Monday, August 25, 2014

Adobe FormsCentral Page Numbering

This is a bit less technical blog entry, but alas, there are many gotchas in our so called "productivity" software that sometimes requires a bit of research.  Recently I have been using Adobe FormsCentral to create customer current state questionnaires that we use prior to engaging on-site with a customer.  This is a nice format for questionnaire distribution as it has the ease of filling out a web form and intermediate revisions can be saved in PDF files, and finally returned to me as PDF attachments in an email.  One issue I have been having is the mundane but necessary task of adding page numbers to the FormsCentral questionnaires.  Here is the solution I have found that works.  Unfortunately a rather complex solution to a simple requirement.

PDF forms generated by FormsCentral are Reader Extended to allow Adobe Reader users to fill and save PDF forms. A side effect of Reader Extending the PDF form is that it cannot be modified in the full (paid-for) Adobe Acrobat product. The instructions below explain how to edit FormsCentral PDF forms in Acrobat X or XI:

  1. Open the FormsCentral PDF form in Adobe Acrobat
  2. Go to the File menu and select the Save a Copy… menu item (Note: this is not the same as File > Save As...). This step is important as it will remove the Reader Extended rights and allow you to modify the PDF. Make sure you save under a different name than the current PDF.
  3. Open the copy you just saved in step #2
  4. Do your modifications. Note: If the form has a FormsCentral Submit button on it then be careful making changes because you could break the Submit button.
  5. If your form has a Submit button then test your form by submitting data to make sure the changes you made didn't break anything
  6. If you have Acrobat XI then go to File Save as Others... > Reader Extended PDF Enable More Tools (include form fill-in & save)…; If you have Acrobat X then go to File >Save as... Reader Extended PDF Enable Additional Features... This will add the Reader Extended Rights back so that the fillers can save the PDF in previous version of Reader