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Flatten fields

Forum Index > Forms: LiveCycle Designer > Flatten fields
2010-02-24 09:14:58
RonD
Registered: Feb 11 2010
Posts: 9
Answered

I have a sneaking suspicision and am looking for confirmation.

I created a form in LiveCycle 8.2 and used Acrobat to extend features to Adobe Reader. After receiving completed forms I want to flatten the form fields for file size/archival reasons. I have tried using javascript including flattenPage() and a script provided by WindJack Solutions http://www.windjack.com/products/freestuff.php which runs a "trusted" solution from the javascript folder on the PC. Neither of these approaches work apparently due to security restrictions. A document property under security shows that "Changing the document: Not Allowed" which I assume is being inflicted upon me by LiveCycle Designer. I see no way to change that from within LiveCyle but I would be happy to be corrected on that point.

If the above can not be remedied the only other option I see to "flatten" this PDF is to print it as an Adobe PDF. This can be successfully completed using a batch sequence "output options", "PDF optimizer", "discard objects", "flatten form fields" but is not very pleasant when doing a bunch of PDFs. The "Save As" dialogue needs to be clicked for each document and, from what I have read, the "Save As" is prompted by the Adobe printer and no javascript option is available to suppress this "Save As."

Experts! Is the above essentially correct? Is there any Adobe solution or should I look to a third party batch processing solution?

I need some insight. Thank you,
RonD

My Product Information:
LiveCycle Designer, Windows
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2010-02-24 09:54:15
#1
radzmar
Expert
Registered: Nov 3 2008
Posts: 1202
If your form is a LiveCycle-Form (XFA-Form) you can't flatten the forms with Acrobat or other products, therefore you will need LiveCycle ED/ES2 server products.

So printing the forms with a pdf printer is the only real solution to flatten the forms without any further investments in expensive software.

radzmar
• LoveCycle Blog
Documents you need:
• LiveCycle Designer ES2 Docs

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2010-02-24 10:57:48
#2
RonD
Registered: Feb 11 2010
Posts: 9
Thanks again for another response radzmar - I suspected that would be the answer. Don't like it, but nice to get confirmation so I can move on to other possibilities.
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2010-02-24 13:19:33
#3
jonom
Registered: Jan 31 2008
Posts: 133
How are the pdfs being submitted and do you need to do anything to them after you receive them?

Depending on how they are being submitted you can use a script to make the form read only on the submitter's side - they press a submit button, it makes the form read only and submits the form.

As for file size, turn font embedding off and the files get quite small.
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2010-11-02 14:08:24
#4
RonD
Registered: Feb 11 2010
Posts: 9
The PDFs are submitted by email and then some tweaking may be needed at times. After that the information is extracted into a XML file which is then used to update a FoxPro database table. For reasons beyond my control directly tying the form to a database is not an option.

After getting radzmar's response, I went hunting for a batch PDF printer and found a nice solution for printing to a flattened version which reduces the file size and make the fields uneditable. If someone finds themselves in a similar situation, then here is a link to the third party solution I found: http://www.a-pdf.com/batch-print/index.htm. This a-pdf software has a nice user interface and prints the PDFs without any need to click through "Save As" dialogue boxes. My PDF files went from 643 KB to 43 KB.

Thank you everyone for taking time to post responses. Forums like this are a great asset!

UPDATE: The a-pdf software is no longer functional on my XP machine. I found a nice (and free) replacement batch printing software at http://www.print-conductor.com/
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