PDF Forms in Preview Not working

Can you provide an example of such a PDF?

Same problem here.

Have a PDF that I converted to a fillable PDF in Acrobat that I've used for years.

When I use Preview in Lion, the fields have shifted vertically, they're higher than they were before.

The radio buttons don't show up.

A multiple line text box's leading is so tight that it looks to be set at about 40%.

But... every once in a while when I open it, the radio buttons DO show up. Seems like a bug in Preview.

Have a PDF that I converted to a fillable PDF in Acrobat that I've used for years.

Well, there's the rub. I've had several users on this board send me thier forms already, which actually all look +work fine in Adobe Acrobat X. So the solution is going to be 199$ from Adobe. Anyone serious about editing PDFs and using forms and other advance features is not going to be happy using Preview in Lion. Cheers!

Message was edited by: coocooforcocoapuffs: as you can see here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2081833 issues like this go back a good long way. Save ur self headaches, spend money.

COlliff wrote:

Yes I can. Where do you want me to send it?

If you don't want to post a link, you can mail it to me at info at etresoft dot com. If there is a bug with it, let me know if I can forward it along to Apple with my bug report.

Preview definitely has a problem. All filled forms seem to scrunch up like that when you view them in Preview, whether you filled them out in Preview, Acrobat, or Reader. This is also true for QuickLook, which uses the same display engine.

Forms filled out in Preview don't display properly in Acrobat. The text in at least some of the fields doesn't show up unless you click the cursor in the box to put it in editing mode. Then it will. When I select all the text in a box and copy it, then delete it, then paste it back in, it seems to stay visible, so it's a fairly simple edit to make them useable.

Forms filled out with another pdf form-filler -- I'm not sure which one it is -- behave the same way in Acrobat in that the filled text is invisible until you click in the box. But the invisibility can't be fixed the same way (as above) because when I make the change and then try to save the file, Acrobat tells me it can't read the file.

The bottom line, I guess, is that Acrobat forms work fine if users fill them in Reader, and are useable, with limitations, if they use other apps to fill them.

Ralph

coocooforcocoapuffs wrote:

Anyone serious about editing PDFs and using forms and other advance features is not going to be happy using Preview in Lion. Cheers!

I also have the same problem. Tried the same form out on Preview on Snow Leopard and it works well. Mr. CooCoo, you're right if you're editing forms you likely won't be using Lion's Preview, but wouldn't the end-user for whom the form was created be possibly using Lion?

Thanks, RP

coocooforcocoapuffs wrote:

Anyone serious about editing PDFs and using forms and other advance features is not going to be happy using Preview in Lion. Cheers!

I also have the same problem. Tried the same form out on Preview on Snow Leopard and it works well. Mr. CooCoo, you're right if you're editing forms you likely won't be using Lion's Preview, but wouldn't the end-user for whom the form was created be possibly using Lion?

Thanks, RP

Well that's a good point RP, but for my forms, that would be about zero Lion users, now and most likely for the rest of my career. I write for biz and gov't orgs, and at most, I've had 5% mac users read my forms. I suppose if I were doing a survey of Lion users on whether or not they use Preview for Acrobat documents, I might have a problem 🙂, but outside of that I don't expect this strangeness to occur for my users.

Well, best...

coocoo

There was nothing in the 10.7.1 update that mentioned PDF forms. Did you ever send me an example?

There was nothing in the 10.7.1 update that mentioned PDF forms.

Not much of anything there for me...even the manual install is missing:

These days, Apple reminds me of an annoying pet cat I used to have...

It looks like someone at Apple did a copy-and-paste job on the old 10.6.1 update page.

The manually installers are easily found elsewhere: http://support.apple.com/downloads/

Ha, and then linked to that page - by accident! Sounds typical these days at large corps. Anyway, thx for the link.

I have the same problem where preview squishes the lines together. It seems it is on 1/2 spacing instead of 1 line spacing. To correct this I have to double space to get it to look single space. I created the fillable form in Acrobat X as multiline.

This first screenshot is text typed into the fillable form.

This is the result when I click out of the form - it returns squished.

I add returns and make the form entry double space.

Now the result with double spacing in the filliable space makes it single space.

Very annoying!

Did anyone experience this problem with PDF forms in Preview/Lion:

I am filling out a form, and at one point all of the checked checkboxes clear themselves out right in front of my eyes. The text remains. I think what happens is that this lovely new autosave feature kicks in and saves a version. During this process it deletes all the checkboxes. I can "revert to saved" and the old copies still have the checkboxes intact. But if I fill the form again and do a "save version", or just wait for the autosave, then my checkboxes are all gone again.

Very, very frustrating. I practically can't complete forms anymore on my Mac. Is there a way to turn off this silly autosave? It caused me all sort of troubles (changed XML files to TXT, deleted images permanently, etc...)