrobat). Seems that this acrobat grows more and more arms to juggle with but has lost its legs.Sigh....

I am having a similar problem described by Sherylj, but I'm using Acrobat pro 9 when attaching files (3 forms I create and selected in each the "extend features in Adobe Reader" so that users can fill and save their forms). The problem is when these attached files are opened from within the main pdf, the "extend features" doesn't seem to be active, because the attached forms display a message that state that the form is fillable but it cannot be saved....Am I setting a feature in the wrong way?

BTW: I checked the Adobe Knowledge base and help and according to the literature what I'm doing should work...