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Why can't recipients of my form open it?

Forum Index > Forms: Acrobat > Why can't recipients of my form open it?
2008-11-19 11:49:21
tcastilleja
Registered: Nov 19 2008
Posts: 12

I created a form then, as a test, I emailed it to recipients in my company and colleagues outside of my company. The individuals in my building who received the form were able to complete it and send it back but those outside were not able to open it.

When they tried opening it they saw nothing but numbers and letters (gibberish).

Help!

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 8.0, Windows
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2008-11-19 12:01:32
#1
George_Johnson
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Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
What version of Acrobat or Reader are they using?

George
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2008-11-19 12:04:51
#2
tcastilleja
Registered: Nov 19 2008
Posts: 12
I just asked her...she is using 5.0. Yikes!
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2008-11-19 12:19:39
#3
George_Johnson
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Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
Did you create the form in Acrobat or LiveCycle Designer?

George
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2008-11-19 12:25:13
#4
tcastilleja
Registered: Nov 19 2008
Posts: 12
I used the LiveCycle Designer.
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2008-11-19 12:30:17
#5
George_Johnson
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Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
That's the reason. Forms made with Acrobat can be backwards compatible that far, but not XFA forms. Does it have to be an XFA form?

George
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2008-11-19 13:33:30
#6
tcastilleja
Registered: Nov 19 2008
Posts: 12
No, I just wanted to make a form that people could complete then email to me.
Can I convert the form I made in LiveCycle?
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2008-11-19 14:40:49
#7
George_Johnson
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Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
No, you'll have to recreate the fields in Acrobat, but it should be worth it.

George
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2008-11-20 06:55:44
#8
tcastilleja
Registered: Nov 19 2008
Posts: 12
I printed the form then scanned it in to my PC.
I opened it, went to the FORMS optino and tried to select RUN FORM FIELD RECOGNITION but the option is not availbe for clicking. It is on the menu bar but I cannot select it. Is this not the way to make the form in Acrobat?
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2008-11-20 08:54:47
#9
George_Johnson
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Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
That's one way, though I'm not sure why the option isn't available. The other option is to manually add the form field using the various form field tools, like you did in Designer.

If I were doing this, I would create the underlying form in a page layout application (InDesign, word processor, etc.), convert to PDF, and add the fields. This is better if you ever have to make any changes to the underlying form. You would just make the changes in the source document, convert to PDF again, and replace the old pages of your form with the new ones.

George
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2008-11-20 08:56:51
#10
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4307
The form field recognition relies on a Tagged PDF and form fields big enough to be picked up the the scanning process. If the PDF is not tagged, then one has to add field manually.

George Kaiser

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2008-12-06 07:56:53
#11
AnneMarie
Registered: Jul 26 2006
Posts: 18
gkaiseril said:
"The form field recognition relies on a Tagged PDF and [....]"

I thought this was a great tip. As a test, I purposely turned off the "Create Tagged PDF" option when exporting a simple form to PDF from ID CS3, and when it opened in Acro 9 Pro, doc info confirmed it was not tagged.

But the Form Wizard was still able to automatically detect and create the form fields ... didn't even get a warning. The results were exactly the same as when I exported it as a tagged PDF.

?

AM
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