Adobe PDF

[GilbertsGrape]

I have a adobe Acrobat PDF file i need to edit and add form fields to. i have Adobe Acrobat 6.0 profesional but the document i want to edit is locked is there any way to unlock the documnet. i did not creat the document so i dont know any passwords for it

[brainsmile]

you can try scansoft pdf converter

[zero2dash]

I have a solution that should work for you.
I just tried a few apps here at work and this one worked for me.
(I made an Acrobat 6 PDF have Security so that I couldn't edit it, then I put in a password and saved the file. Then I downloaded this program (and a few others) to see if it would crack the password and/or remove it. This one worked.)
http://www.1000files.com/Utilities/Security_and_Encryption/PDF_Password_Remover_6995_Review.html

There's a demo (http://www.1000files.com/Download_6995.html) of that program that worked for me. It has a few nag screens (asking "would you like to purchase the full version now?") but doesn't seem to otherwise screw around with the file (ie adding a watermark; I've seen a lot of Acrobat freebies add a watermark to the PDF file which is absurd).

The only caveat is that the demo of this program will only do the 1st page of a PDF; if you have a multi-page PDF you may have to save each page as an individual file and do them that way. (I think this program allows you to use it like 120x before it isn't usable any more.) If you have to do that, just use the Document -> Pages -> Extract method and save each page as a file.

I installed that app on one of our PCs which is running Reader 6 and made the PDF on my Mac running Acrobat 6 Pro - so this should work for you. :)

Hope that helps. :cheers:

[GilbertsGrape]

i'll give it a try, thank you
gilberts Grape

[chadlnc]

Haven't tried this before, but does the document have security set for printing? If not print it to another PDF and edit that.

[ramazank2]

After many attempts to do the same thing, a friend of mine broke the security with a linux pdf program. Dont remember what it was called though.

[kgsilvas]

Printing to a different PDF has worked for me. It was quick and easy.

[ramazank2]

I believe it keeps the same security settings when you print it.

[zero2dash]

It might work to print the pdf to a postscript file and then use Distiller to create another pdf...that's the only other alternative I can think of. I don't believe you can print a pdf to a pdf (I think Acrobat gives an error on attempting that) but you should be able to print a postscript file from a pdf.

[dsuds]

For my users that don't have Acrobat but need to be able to produce PDF's I use PDF Creator. It's free (GPL) and installs as a print driver. You should be able to print the file from Adobe to this PDFCreator as Acrobat would think this is just another printer.

Then pull the file back into Adobe and you should be golden.

[chadlnc]

It might work to print the pdf to a postscript file and then use Distiller to create another pdf...that's the only other alternative I can think of. I don't believe you can print a pdf to a pdf (I think Acrobat gives an error on attempting that) but you should be able to print a postscript file from a pdf.

I tested it with version 6 and it did not error.

[zero2dash]

Maybe I'm thinking of v5 where you had to print to Distiller (instead of "Adobe PDF")...I just tried it myself (File -> Print -> Adobe PDF) and it worked.
d'oh :)

I think up until v6 they didn't have an Adobe PDF print setting, it said Distiller instead...I think that's what I was thinking of (but mistook it for PDF). Basically the same sort of file, really...my goof up though.

[chadlnc]

No problem, I didn't know if it would work or not when I posted, it was just a guess.

[zero2dash]

Ehhh....bad news.
I tried it just now with a PDF I applied security settings to (not password protected to *open*, but password protected to change the settings...everything allowed except changing the document) and it didn't work.
Distiller log file:

The owner of this file does not permit its conversion to PDF.%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

And with the built in PDF printing that OSX offers ('Save to PDF file'), it says:

Saving a PDF file when printing is not supported.
Instead, choose Save from the File menu.

...

Well, I thought printing the PDF would work. :)