This has been asked several times but no satisfying answer has been given yet. When you distribute a fillable form and the recipient tries to open it in Reader, the following message appears and the form fields become inactive:
“These documents contain certain rights to enable special features. The document has been changed since it was created and these rights are no longer valid. Please contact the author for original version of the documentsâ€.
I’ve tried distributing and opening the forms from/on several PCs with the same end result when opened on another PC in Reader. I’ve used trial versions and also a retail version of Acrobat 8 that was installed on friends’ PC.
I’m sure I’ve done everything right as I was following Lynda.com’s tutorial. However I’ve noticed a message in the form distribution wizard that was not present on the tutorial’s version of Acrobat 8. When the wizard asks "How would you like to distribute your form", underneath there's a light bulb with message. If at the end of that message there's a "note: your license limits forms distribution and/or aggregation". This “Note†was not present on the Acrobat 8’s version the video tutorial was made with. So, I guess the some versions (trial and retail) are somehow limited although Adobe says they are fully functional. Is there a special license I need to buy to distribute forms or there’s something else?
I’d appreciate if someone knowledgeable comments on that as I was considering buying Acrobat only for the fillable forms, but that turned me off.
PDF Forms Distribution
2007-05-19 16:21:48
My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 8, Windows
Acrobat Pro 8, Windows
2007-05-23 14:19:47
#2
Dimitri,
Thank you for your quick response. I’ve taken a look at Ted Padova’s book and his explanation is no different than Linda.com’s, the help files or any other tutorial on the subject – it’s just a simple wizard.
There’s one difference though – if Ted Padova’s version of Acrobat has the warning "Note: Your license limits forms distribution and/or aggregation.” it most likely did not produce a fully functional form(99% certainty). That fact however, is in most cases hidden for the author of the form. Here’s why:
- There’s no difference or special warning in the creation process except the small warning note mentioned above(comparison snapshots with a functioning software is here: [url=http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/857/licenseskh3.gif]http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/857/licenseskh3.gif[/url] Note there’s no warning)
- The distributed form will function properly if opened on author’s PC with either Acrobat or Reader(that’s why most form authors won’t even know their forms are not functioning)
- The distributed form will function properly on any PC if opened with Acrobat instead Reader.
- The form will function properly if you enable user rights instead of distribute and upload it on a web server from where clients will download it or fill it up online. This method is what is most often desired by the developers, however they won’t be able to collect the returned completed forms with Acrobat as they have not been distributed using the distribution sequence.
Here’s a list of conditions when the form will give you the waning “These documents contain certain rights to enable special features. The document has been changed since it was created and these rights are no longer valid. Please contact the author for original version of the documents” and will not function as a fillable form:
- The distributed form opened in Reader on another PC(the most common case)
- The distributed form opened in Reader on author’s PC but by different computer user(this is the easiest way to check if your forms are functioning correctly. Make sure you log off from authors account and login as diferent PC user and open the emailed distributed form not authors’ copy ofthe form on the PC)
Hope this puts some light on the issue and prevent further comparison of oranges with apples.
I’ve installed Acrobat 8 trial on 4 PCs, but neither produced a fully functioning form that you’d be able to fill out in Reader. Neither did a supposedly retail version of Acrobat8 on friends PC(version contained the warning "Note: Your license limits forms distribution and/or aggregation.”).
The only fully functioning form I’ve seen so far is the one on Linda.com’s video tutorial and their version of Acrobat8 did not have the warning as you can see on the screenshot link posted above.
Dimitri, does your copy of Acrobat 8 display the small “note…”? You can build a few fields form and distribute it to [url=mailto:mbox [at] myself [dot] com]mbox [at] myself [dot] com[/url] to check it’s functionality if you’d like.
Thank you for your quick response. I’ve taken a look at Ted Padova’s book and his explanation is no different than Linda.com’s, the help files or any other tutorial on the subject – it’s just a simple wizard.
There’s one difference though – if Ted Padova’s version of Acrobat has the warning "Note: Your license limits forms distribution and/or aggregation.” it most likely did not produce a fully functional form(99% certainty). That fact however, is in most cases hidden for the author of the form. Here’s why:
- There’s no difference or special warning in the creation process except the small warning note mentioned above(comparison snapshots with a functioning software is here: [url=http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/857/licenseskh3.gif]http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/857/licenseskh3.gif[/url] Note there’s no warning)
- The distributed form will function properly if opened on author’s PC with either Acrobat or Reader(that’s why most form authors won’t even know their forms are not functioning)
- The distributed form will function properly on any PC if opened with Acrobat instead Reader.
- The form will function properly if you enable user rights instead of distribute and upload it on a web server from where clients will download it or fill it up online. This method is what is most often desired by the developers, however they won’t be able to collect the returned completed forms with Acrobat as they have not been distributed using the distribution sequence.
Here’s a list of conditions when the form will give you the waning “These documents contain certain rights to enable special features. The document has been changed since it was created and these rights are no longer valid. Please contact the author for original version of the documents” and will not function as a fillable form:
- The distributed form opened in Reader on another PC(the most common case)
- The distributed form opened in Reader on author’s PC but by different computer user(this is the easiest way to check if your forms are functioning correctly. Make sure you log off from authors account and login as diferent PC user and open the emailed distributed form not authors’ copy ofthe form on the PC)
Hope this puts some light on the issue and prevent further comparison of oranges with apples.
I’ve installed Acrobat 8 trial on 4 PCs, but neither produced a fully functioning form that you’d be able to fill out in Reader. Neither did a supposedly retail version of Acrobat8 on friends PC(version contained the warning "Note: Your license limits forms distribution and/or aggregation.”).
The only fully functioning form I’ve seen so far is the one on Linda.com’s video tutorial and their version of Acrobat8 did not have the warning as you can see on the screenshot link posted above.
Dimitri, does your copy of Acrobat 8 display the small “note…”? You can build a few fields form and distribute it to [url=mailto:mbox [at] myself [dot] com]mbox [at] myself [dot] com[/url] to check it’s functionality if you’d like.
2008-05-01 07:45:11
#3
This has been asked several times but no satisfying answer has been given yet. When you distribute a fillable form and the recipient tries to open it in Reader, the following message appears and the form fields become inactive:
“These documents contain certain rights to enable special features. The document has been changed since it was created and these rights are no longer valid. Please contact the author for original version of the documents†.
I’ve tried distributing and opening the forms from/on several PCs with the same end result when opened on another PC in Reader. I’ve used trial versions and also a retail version of Acrobat 8 that was installed on friends’ PC.
I’m sure I’ve done everything right as I was following Lynda.com’s tutorial. However I’ve noticed a message in the form distribution wizard that was not present on the tutorial’s version of Acrobat 8. When the wizard asks "How would you like to distribute your form", underneath there's a light bulb with message. If at the end of that message there's a "note: your license limits forms distribution and/or aggregation". This “Note†was not present on the Acrobat 8’s version the video tutorial was made with. So, I guess the some versions (trial and retail) are somehow limited although Adobe says they are fully functional. Is there a special license I need to buy to distribute forms or there’s something else?
I’d appreciate if someone knowledgeable comments on that as I was considering buying Acrobat only for the fillable forms, but that turned me off.
This issue was addressed in the 8.1.2 update. For more information visit the following URL:“These documents contain certain rights to enable special features. The document has been changed since it was created and these rights are no longer valid. Please contact the author for original version of the documents†.
I’ve tried distributing and opening the forms from/on several PCs with the same end result when opened on another PC in Reader. I’ve used trial versions and also a retail version of Acrobat 8 that was installed on friends’ PC.
I’m sure I’ve done everything right as I was following Lynda.com’s tutorial. However I’ve noticed a message in the form distribution wizard that was not present on the tutorial’s version of Acrobat 8. When the wizard asks "How would you like to distribute your form", underneath there's a light bulb with message. If at the end of that message there's a "note: your license limits forms distribution and/or aggregation". This “Note†was not present on the Acrobat 8’s version the video tutorial was made with. So, I guess the some versions (trial and retail) are somehow limited although Adobe says they are fully functional. Is there a special license I need to buy to distribute forms or there’s something else?
I’d appreciate if someone knowledgeable comments on that as I was considering buying Acrobat only for the fillable forms, but that turned me off.
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403079&sliceId=1
The enablement and distribution features are "fully functional" in both the trial and retail version of Acrobat 8 Pro, with limitations per the EULA.
I have not seen the Lynda.com video on distributing forms with Acrobat 8, but I have read Ted Padova's [i]Acrobat 8 PDF Bible[/i] on the subject and he has a screen shot of the "Form Distribution Options" dialog ( pg 995, Fig 35.17) that clearly shows the message "Note: Your license limits forms distribution and/or aggregation." Below this is a link labeled "Check the EULA for details."
Ted and Duff (pretty knowledgable people) here at AUC have written about the limitations of the Enable Usage Rights for Reader feature of Acrobat 8. Here are links to 2 items-
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/duffjohnson/category/reader-extensions/]http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/duffjohnson/category/reader-extensions/[/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/articles/2006/09/enabling_reader/index.php]http://www.acrobatusers.com/articles/2006/09/enabling_reader/index.php[/url]
I'm not sure why the Rights Enabling is not working for your form in Adobe Reader (it works for me), but any changes made after enabling is applied require you to go through the enabling process again.
If you need to have more people fill and save your form than is allowed by the Acrobat 8 Pro EULA, Adobe sells a Reader Extension server product-
[url=http://www.adobe.com/products/server/readerextensions/]http://www.adobe.com/products/server/readerextensions/[/url]
Hope that helps,
Dimitri
WindJack Solutions
[url=http://www.windjack.com]www.windjack.com[/url]
Dimitri Munkirs
WindJack Solutions
pdfscripting.com