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/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/td-p/10463491 Mar 29, 2019 Mar 29, 2019
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I've created a pdf with fillable fields using Acrobat. The person who is filling it out has Reader (which is of course fine for the purpose of typing in the page). BUT when they've completed the fields, how do they save the pdf as a regular, non-fillable pdf? By selecting just "save" or "save as", the fields still remain editable. They also want to print out a copy of this pdf but don't have a home printer so were going to send it to a local print/copy shop - but would rather not send the editable template version (just as a standard pdf instead).
Any suggestions welcome
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11 Replies 11/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/10463492#M140929 Mar 29, 2019 Mar 29, 2019
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You can add a button to set all the fields to read only, flattenPages is not available with the free Reader. Another option is to sign the PDF with an Adobe Digital Certificate.
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Community Expert ,/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/10463493#M140930 Mar 31, 2019 Mar 31, 2019
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I would go for the sign option since then you also know who filled in the form.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/10463494#M140931 Apr 01, 2019 Apr 01, 2019
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Hello - i have the same question but with Acrobat Pro DC on a Mac. It doesn't allow you to print to PDF to flatten it.
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Community Expert ,/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/10463495#M140932 Apr 01, 2019 Apr 01, 2019
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In Acrobat Pro there is a Preflight called "Flatten Annotations and Form Fields"
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/10463496#M140933 Apr 01, 2019 Apr 01, 2019
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Thanks, still a more time consuming way to do it as i then have to go file save the document, where as printing to PDF was in one full swoop. Quite frustrating when you pay the monthly fee that it doesn't have the same features as windows.
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Community Expert ,/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/10463497#M140934 Apr 01, 2019 Apr 01, 2019
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You can save as a custom Action, Droplet or Hotfolder if it is part of your workflow.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/10463498#M140935 Apr 04, 2019 Apr 04, 2019
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Thank you. I've since found that the flattening works or 'signing' the document but then when it is emailed to a mobile device the form data disappears and is left blank?
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/10687840#M223454 Oct 22, 2019 Oct 22, 2019
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I do not understand why the Print --> Save to PDF function was removed? It was such a simple way to convert them to read-only. Can you explain why this was done?
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/11788476#M295389 Jan 27, 2021 Jan 27, 2021
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If you have Adobe Pro, Click "Tools." Then "Protection," and then "restrict Editing." a box will appear wherein you will fill in a password for the document. Follow the instructions and although the blue areas still appear, they can not be edited. Make a copy of your document before you star the process so the copy in your computer can still be modified.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/making-a-fillable-pdf-non-fillable-once-completed/m-p/12992448#M365659 Jun 08, 2022 Jun 08, 2022
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But if you don't have Adobe Pro, you still need some quick save as read-only option
I have a fillable PDF and I complete it and then it goes to my Docu-Sign to be signed by the client. It comes back and I upload it to my processing department. When they get it, ALL THE TEXT IN IT IS STRIPPED. That is probably a problem on their end, but my workaround is to PRINT TO PDF before I upload it to Docu-Sign. That is a waste of time.
I had to actually install another desktop PDF product to add to my Printer list so I can "print" non-fillable.
FWIW, the form was created by Adobe inDesign 15.0 (Windows).
My Acrobat Reader is 11.0.23
