Convert Livecycle dynamic fillable PDF to static fillable PDF (not to flattened PDF)
I have this unique situation where I need to convert the dynamic forms (XFA PDF) created by Livecycle ES4 Forms Designer into static forms (normal PDF).
Please note that as mentioned in other posts and forums, 1. I used a print driver to save the livecycle form as PDF but that expectedly flattens the file i.e. none of the PDF fields remain as readable. 2. Used JavaScript to make all the fields "read only" but that will still keep the format of the form as dynamic PDF and not static PDF.
In my case I do not want to flatten the form, I just want a non-dynamic PDF that will be non-interactive like the ones created in Acrobat. Is there any solution for that at a click of a button in LiveCycle using JavaScript?
Example-
Step 1 - Consider that a 'Contact Details' form is created in Adobe Livecycle. A user opens this form in Adobe Reader and sees Contact #1 box. The user then creates another 2 Contact Boxes by using the 'Add Contact' button (see the attached screenshot).
- Note: Structure/layout of the Form will be changed if Add/Remove buttons or the Checkbox is clicked because this is a dynamic form.
Step 2 - Now the user should be able to save this form as a static PDF (not a Livecycle document) where the structure/layout of the form is fixed (i.e. add/remove buttons or the checkbox cannot do any change in the layout) but the fields of the form should be editable in the newly saved version.
How can the step 2 be achieved?
UPDATE:
I found one manual way -
- Convert Livecycle PDF to a flattened PDF by using a Print as PDF feature.
- Open Adobe Acrobat, go to Create --> Create Form --> select "From existing Document" --> upload the flattened PDF you created in the 1st step.
- Acrobat will detect the form fields. Save that as a fillable static PDF.
I noticed that the structure, fonts, data were preserved during these steps.
Customers obviously will not perform the above steps. So, I am trying to get an answer on how to do these steps automatically at a click of a button from the Livecycle PDF document.
Is there any API/plugin to do this automatically?
Answer
Found one possiblity: using PDFCreator and acrowrap tool to convert from PDF XFA to PDF 1.4.