How do I edit a PDF in Acrobat if it rather than LiveCycle

I want to edit the the fields of a PDF in Acrobat using Forms->Add or Edit Fields which I know how to use. Unfortunately, a new form I want to edit seems to have been made in LiveCycle designer and so keeps trying to open it in LiveCycle. Is there a way to change this behavior and make that form editable in Acrobat Pro?

65.4k 7 7 gold badges 113 113 silver badges 168 168 bronze badges asked Sep 15, 2011 at 13:57 241 2 2 gold badges 3 3 silver badges 6 6 bronze badges

You can also use the "Extract Pages" function in "Organize Pages" mode in Acrobat by selecting all of the pages and right-clicking. This gives you PDF's that are editable in Acrobat.

Commented Jan 30, 2016 at 20:11

@BlueSam, that doesn't work on secured documents, which is when the issue described in this entry occurs to begin with. So, your proposed solution is incorrect.

Commented Sep 15, 2017 at 21:16

Actually BlueSam's comment was EXACTLY what I needed. I have multiple forms that are unsecured, but were created with LiveCycle, preventing me from attaching additional pages (the only thing I needed to do!). pdftk didn't help, but "Extract Pages" gave me the file I needed without removing form fields. In my case document was unrestricted except that it was created in LiveCycle, preventing me from editing it as a standard PDF.

Commented Oct 25, 2017 at 14:24

7 Answers 7

To be able to edit a Adobe Form in Adobe Acrobat (not Reader) you need to open it first in LiveCycle, and save it as a "static Adobe Form".

Next you need to use a public domain toolkit for Adobe forms (Download PDFTK http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/) and install it.

The for each form (or one form) you need to convert it to remove XML header information, so Adobe Acrobat (not Reader) will allow you to edit the form in it.

pdftk original.pdf output cleaned-original.pdf drop_xfa

Now open the cleaned form in Adobe acrobat, fix the variable names if needed (they may be renamed with a prefix form[0].) and save it as an Adobe Optimised PDF compatible as you see fit.

answered Jul 13, 2013 at 8:41 231 2 2 silver badges 4 4 bronze badges This works well IF one has access to LiveCycle designer. Commented Aug 20, 2013 at 16:43

I was able to pull it off without performing the first step in LiveCycle. Pretty much ran the command line, then afterwards trying to edit the PDF in Acrobat says that you need to "Save As. " in order to edit the fields. Did that, and now my form is editable in Acrobat.

Commented Feb 7, 2014 at 20:21

Agreed with @enriquein - You don't need LiveCycle - this works with pdftk without it (at least for the PDFs I tried it on).

Commented Sep 3, 2014 at 22:48

I had the same experience as @NateMurray and enriquein -- just did a drop_xfa and then was able to export the xfdf/fdf file. From there it is business as usual.

Commented Feb 20, 2015 at 17:33

The workaround without LiveCycle doesn't seem to be working (anymore?) - after dropping the xfa with pdftk, opening the file in Adobe Reader results in error message and uneditable file. "the document has been changed since it was created and use extended features is no longer available"

Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 14:24

Using Acrobat 10 Pro, I "print to PDF". This gives a flat copy of the form. Then when I go to edit I let Acrobat create all the fields for me. After that it's easy enough to just edit the fields the way I want them.

answered Feb 3, 2014 at 1:22 41 1 1 bronze badge

@David, it doesn't work if the PDF is secured. In the latest PDF Acrobat, there's no "Print to PDF" function anyway.

Commented Sep 15, 2017 at 21:18

I have now found a solution to this. I have downloaded the free version of CutePDF and have printed to PDF the old file using these instruction that are in the README.txt document that comes with the download:

Using CutePDF Writer to create PDF document:

DO NOT look for any application to run. Just print your document using CutePDF Writer (the printer) to get PDF output.

Open your original document and select Print command in File menu

of your application to bring up Print dialog box. Then select CutePDF Writer as the Printer to print (DO NOT select "Print to file" option). You will get a Save As dialog box prompted for saving created PDF file. Select a folder to Save in and enter a File name, then click on Save. Go to that folder to find your PDF file.

Hope that helps someone.

answered Sep 15, 2011 at 15:22 241 2 2 gold badges 3 3 silver badges 6 6 bronze badges

Does this preserve the fields that are already in the document or do you have to add everything back again?

Commented Sep 12, 2012 at 16:38 You have to add everything back in again. At least from what I found, which was fine. Commented Dec 19, 2012 at 22:47

At present a PDF Form created in LifeCycle are no longer able to be edited in latest versions of Adobe Acrobat Professional (not Reader) unless the Form was created in an older version of LifeCycle released with Adobe Acrobat 8.0 (and possibly 8.1)

In these versions of LifeCycle Adobe created and saved both a "new" style form and the "old" style form data in the same package.

If this is the case then you can use the situation described above to open the form in (old) version of LifeCycle, save it as a "static PDF Form" (rather than dynamic) and use the public domain pdf tool to strip the "XFA" header.

Then when you open the form in Adobe Acrobate (not reader) it will not complain about needing to open it in LifeCycle but also allow you to edit it and have access to scripts etc.