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Can somebody give me advice on creating a form where only the input fields print

kbegelman
Registered: Dec 17 2010
Posts: 2

I am using Acrobat Pro Extended 9.0 and I wish to create a form by scanning an existing document, however, when the form is printed I only wish to print the data from the fields and not any of the original document. I have a physical, pre-printed form that I wish to scan and convert into a PDF, add some input fields (name, phone, address, etc.) and then allow users to add their info. I intend to have the users place the pre-printed form into their printer and when they click 'print' only the input data goes on the document.
 
I tried working through the help screens and cannot find it and am relatively new to using Acrobat Pro. Any advice on how to get started would be greatly appreciated.
 
William Kyle

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro Extended 9.0, Windows
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4308
Have you looked at the Print UI screen in Acrobat?

There should be an option for "Content", "Comments and Forms", "Document and Markups", or something similar. Select "Form Fields Only".

Options in the Print dialog box

George Kaiser

kbegelman
Registered: Dec 17 2010
Posts: 2
Thanks for the advice which was very helpful. I knew it was probably something easy but could not figure it out. My optimal goal though is to restrict a form in its settings so that no user would have to choose Print\Comments and Forms\Form Fields Only. Does anyone know of a way where the form defaults to this setting and does not allow the user to modify it?
try67
Online
Expert
Registered: Oct 30 2008
Posts: 2399
That's not possible.

However, you can create a button that when pressed will print just the form fields. But the user will still be able to use the built-in print command and print the entire document.

- AcrobatUsers Community Expert - Contact me personally at try6767 [at] gmail [dot] com
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George_Johnson
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
The way we used to do this before Acrobat provided the option of just printing the form fields was to place the underlying page contents in a button icon and create the other fields on top of this button. Since fields can be set to display and not print, this is a simple way to get what you want. The button should be set to read-only and have no visible border. You just have to set the tab order so that the button is first in the tab order so that the other fields are above it in the z-order.