These forums are now Read Only. If you have an Acrobat question, ask questions and get help from one of our experts.

PDF forms - Edited and Lock in Reader

jctremblay
Registered: Sep 27 2005
Posts: 26
Answered

Someone ask me if it could be possible to create a PDF forms in Acrobat Pro. Then opening it in Reader, filling the form fields and when done locking all fields and saving it so it can be send as a regular PDF instead of a forms preventing others to change it.

Can this be done in Reader?

---
Jean-Claude Tremblay
www.proficiografik.com

My Product Information:
Reader 9.3, Macintosh
try67
Expert
Registered: Oct 30 2008
Posts: 2399
It's not possible to lock fields in Reader. It is possible to make them read-only.

- AcrobatUsers Community Expert - Contact me personally at try6767 [at] gmail [dot] com
Check out my custom-made scripts website: http://try67.blogspot.com

Merlin
Acrobat 9ExpertTeam
Registered: Mar 1 2006
Posts: 766
Using Reader, you can flatten a PDF form by virtually printing it (to PDF).
jctremblay
Registered: Sep 27 2005
Posts: 26
try67 wrote:
It's not possible to lock fields in Reader. It is possible to make them read-only.
And how can we do this in Reader?

---
Jean-Claude Tremblay
www.proficiografik.com

jctremblay
Registered: Sep 27 2005
Posts: 26
Merlin wrote:
Using Reader, you can flatten a PDF form by virtually printing it (to PDF).
Hi Merlin, good to know but how can you print to PDF on a windows machine if all you have is the Reader? It can’t be done unless you install some free PDF generator software.

---
Jean-Claude Tremblay
www.proficiografik.com

gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4308
Your computer would need a PDF printer like PDF95 installed.

Also Reader can not use the JavaScript 'flattenPages' method.

If the users have digital ID's, they could sigh the PDF. This would not necessarily lock the PDF but one could tell if the PDF had been modified since the PDF was signed.

George Kaiser