Error "This operation not permitted" when opening form in Reader

I've created a form in AA8 Pro/Live Cycle Designer that is displaying the same "operation not permitted" error message whether it is opened in Reader 7, Reader 8 or AA8. It takes two clicks of the "ok" to close the message (which leads me to believe there are two things wrong). Once the error message is closed, the form works fine and data entered into it can be saved by Reader 7 and 8.

The pop up error is still annoying though (not to mention unprofessional).

Neither the original Word document nor the PDF version have page numbers. I have no idea what is causing the error. My compatibility is set to Reader 6 (although the form's functionality requires Reader 7 or newer).

Any ideas?

It sounds like some other problem is throwing the error and you are not seeing the results of this at this time. This can come about because many methods and properties available to Acrobat are not available to Reader. As to using Acrobat, there could be folder level code not available to other users or some other resource not available to the form when not being accessed in the development mode. One feature that comes to mind is populating a drop down list from a database.

I am having the same error. The error does not occur until I 'enable usage rights in Adobe Reader' within Acrobat Professional (version 8). I have tried various solutions, nothing seems to work.

This particular error can occur when fonts have not been embedded in your PDF form, especially if the form originated from Word. When the PDF is opened in Acrobat/Reader, if the fonts are not embedded, and not on the system, they will be substituted. However, in your case the PDF is rights-enabled, which disallows changes thus the error message.
To eliminate the error make sure that all the form fonts are embedded.

I have gone into the Life Cycle Designer and did a Save As, checked the box next to embed font and permanently replace fonts and I am still receiving this error after I enable user rights. Any more suggestions?

thank you!

If the fonts that were used in your Word document are not on your system then they won't be embedded (just substituted) using the Save As function. Try re-importing the Word document and this time generate an error report. If the fonts aren't on your system you'll want to create a new mapping. To check the font mapping go to Tool --> Options --> Document Handling Panel. You can also turn on the "Show missing fonts dialog only if fonts do not have a substitution defined" to debug.

I also created a form in LifeCycle Designer (8.0) and set "Enable User Rights in..." in Acrobat 8.0 Professional. When I open form in Reader, I get the error "This operation not permitted". It appears to be connected to page numbering that was in the Word document that was converted to create the form. The form was working correctly until I noticed that the tabbing was messed up. I went back into LifeCycle and corrected the tabbing. Now the form is broken and when I open it up in Acrobat the "operation not permitted" error shows up. The actual form, when submitted, goes nowhere even though I have it set in the "mailto:" properties and the "pdf" format is checked.
Any ideas? Do I have to start from scratch and recreate this form?

In LiveCycle, under Tool --> Options --> Document Handling Panel turn on the "Show missing fonts dialog only if fonts do not have a substitution defined". Then, see if there are errors under the Report tab.When you're testing the submit is it in the LiveCycle preview or Acrobat. Also, do you redo the Reader-enabling in Acrobat after revising?

I have Reader-enabled the doc after revising although it tells me that it is already enabled. Just for grins, I completely re-did the doc from which the original was a pdf doc that had to be filled out manually. In Acrobat 8, I had the program detect the fields and added and deleted a few that it missed. I used a "button" instead of the "submit as email" button and filled in the "Mailto" field and also checked off the "pdf" format. The tabbing was off so I corrected it so the doc flowed smoothly. I saved it and then opened it again in Acrobat 8 to "Reader-enable" the doc. When I submit, my email client opens up and the pdf is attached. I send the email and after a long while, it shows up in my "outbox" waiting to be sent. It never does get sent.
Any ideas? and thank you in advance.

I have also notices that when I Reader-enable this doc, and open it in Acrobat 8, I get the "this operation not permitted" error box 2 times. A purple box at the top displays with the text "Please fill out the following form. If you are the form author choose Distribute Form in the Forms menu to send it to your recipients. This purple box disappears after I click "OK" to the second "operation not permitted" error box. The form does not reach the intended "mailto:" recipient.

Hi, I am also getting the same message when I try to open a form saved as a PDF acrobat 8 pro static. I have Vista and Office 2007 so I am unable to import directly from Word. I first saved the word doc (has Calibri Font) as a PDF, then used LiveCycle to design a form with an email and a print button. When I open the published form with Acrobat 8 I get the two error message screens described above. When I open the form with LiveCycle it first asks to substitute Helvetica for Arial.

My questions: can I add Helvetica to the system? Should I use a different substitute font? Why doesn't it recognize Calibri if it is in the system? How can I avoid this problem in the future?

Thanks! Marlon

I've also been suffering from this problem recently.
My situation was that I had an existing pdf file and i needed to make some textual and form element additions to it.
When i made the additions to the file using Livecycle and Acrobat and then enabled usage rights, I received the 'This operations is not Permitted' error as well.

However i did eventually find a work around for my specific problem.

What I was doing was adding in a new check box or two onto the pdf form using LiveCycle and then going into Acrobat to add in some textboxes etc to make the form look more presentable. Doing this several times must have caused an issue some where in Acrobat because when i tried to enable usage rights, it caused the error.

What I then tried was to add in all the form elements and set all their settings properly within LiveCycle first. Once i had completley finished with LiveCycle, I then went into Acrobat and added in all the textual content that I needed too, I then enabled usage rights and this seems to have worked.

So by using Live Cycle and then using Acrobat (in this order) and not jumping between the two programs seems to have helped me in my situation.

It sounds as though your fonts were not embedded when you created your PDF from Word. To check, look under File --> Document Properties --> Font Tab
It will specifically say if the fonts have been embedded. If LiveCycle is asking to substitute then this means your fonts haven't been embedded.

Short of rebuilding the form from scratch, I've gone through everything on this page > made sure all fonts are embedded, etc. Is there any way to debug this error message "Operation not permitted" to find out what is causing it?

Have you tried the suggestion under the [url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/aucbb/viewtopic.php?pid=35535#p35535]FAQ[/url] for this? The suggestion is to use the command Document > Examine Document feature in Acrobat Pro. prior to importing a PDF as artwork in LiveCycle.This will help you find hidden text and delete hidden page content, which may cause the issue.

I found one possible cause for this problem. If you have comments in your form prior to editing it with Life Cycle Designer, it will trigger the message "Operation not permitted". To fix it, I had to remove all the comments from the form using Acrobat Pro, then open the form in life cycle, do the modifications I had to do to it, save it and then close Life Cycle.

Then, I opened the form again with Acrobat Pro and put the comments back in. Actually, there is a way to export and import comments with Acrobat Pro so you don't have to re-type everything.

I hope this helps.

JP

I have just gotten this message on a form created in livecycle designer. My original form was distributed via our intranet and worked fine. I was asked to add a jpg image to the form to assist our processors. I could not find a way to add this and resorted to adding it as a watermark to appear in the upper left of my form. I then saved my original, enabled useage rights in a copy, and posted for use. This triggered the "This Operation Note......" to appear.