loss of interactive form field data with insert pages

[James_Hedges@adobeforums.com]

I'm having problems with inserting pages from one document into another. If I make changes to the entries for interactive form fields in one document, say Doc_b.pdf, save them and then insert it into another, say Doc_a.pdf, it gets the entries into the fields wrong. Doc_a.pdf will then have whatever pages from Doc_b.pdf, but it does not always have the most recent versions of whatever was entered into the form fields.

I have tried to get around this by dragging all of the pages of Doc_a.pdf into Doc_b.pdf (the other direction), but I'm unsure whether changes are lost in this direction as well.

I am using verion 7.08. Thanks.

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

If you have two form fields, and the form fields have the same name,
then they are the SAME FIELD. They will always have the same contents.
So combining two forms with the same field names is unlikely to do
what you want.

You could change field names before combining, or print to PDF to
flatten.

Aandi Inston

[James_Hedges@adobeforums.com]

Aandi, thanks. I had indirectly figured that out, since it works fine if delete all of the pages in the documents that’s being inserted into that come from the document that’s getting inserted. Then on import the fields have the values of the document that you import.

I guess that also means that given two fields with the same name the winner is the one that’s already in the document that’s being inserted into. In the same way, that would explain only fields that already have a value in the document that’s being inserted into won’t show up as the incoming values.

It’s unclear to me why it would be setup this way. What if a user wants to put several copies of the same document into a single document, but without loosing the ability to modify those fields (that is without making it uneditable)?

Anyway, thanks again.

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

>It’s unclear to me why it would be setup this way.

The rule on form fields allows you to create a field on one page and
use it on other pages pre-filled, so the customer doesn't keep having
to retype the same information.

The side effect on combining forms is unfortunate, but we are stuck
with it.

Aandi Inston

[James_Hedges@adobeforums.com]

It seems to me that a reasonable thing to do would be to prompt a user if there are overlaps in fields that have values and allow them to determine what to do in those cases. They could say, for example, to set them all to have the same name so that they can me changed en mass in the final document or the user could decide to retain the ability to edit them in the final and for them to have different values (perhaps they could be renamed in some convention in terms of storing them, but not renamed on the page itself). These two options should be available on a field-by-field basis for any fields in which there is overlap between in pages to be inserted and the document they are being inserted into.

Does this ‘side effect’ happen only in cases when there is overlap in the name of the field itself? Also, how do you determine the name of the field? To the first question, what I mean is lets say you’re importing Doc_b.pdf into Doc_a.pdf and there is an existing field in Doc_a.pdf (such as, Name, with the value, John). Then if there is also a field anywhere in Doc_b.pdf called Name it will replace an existing value on the import to be John.

I still believe that’s frustrating and that there should be some notification that on whether it has or hasn’t taken place on the insert pages and where it has.

Thanks.

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

The effect happens when the name of the field is identical, making two
fields the same field.

Aandi Inston