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I have this unique situation where I need to convert the dynamic forms (XFA PDF) created by Livecycle ES4 Forms Designer into static forms (normal PDF).

Please note that as mentioned in other posts and forums, 1. I used a print driver to save the livecycle form as PDF but that expectedly flattens the file i.e. none of the PDF fields remain as readable. 2. Used JavaScript to make all the fields "read only" but that will still keep the format of the form as dynamic PDF and not static PDF.

In my case I do not want to flatten the form, I just want a non-dynamic PDF that will be non-interactive like the ones created in Acrobat. Is there any solution for that at a click of a button in LiveCycle using JavaScript?

Example-

Step 1 - Consider that a 'Contact Details' form is created in Adobe Livecycle. A user opens this form in Adobe Reader and sees Contact #1 box. The user then creates another 2 Contact Boxes by using the 'Add Contact' button (see the attached screenshot).

  • Note: Structure/layout of the Form will be changed if Add/Remove buttons or the Checkbox is clicked because this is a dynamic form.

enter image description here

Step 2 - Now the user should be able to save this form as a static PDF (not a Livecycle document) where the structure/layout of the form is fixed (i.e. add/remove buttons or the checkbox cannot do any change in the layout) but the fields of the form should be editable in the newly saved version.

How can the step 2 be achieved?

UPDATE:
I found one manual way -

  1. Convert Livecycle PDF to a flattened PDF by using a Print as PDF feature.
  2. Open Adobe Acrobat, go to Create --> Create Form --> select "From existing Document" --> upload the flattened PDF you created in the 1st step.
  3. Acrobat will detect the form fields. Save that as a fillable static PDF.

I noticed that the structure, fonts, data were preserved during these steps.

Customers obviously will not perform the above steps. So, I am trying to get an answer on how to do these steps automatically at a click of a button from the Livecycle PDF document.

Is there any API/plugin to do this automatically?

ElevatedLyf
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  • The result of saving as a "static form" in the save dialog of the designer is not what you're searching for? – Jan Slabon Jan 26 '16 at 08:49
  • Hey nope.. the end users using the form will not use LiveCycle.. They will use Adobe Reader and I believe that Reader cannot do this conversion. – ElevatedLyf Jan 26 '16 at 11:46
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    Maybe you should add example documents (current and excepted) to your question. For me a flattened document is a non-interactive one. So I'm unsure what result you expect and what you have. – Jan Slabon Jan 26 '16 at 16:40
  • I have added a sample and tried to explain the question again. Hope that works. – ElevatedLyf Jan 27 '16 at 04:34
  • So you hope that the user can save the form as AcroForm PDF? Without any extra software, only Acrobat Reader? I'm afraid that will turn out impossible. – mkl Jan 27 '16 at 06:47
  • I agree with @mkl ...impossible. Maybe a server side solution like the iText XFA Worker could do this... – Jan Slabon Jan 27 '16 at 08:20
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    well, if not with adobe reader, then how about a button on the form that will have JavaScript that calls "some logic" to convert the document to static PDF? Any clue for that "some logic"? :) – ElevatedLyf Jan 27 '16 at 23:20
  • OMG thank god for the update. I had been searching all over for this simple solution. – Mr Chow Oct 16 '18 at 14:09

3 Answers3

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Found one possiblity: using PDFCreator and acrowrap tool to convert from PDF XFA to PDF 1.4.

nikolai.serdiuk
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Converting from a dynamic form to Acroform within Reader is not going to be possible.

It seems to me that you could add a button within your form that disables all of the "Add Contact" functionality, and this would achieve the same result in a much simpler way.

Brian Duddy
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  • Hi Brian, but that will still retain the PDF as the livecycle PDF. I do not want the livecycle PDF i.e. I do not want the XML based PDF. I want the user to be able to convert the doc to a normal static PDF. – ElevatedLyf Jan 27 '16 at 23:16
  • As I said, that's not going to be possible in Reader or any free product that I know of. Why does it matter? – Brian Duddy Jan 29 '16 at 00:18
  • Hey Brian, it matters bacause we are trying to integrate livecycle PDFs in 2 different applications and those applications cannot read these PDFs, they can only read the static ones. – ElevatedLyf Jan 30 '16 at 02:24
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Looked to do this in order to be able to save a livecycle PDF once filled out. I was able to do it in Acrobat DC by using Save as other > Reader extended PDF. Resulting form is not editable as a form, but form and contents are saveable by Reader.

user10614014
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