Usage: fdfmergelite [options] inPDFFile [inFDFFile]

-x                  : Input is an xfdf file, not a fdf file
-s                  : Replace all fields with stamps
-reverse            : Make fdf file come first followed by 1+ pdf files
-norebuild          : Don't rebuild appearances
-mergeflags         : Merge F and Ff flags along with the field Values
                      in the FDF

            -- Command List File --
-cmds <string>      : Path to the file of commands -cmds only compatible
                      with General Options

            -- Encryption Options --
-encrypt            : Encrypt out file
-keylength <int>    : Key Length.  Valid options are 40 and 128.
                      Default is 128.
-ownerpass <string> : New Owner Password (Required)
-userpass <string>  : New User Password
-noprint            : Do Not Allow Printing
-nomodify           : Do Not Allow Modifying the Document
-nocopy             : Do Not Allow Copying text or graphics
-nonotes            : Do Not Allow Adding or changing notes or form fields
-nofill             : Do Not Allow Fill or Sign of Form Fields
-noaccess           : Do Not Allow Accessibility
-noassembly         : Do Not Allow Document Assembly
-nohighres          : Do Not Allow High Resolution Printing

            -- Save Options --
-i                  : Save using an incremental save
-w                  : Linearize to support byte serving across the web.
                      Forces full save
-optimize           : Optimize the output file to try to reduce file size
-iso32000           : Set file for ISO 32000 compliance (PDF 1.7)
-nowarning          : Do not issue warnings about unused fields
-o <string>         : Save to a new output PDF file

-d <string>         : Owner password to open this document
            -- General Options --
-l <string>         : Write progress info to a given file
-p                  : Write progress information to diagnostics
-n                  : Do not write information to screen
-v                  : Version information
-help               : Show help
-h                  : Show help
-r <string>         : Registration number

Introduction

FDFMerge Lite is a server based, command-line driven application that merges FDF (Forms Data Format) file information into a PDF (Portable Document Format) Form file.

Memory Requirements

Minimum free memory available to run the application: 512 MBytes

Windows Installation

Windows installation is handled by the installer and does not require any special handling.

Unix Installation

Setting environmental variables (All Unix Platforms)

In this release, there are 2 additional environmental variables that need to be set for FDFMerge Lite on all UNIX platforms. If you run FDFMerge Lite from the fdfmergelite script created during installation, these environmental variables will be set by the script. If you run fdfmergeliteapp directly, you will need to set these environmental variables to run FDFMerge Lite. Once FDFMerge Lite is installed, you can view the variables needed by looking at the fdfmergelite script created by the installer.

Setting the Appligent home directory (All Unix Platforms)

The environmental variable that stores the location of the Appligent home directory is APPLIGENT_HOME. The default location for the Appligent home directory is /usr/local/appligent. The Appligent home directory contains the library files and resources needed to run FDFMerge Lite.

It also contains license information for FDFMerge Lite.

Example:

export APPLIGENT_HOME=/usr/local/appligent

Setting the APDFL library path (All Unix except AIX)

The APDFL library path must be added to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable. The APDFL library path is located in a subdirectory of the APPLIGENT_HOME directory.

The path should be set to ${APPLIGENT_HOME}/APDFLX.X.X/Libs

Example:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${APPLIGENT_HOME}/APDFLX.X.X/Libs

Setting the APDFL library path ( AIX Only )

The APDFL library path for AIX must be added to the LIBPATH variable. The APDFL library path is located in a subdirectory of the APPLIGENT_HOME directory.

The path should be set to ${APPLIGENT_HOME}/APDFLX.X.X/Libs

Example:

export LIBPATH=${LIBPATH}:${APPLIGENT_HOME}/APDFLX.X.X/Libs

Registration numbers for FDFMerge Lite

In previous versions of FDFMerge Lite, the FDFMerge Lite registration number was required as a command line option with the -r flag each time fdfmergeliteapp was run. An FDFMerge Lite script was provided that automatically added -r and the registration number to the fdfmergelite command line when the script was run.

In the current release, in addition to getting the registration number from the command line, FDFMerge Lite can get the registration number from a license file in the appligent home directory. On unix systems, license files are created by the installation script and stored in the ${APPLIGENT_HOME}/license directory. For windows, the license file is created by the installer and stored in the /All Users/Application Data/Appligent/License directory. With a valid license file, the -r is no longer required on the command line. The -r option can still be used as in previous versions, and will override the value in the license file.

Supported Platforms

Windows: 7 & above
Linux: 64 bit
Solaris: 10 & above

Creating an FDF File

An FDF file is a plain text file that contains a list of form fields and their values. Although we’ll show you how to create one by hand, most often FDF files are software generated. These are some of the more common methods to create FDF files:

• Use Adobe Acrobat to export forms data directly to a file.
• Use a Submit Form action in Acrobat’s Field Properties pop-up to export FDF data to a web server.
• Export data from a database and save it as an FDF file, using a script that you create.
• Write a program that will build an FDF file as a plain text file, using a script that you create.
• Use Adobe’s FDF Toolkit, see FDF resources for more information.

The FDF file format

An FDF file has the following format:

• An FDF file must begin with (Percent)%FDF and end with (PercentPercent)%%EOF
• The data is given as name-value pairs, enclosed in double angle brackets: << >>:
  /T indicates form field name
  /V indicates form field value

In this section we’ll use the sample file: samples/testfiles/testfile.fdf as an example. Within it are six name-value pairs. The lines before and after these pairs are identification and formatting information.

%FDF-1.2
%âãÏÓ
1 0 obj
<<
/FDF << /Fields [
<< /T (CheckBox1) /V /Yes>>
<< /T (CheckBox2) /V /Off>>
<< /T (ComboBox) /V (6)>>
<< /T (ListBox) /V (fontsize)>>
<< /T (Basefont) 
/V (This is a Multi-line text box. Note that the text wraps around to the next line!)>>
] >> 
/ID[<B5B9EA85E3E2A7372D233185314E367E><7CA8657022DA815A340A57D516E030DC>
] >> 
>> 
endobj
trailer
<<
/Root 1 0 R
>>
%%EOF

Line breaks and new lines in FDF files

When long character strings are used in text fields, you may need to manually insert line breaks, so that the text wraps in the form field the way you would like it to. If you put a line break in a field value, you need to adjust the spaces between words.

Inserting line breaks in FDF files, \r and \n

In order to make a multi-line text field format the way you want it to, you may have to add newline characters, using \r or \n. They both work the same way. A single new line results from any of the following: \r, \n, or \r\n. For example, if your text is:

Among these are time management

and you would like it to look like:

Among these are
time management

enter this into the FDF value for the form field:

Among these are\rtime management

Using the line continuation character \

The value of a name-value pair should be on a single line. If you need to break a value onto the next line, use the \ line continuation character.

Entering the following into the FDF value for the form field:

Among these \
are time man\
agement

Will look like this in the output PDF:

Among these are time management

Using special characters

Special characters can be entered directly into the FDF file, or they can be represented by octal characters. An octal character is represented by a \ followed by a three digit octal code. FDFMerge Lite and FDFMerge use octal codes with PDF encoding. A list of octal codes can be found in Appendix D of the PDF Reference manual on Adobe’s website.

Entering the following into the FDF value for the form field:

\200 Among these are time management

Will look like:

• Among these are time management

FDF resources

For more information about FDF, refer to Adobe for the following resources:

• The FDF Toolkit. Adobe provides this free API (Application Program Interface) for writing a server application that generates FDF data, or to parse FDF data from a form.
• The PDF Reference Manual provides useful FDF documentation.
• Be sure to check the FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge pages of the Appligent website.

Creating an XFDF File

XFDF is an XML version of an FDF file. You can create XFDF files the following ways:

• Use Adobe Acrobat to export forms data directly to a file.
• Export data from a database and save it as an XFDF file, via a script that you create.
• Write a program that will build an XFDF file as a plain text file, via a script that you create.
• Use the Submit Form action in Acrobat’s Field Properties pop-up to export XFDF data to a web server.

You cannot use the FDF Toolkit to create XFDF files.

XML is a structured language that begins with the XML file itself as the topmost object. XFDF files have an element called fields that contain field and value.

Basic XFDF file structure

The table below shows the basic XFDF file structure.

Refer to the XML Forms Data Format Specification on the Adobe website for more information about XFDF files. You can go to https://www.immagic.com/eLibrary/ARCHIVES/TECH/ADOBE/A070914X.pdf to download the specification.

An example of an XFDF file which shows this simple structure follows. The sample FDF form data would look like this in XFDF:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xfdf xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/xfdf/" xml:space="preserve">
   <fields>
      <field name="CheckBox1">
      <value>A</value>
      </field>
      <field name="CheckBox2">
      <value>Off</value>
      </field>
      <field name="CheckBox3">
      <value>Off</value>
      </field>
      <field name="ComboBox1">
      <value>Option 1</value>
      </field>
      <field name="ListBox1">
      <value>Item2</value>
      </field>
      <field name="MultiLineText1">
      <value>This is a Multi-line text box. Note that the text wraps around to the next line!</value>
      </field>
      <field name="RadioGroup1">
      <value>Yes</value>
      </field>
      <field name="TextBox1">
      <value>Sample Text</value>
      </field>
   </fields>
</xfdf>

Line breaks and new lines in XFDF files

To manually insert a line break in form field text, type a carriage return directly into the value in the XFDF file. You do not need to use /r or /n characters. Make sure to check Multi-line on the Options tab of the Text Field Properties dialog in Acrobat.

Using Unicode

FDFMerge Lite and FDFMerge can use Unicode to place Asian language characters in a text form field. The only place double-byte characters can be used is in the value parameter of a text form field.

Prerequisites for Acrobat full version

In order to use Acrobat to view and print Asian text, you must have Asian language support files installed for both the Operating System (OS) and Acrobat. The table below shows whether Asian font support is automatically installed for your combination of OS and Acrobat, or whether you have to manually install it.

Unicode font support

OS		Font Support
		Version	Automatic	Manual
OS	Windows	7 & higher
	Mac	OS X
Acrobat	Windows	X and higher
	Mac OS X	10.0 and higher

Operating system

Asian font support is automatically installed for all OS platforms except Windows 2000/NT. To install Asian font support, open Regional Options in the Control Panel, and add the fonts you want. You may need your original installation disk. Refer to the Windows on-line help for more information. You can also install keyboard support.

Acrobat

Asian font support is automatically installed only in Acrobat 6 under Mac OS X. For all other versions, you will need to do a custom installation, and choose to install Asian font support. Refer to the Acrobat on-line help for more information.

Prerequisites for Acrobat Reader

In order to use Acrobat Reader to view and print Asian text, you must install the Asian Font Pack from Adobe.

Windows/UNIX

Download and install the Asian Font Pack.

Reader components can be updated in a variety of ways. Some updates are available when you open a PDF that triggers the updating process automatically. For example, if you open a form that uses Asian language fonts, Reader asks whether you want to download the fonts. Other updates are available only from the Help menu, and you must install them manually. Some updates are available both automatically and manually.

Mac OS X

You cannot download the Asian Font Pack for Mac OS X. You must choose to install it when you install Acrobat Reader. If you did not, you must reinstall Reader.

Available fonts

There are standard Adobe fonts that are available when using Unicode characters. The table below lists the seven fonts that are available for double-byte character stamping:

Double-byte character fonts

Use the font name in the left-hand column above in the Font parameter in your FDF, XFDF or FormInfo file.

Character encodings

Create UTF encoded XFDF files with a text editor that supports UTF-8.

UTF-8

Type double-byte Unicode characters directly into the XFDF file using any text editor which supports UTF-8. Your system must have the appropriate fonts installed. For example:

Only the value field can have Asian fonts or any other higher level Unicode character. All other fields must use only the Latin character set (the first 128 characters, equivalent to “ASCII”).

UTF-16

UTF-16 requires the double-byte characters in big-endian hexadecimal. Each character is represented by &#x and the four digit code for the character, followed by a semi-colon (;). Enter the entire Text parameter as a string of hex codes with no breaks. For example:

For example, to enter the three characters 5185 5BC6 306E, enter:

Refer to Unicode resources for help finding codes.

Multi-line UTF-8/UTF-16 stamps

In order to get multi-line text fields, you must make sure to check “Multi-line” in the Options tab of the Text Field Properties dialog. Then, either:

• For UTF8, enter a newline character directly by typing a carriage return. For example:

• For UTF16, place the newline character (below) directly into the text string.
  
  For example:

Both values result in this field value:

Text containing double-byte characters will not automatically wrap.

Unicode resources

1. The Unicode Consortium has the complete Unicode specification, providing a wealth of information on Unicode, character sets, and conversions.
2. SC UniPad provides a free trial of UniPad, a Windows-based Unicode text editor.
3. IT and communication provides an extensive tutorial on character sets, including Unicode.

Notes on JavaScript and Formatting Fields

Using JavaScript in PDF forms

FDFMerge Lite and FDFMerge do not have the capability to calculate form fields. If you use JavaScript in your PDF forms to calculate fields, the value in the FDF file is what will appear in the flattened output PDF file. Therefore, you need to have the correct field value present in the form or in the FDF file prior to merging.

If you will be merging and not flattening your form fields you can add a JavaScript to your form that will perform all calculations when the file is opened. However, you will get a warning from Adobe Acrobat to save the file when it is closed.

Formatting form fields

If you are flattening your form fields and you have set one or more fields as formatted, for example, as currency, then you will need to include the formatting for that value in the FDF file. For example, if you wish the value of a field to be $1,234.00 in the output PDF file, then the value in your FDF file needs to be /V ($1,234.00). If you put the value into the FDF as “1234” it will appear in the flattened PDF document as “1234.”

This behavior will sometimes also be true for non-flattened forms, when the form fields are still active. After merging the formatting settings may not appear to have “taken.” However, if the value in the field is modified (by adding and/or removing a character), formatting settings will take effect and format the value correctly to the settings. Therefore, whether merging and flattening or only merging, it is good practice to format the field as you would like it to appear directly within the FDF file.

Using PDF images in button fields

Using an FDF file, FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge can merge the first page of a PDF document onto a button field. You must specify the value of a button to be a PDF filename in the FDF file. The button will remain active after merging with FDFMerge Lite or FDFMerge. For example:

/T (ThisButton) /V (C:\FDFMerge\ThisPDFfile.pdf)

This technique may also be used to stamp the first page of a PDF document onto a button if -s is specified.

Merging a PDF onto a button is different from stamping a PDF, JPEG or TIF onto a form field. When an image is stamped onto a button, the action of the button is lost in the form flattening. Active buttons appear on flattened documents if:

• A PDF file path is set in the FDF file for the fieldname,
• The button has had an icon set.

Buttons which contain nothing but text (Label only) will not be stamped. This feature only works on buttons containing PDF Images.

Introduction

This chapter describes the fdfmergelite command syntax and summarizes the options you can use with the fdfmergelite command. Command-line syntax in the tables below refer to a path to any input or output file. In the Windows environment directory paths use a back slash “\” character. In the UNIX environment directory paths use a forward slash “/” character. Examples in the tables below show a Windows type path.

The following is an example of paths to the default installation directory for FDFMerge Lite:

Windows

> C:\Appligent\FDFMergeLite\

UNIX/Mac OS X

$ /Appligent/FDFMergeLite/

Command Syntax

$fdfmergeliteapp [options] -o outputFile.pdf inputFile.pdf inputFile.fdf

Product Information Options

The following table describes options you can use to obtain information about the FDFMerge Lite product. For more detailed information about these options, see General Options.

Input and Output Options

The following table describes the options for managing file input and output. For more detailed information about these options, see General Options.

Reporting Options

The following table describes the options for reporting progress and error messages. These options are helpful for debugging and understanding how FDFMerge Lite works. For more detailed information about these options, see General Options.

Registration Number

The following table describes how to supply the registration number to FDFMerge Lite. For more detailed information about this, see General Options.

Merging Options

The following table describes the merging options available for FDFMerge Lite, for more detailed information see FDFMerge Lite Options.

This sample script is based on an FDFMerge sample script on the Appligent website. The algorithm of the script is discussed in FDFMerge – Automating or FDFMerge Lite – Automating.

#PERL cgi source for FDFMerge Mutual Fund Demonstration

####################################################################################
##Configuration section-replace paths with your own data if not using default.##
####################################################################################
## Webmasters E-mail address, replace with your own. Make sure 
## a \ is included before the @ and .
# Address appears on server error page if error occurs.
$webmaster = "webmaster\@appligent\.com";
$Platform = "WIN"; # WIN or Unix

# set up general paths and program locations
## Path to fdfmerge without extension
$FDFMergeRoot  = "C:/Appligent/FDFMerge/fdfmerge";

## Main Directory where files are located
$MainDir = "C:/Appligent/Demos/WebSiteExamples/FDFMerge_PerlDemo";

## Path/filename for FDFMerge to create output file. 
## ("output file" is the new copy of PDF returned by FDFMerge 
## with the merged/stamped data)
## If you do not want to include the time in the output file name, 
## remove the $tm.
## Prints as filename120101.pdf. (if time was 12:01:01)
$outputDirName = "output"; # name of folder to contain all output files
$outputDir = "$MainDir/$outputDirName"; #Full path to output files
$outfileName = "out_SimpleDemo.pdf"; # name for output pdf file
$outfile = "$outputDir/$outfileName"; # Path & name for output PDF file

$pdffile = "$MainDir/input/SimpleDemo.pdf"; #Path & name for input PDF form
$fdffile = "$outputDir/SimpleDemo.fdf"; #Path & name for fdf or xfdf file
$logfile = "$outputDir/logfile.txt"; #Path & name for log file for FDFMerge

# Remove Comment marks to print to Debug text file
#open(DEBUG,  ">" . "$outputDir/debug.txt")  || die "problem: $!";
#print DEBUG "Starting Log\n";

############################## End Configuration Section ########################
#################################################################################

### Start main section of script ###

# set up executable and reg number
$FDFMerge = $FDFMergeRoot . "app";

# Read the Data submitted from the server:
&parse_form_data (*simple_form);

# Read submitted data into variables and set merge option
$merge = ReadFormData();

# Write FDF file to disk.
&WriteFDF($fdffile);

# Run FDFMerge
$execute = "$FDFMerge -r $FDFMergeRegNum $merge -p -l $logfile 
  -o $outfile $pdffile $fdffile";
`$execute`;
#print DEBUG "$execute\n";

#start of html page with link to newly created file
$wpth = "$outputDirName/$outfileName ";
print "Location: $wpth\n\n";
print "Content-type: application/pdf\n";
print "<html>","\n";
print "<head>","\n";
print "<title>FDFMerge Demo PDF File</title>","\n";
print "</head>\n";
print "</html>";

##############################################################################

## If you need help setting up this demo or if you have any questions about
## FDFMerge, please contact our Technical support dept. by e-mail, 
## support@appligent.com
## or by phone, 610-284-4006

## Copyright©2002 Appligent, Inc. All rights reserved.
## Sample Code supplied as example, use at your own risk. 
## We have tried to make this example easy to read and use. 
## However, Appligent makes no guarantees of any kind that this 
## code will work on your system.

############################## Subroutines ##################################
#############################################################################
# Parse the submitted HTML form data or the PDF Form data submitted as HTML.
## Parse form
sub parse_form_data
{
    local (*FORM_DATA) = @_;
    local ( $request_method, $query_string, @key_value_pairs,
           $key_value, $key, $value);

    $request_method = $ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'};
    if ($request_method eq "GET") {
        $query_string = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};
    } elsif ($request_method eq "POST") {
        read (STDIN, $query_string, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
    } else {
        &return_error (500, "Server Error",
                       "Server uses unsupported method");
    }

    @key_value_pairs = split (/&/, $query_string);

    foreach $key_value (@key_value_pairs) {
        ($key, $value) = split (/=/, $key_value);
        $value =~ tr/+/ /;
        $value =~ s/%([\dA-Fa-f][\dA-Fa-f])/pack ("C", hex ($1))/eg;

        if (defined($FORM_DATA{$key})) {
            $FORM_DATA{$key} = join ("", $FORM_DATA{$key}, $value);
        } else {
            $FORM_DATA{$key} = $value;
        }
    }
}

############################################################################
## Get data from parsed form to variables

sub ReadFormData{

$name = $simple_form{'name'};
$co = $simple_form{'company'};
$city = $simple_form{'city'};
$state = $simple_form{'state'};
$country = $simple_form{'country'};
$email = $simple_form{'email'};
$merge_option = $simple_form{'merge_option'};

if ($merge_option eq "merge") {
 $merge = "";
 } else {
 $merge = "-s";
 }
 
$ReadFormData = $merge;
}


############################################################################
## Create FDF File
sub WriteFDF {

$fdffile = $_[0];
open FILE, join ("",">",$fdffile);

#if above line fails with your version of perl try the line below.
#open (FILE, ">" . $fdffile);

print FILE<<EOT;
%FDF-1.2

1 0 obj
<< 
/FDF 
<< /Fields [ 
<< /V ($city)/T (city)>> 
<< /V ($co)/T (company)>> 
<< /V ($country)/T (country)>> 
<< /V ($email)/T (email)>> 
<< /V /$merge_option /T (merge_option)>> 
<< /V ($name)/T (name)>> 
<< /V ($state)/T (state)>> 
] 
>> 
>> 
endobj
trailer
<<
/Root 1 0 R 
>>
%%EOF
EOT

close FILE;
}

############################################################################
## Return Error
sub return_error
{
    local ($status, $keyword, $message) = @_;

    print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
    print "Status: ", $status, " ", $keyword, "\n\n";

    print <<End_of_Error;

<title>CGI Program - Unexpected Error</title>
<h1>$keyword</h1>
<hr>$message</hr>
Please contact $webmaster for more information.

End_of_Error

    exit(1);
}

E-mail

You can contact support directly by sending an e-mail to support@appligent.com. Support e-mails are answered within one business day during the normal business hours listed below.  

Telephone & Fax

• Telephone: +1 610 284 4006
• Fax: +1 610 284 4233

To better serve you, please call us during our normal business hours, Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm U.S. EST/EDT.

A member of our friendly, knowledgeable support staff will reply as soon as possible, generally within one business day.

International Support

Customers from locations outside the United States, including Germany, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia can contact us directly or connect with one of our many resellers.

When contacting support please provide the following information:

• Name of the Product
• Product Version Number
• Operating System
• Your Name
• Company Name
• Your Email Address
• Your Phone Number
• Product Registration Number
• Any files to help us reproduce your problem (if needed)

New Features

Please see the FDFMerge Lite Options for the full documentation of the new features.

FDFMerge Lite 7.3

-Comb fields on rotated pages are now supported

FDFMerge Lite 7.0

-mergeflags – Merge F and Ff flags along with the field Values in the FDF. For example, having the following in an FDF file will set the form field to ReadOnly when merging (will not work when stamping form fields, –s on command line)

/T(name)/V(John Smith)//Ff 1

-nowarning – Do not issue warnings about unused fields that are in the FDF/XFDF files but not present in the PDF form

Support for Arabic in form fields

FDFMerge Lite now supports Arabic in form fields.  In order the information to appear correctly, the form field must be set “Right To Left” and contain a font that supports Arabic characters.

FDFMerge Lite 6.0

Document optimization (-optimize)

For document optimization, use -optimize. This flag will do the following:

1. encode any non-encoded streams using Flate compression
2. remove ASCII85 filters from all streams
3. replace LZW encoded streams with Flate encoding
4. merge identical XObjects and images
5. optimize common sequences in page content
6. merge identical font descriptors and encodings

This option will usually result in a smaller file size.

ISO 32000 compliance (-iso32000)

To create a document that is ISO 32000 compliant, use -iso32000. This flag will do the following: Set the file for ISO 32000 compliance, resulting in a document that is PDF version 1.7.

Command collections (-cmds)

To process multiple commands quickly and efficiently, use the -cmds <filename> option. The file specified by -cmds, the commands file, should contain one or more single line commands. Each command is just like an ordinary FDF Merge Lite command-line without the executable name. The commands file does not support wildcards in filenames.

When you use the -cmds option, many of the FDFMerge Lite options should be set in the -cmds file instead of on the command line. The following options are supported on the command line when using the -cmds option: -r, -l, -n, -p

If the same option is set on the command line and in the a record of the -cmds file, the option value from the -cmds file record will be used.

For more information on the -cmds option, see Command Collections.

Known Limitations and Issues

Unicode issues

• Higher order ASCII characters not supported in XFDF file. If you use higher order ASCII characters, you must use an FDF file, not an XFDF file.
• Adobe® Acrobat® problem with newline characters. Due to a problem with the way Acrobat handles newline characters in form fields, use either -s option or -norebuild option when merging double-byte characters.
• First character in a CJK form field must be a CJK character.
• /octal values no longer supported in XFDF. Use hexadecimal codes for CJK characters or FDF files for higher order ASCII characters.
• Unicode on rotated pages. Unicode characters do not appear correctly on rotated pages.
• Do not mix UTF-16 hexadecimal codes with UTF-8 characters or ASCII. If you use UTF-16 hexadecimal codes in a value field, use all UTF-16 characters for that value. Do not mix with UTF-8 characters or ASCII text. Make sure the font for the Field in question is set to one of the supported CJK fonts.

Display problems in Acrobat

• Acrobat sometimes displays crosses in check boxes in a plain font. This is an issue with Acrobat and not FDFMerge Lite. They should display correctly if you do not use the -norebuild option.

No support for Signatures

• Although the Adobe Acrobat forms tool may be used to add a Signature field, it will be ignored by FDFMerge Lite. If you flatten the file, the signature field will be removed as well.

No support for FDF Templates

• The Form Data Format (FDF) supports a construct known as “Templates” where, within the Acrobat environment, the FDF file will cause additional pages to be added to the PDF file as they are needed. FDFMerge Lite does not support FDF Templates and will not add additional pages to a PDF file. Templates also allow use of non-exact names for form fields. FDFMerge Lite will not work unless the field name in the FDF file exactly matches the name of the form field in the PDF file.

Encrypted files may not be used

• FDFMerge Lite cannot open encrypted files. Users must have Edit permission for any files used by FDFMerge Lite.

Autosize is not supported

• When using text fields in PDF forms, be sure to specify a point size for the text as the Autosize feature is not supported by FDFMerge Lite.

The sort and multiple select options for list boxes are not supported

• If your form has one item selected, FDFMerge Lite’s stamped output will show the selection in red (i.e., the list is displayed in full with the selected choice printed in red). If more than one selected list item is entered into the FDF file, FDFMerge Lite will fail. If multiple selection or sort is checked in the form field properties for the list box, it will not display properly (the entire list will not be displayed, and the selected entry will print in black). If your list box is set to be sorted, FDFMerge Lite will not sort the data in the PDF form—any list will be printed as it is listed in the PDF form. This behavior is true for both stamped and merged documents.

Button stamping and merging behavior with regard to formatting

• In Acrobat, when you put in a button field, you can specify the button to be Text, Icon, or Icon and Text. Buttons containing text (Text or Icon and Text) will be maintained after a merge, but will not be stamped on the form. When stamping a mixed button of Icon and Text, only the icon will stamp.

• When you set a border around a PDF icon, specify the PDF from within the Acrobat form (so the PDF form displays the button and the border when you view it in Acrobat), and use FDFMerge Lite on the form with the -s option, with no reference to the button in the FormInfo file or the FDF file (i.e., not changing the button in any way using FDFMerge Lite), the button will display with the border. If you use FDFMerge Lite to put the PDF icon into the button, there will not be a border. In other words, if only Acrobat touches the field, the border will come through. If FDFMerge Lite touches the field, the border will not appear.

FDF files must be in PDDocEncoding

• Files exported directly from Acrobat will work correctly. Files created by hand must use the PDDocEncoding scheme for high ASCII characters. See PDF Reference Appendix D.1.

Stamping landscaped pages into a button

• This issue concerns using a page of a PDF document to stamp into a button. When using a page for a button that has been rotated to be in a landscape format and it is stamped or merged into a PDF the image in the output document will be rotated. The current workaround is to set the rotation of the button in the form field to be 90 or 270 degrees. To change the rotation of a form field go to the Field Properties, Common Properties tab, Orientation.

To Get Help

Contact technical support by:

emailing support@appligent.com, or calling 610-284-4006

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