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I have a set of PDF files that were created in Acrobat Professional with fillable, savable forms. I can modify the values of the fields in the forms, and save those changes with ABCpdf, which works great. The problem is that users with Adobe Reader can no longer save any data they put in the form. They can still fill out the form and print it, just not save it.

This might be licensing related (on Adobe's end), but I have not been able to find a solid answer one way or another.

nealibob
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The answer is apparently "no". In order for a PDF form to be savable in Adobe Reader, it has to be signed by an approved product. I'm not sure if there are any third party PDF libraries that would allow this feature, but ABCpdf definitely does not.

nealibob
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  • Actually the op seems to have expressed in the body of his question that he merely needed to fill some Form fields of an already Reader-enabled PDF and have it remain enabled thereafter. Using incremental updates that is possible as long as the library in question does not change the pdf in excess of the Form filling. That in turn is implemented by multiple of libraries. The act of reader enabling remains exclusive to Adobe products, though. – mkl Nov 20 '13 at 19:12
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Things have changed a little bit with Adobe Reader XI. If the user uses Adobe Reader XI (or newer), the form can be saved. For earlier versions of Reader, so-called Extended Rights are necessary. Extended Rights can be applied using Adobe Acrobat (Pro), or LiveCycle Reader Extensions server. Note that there are (legal) limitations for the use of the form when Acrobat is used to assign the Extended Rights, and that Acrobat can assign only a limited set of rights.

Max Wyss
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