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I've got Acrobat Pro 8 and Word 2003.

I've got a form in Word creating using form fields. What I want to do is convert this document to a "fill in" PDF form automatically. In other words, replacing Word's form fields with Acrobat's form fields.

I can't seem to find any way to do this using Acrobat's integration with Word. Anybody know of a way?

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  • Is there any reason you want it to be a pdf? Since Word can lock files as well, such that you can only fill in form fields – Ivo Flipse Jul 23 '09 at 20:02
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    Acrobat reader is more likely to be available to the users of the document than MS Word. – boden Jul 23 '09 at 20:13
  • Thank you MS for Word viewer: office.microsoft.com/search/… – Ivo Flipse Jul 23 '09 at 20:27
  • but if you want to save them the hassle, you are correct... On the other how would anyone not having Word (or being able to open it) be interested in filling in his form fields? – Ivo Flipse Jul 23 '09 at 20:28
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    This isn't a terribly unique problem. Often times documents need to be exchanged in a common format. PDF is extremely prevalent just about everyone on every platform has the necessary software already installed. The problem is that you can't really source a form in PDF, you need a word processor of some sort. If you don't somehow "link" form fields from the Word document to form fields in the resultant PDF, then every change to the Word document means that you have to recreate the form fields in the PDF. – boden Jul 24 '09 at 16:19
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If you have Acrobat Pro installed, you probably have the bundled Adobe LiveCycle 8 installed, as well. (Found in Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Designer 8.0\FormDesigner.exe)

There is an option when creating a new form: Import a Word Document

I haven't tried it because it's apparently incompatible with Word 2007 but I think it was designed for 97-2003.

Give that a try and let us know if it works!

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I fought with Word and not being able to get the fields like I want them and then getting the DOCX file to PDF. Downloaded a copy of Open Office (now using Libre Office). The form editing feature in writer blows Word away and when I'm done with my form I hit the "Save to PDF" button in the toolbar of Libre Office and I have a fillable form. Yes, I kept MS Office on my PC (it's at work, I'm not paying for it, nor would I), but use Libre Office when I want to create fillable PDF forms. Also, if my form is in Word, even DOCX, the newest version of Libre Office will open that document and keep enough formatting that I don't have to re-type the whole form.

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Create a PDF from the Word doc and then run 'Form Field Recognition' from the Acrobat 'Forms' menu. This usually does a fairly good job of auto-creating the form fields. You may well need to tidy up using the tools on the 'Forms' toolbar afterwards though.

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    This sorta works, but not quite. It looks like the original document has to be formatted in such a way that Acrobat can detect where form fields are likely to be. This can simplify things though, thanks! – boden Jul 24 '09 at 16:25

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