Last updated on
Feb 26, 2026
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Also applies to Adobe Acrobat 2017, Adobe Acrobat 2020
- Acrobat User Guide
- Introduction to Acrobat
- Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
- Introducing the new Acrobat experience
- What's new in Acrobat
- Keyboard shortcuts
- System Requirements
- Download Adobe Acrobat
- Download Acrobat | Enterprise term or VIP license
- Download Acrobat 64-bit for Windows
- Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Windows
- Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Mac OS
- Install updates for Acrobat and Reader
- Update your Acrobat to the latest version
- Download Acrobat 2020
- Release Notes | Acrobat, Reader
- Workspace
- Workspace basics
- Opening and viewing PDFs
- Working with online storage accounts
- Acrobat and macOS
- Acrobat notifications
- Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
- Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
- Adobe Acrobat for Outlook
- Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer
- Explore Acrobat tools
- Workspace basics
- Creating PDFs
- Editing PDFs
- Edit text in PDFs
- Edit images or objects in a PDF
- Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
- Edit scanned PDFs
- Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
- Optimizing PDFs
- PDF properties and metadata
- Links and attachments in PDFs
- PDF layers
- Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
- PDFs converted to web pages
- Setting up PDFs for a presentation
- PDF articles
- Geospatial PDFs
- Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
- Change the default font for adding text
- Delete pages from a PDF
- Edit a signed PDF | FAQ
- Scan and OCR
- Forms
- PDF forms basics
- Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
- Create and distribute PDF forms
- Fill in PDF forms
- PDF form field properties
- Fill and sign PDF forms
- Setting action buttons in PDF forms
- Publishing interactive PDF web forms
- PDF form field basics
- PDF barcode form fields
- Collect and manage PDF form data
- About forms tracker
- PDF forms help
- Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
- Combining files
- Combine or merge files into single PDF
- Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
- Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
- Crop PDF pages
- Add watermarks to PDFs
- Add backgrounds to PDFs
- Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
- Publish and share PDF Portfolios
- Overview of PDF Portfolios
- Create and customize PDF Portfolios
- Sharing, reviews, and commenting
- Share and track PDFs online
- Mark up text with edits
- Preparing for a PDF review
- Starting a PDF review
- Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
- Participating in a PDF review
- Add comments to PDFs
- Adding a stamp to a PDF
- Approval workflows
- Managing comments | view, reply, print
- Importing and exporting comments
- Tracking and managing PDF reviews
- Saving and exporting PDFs
- Security
- Enhanced security setting for PDFs
- Securing PDFs with passwords
- Manage Digital IDs
- Securing PDFs with certificates
- Opening secured PDFs
- Removing sensitive content from PDFs
- Setting up security policies for PDFs
- Choosing a security method for PDFs
- Security warnings when a PDF opens
- Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
- Protected View feature for PDFs
- Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
- JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
- Attachments as security risks
- Allow or block links in PDFs
- Edit secured PDFs
- Electronic signatures
- Sign PDF documents
- Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
- Send documents for e-signatures
- Create a web form
- Request e-signatures in bulk
- Collect online payments
- Brand your account
- About certificate signatures
- Certificate-based signatures
- Validating digital signatures
- Adobe Approved Trust List
- Manage trusted identities
- Printing
- Accessibility, tags, and reflow
- Searching and indexing
- Multimedia and 3D models
- Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
- Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
- Displaying 3D models in PDFs
- Interacting with 3D models
- Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
- Setting 3D views in PDFs
- Enable 3D content in PDF
- Adding multimedia to PDFs
- Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
- Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
- Add comments to videos
- Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
- Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
- PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
- Preflight profiles
- Advanced preflight inspections
- Preflight reports
- Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
- Output intents in PDFs
- Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
- Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
- Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
- Additional checks in the Preflight tool
- Preflight libraries
- Preflight variables
- Color management
- Troubleshoot
- Troubleshoot PDF printing in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
- Adobe Acrobat license has either expired or not been activated
- Edit PDF forms created in LiveCycle Designer
- Insufficient data for an image error on Adobe Acrobat
- Resolve errors related to the AcroCEF/RdrCEF processes of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader
When you share a form, Acrobat auto-generates a PDF Portfolio to collect user-submitted data. By default, it saves this file in the same folder as the original form with the name 'filename_responses'. The topics below explain how to:
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After a user submits a form, open the returned form.
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In the Add Completed Form To Responses File dialog box, select one of the following options:
Add to an existing responses file: This option compiles data in the response file initially created when you distributed the form using the Distribute form wizard. If needed, click 'Browse' to find the response file.
Create a new responses file: This option generates a new response file, using the name and location you specify.
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Select OK.
It opens the response file. Each returned form added to the response file shows as a component file of a PDF Portfolio.
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Open the response file in Acrobat.
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In the left pane, select Add.
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In the Add Returned Forms dialog box, select Add file.
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Locate and select the returned forms, then select Open.
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Repeat the previous step to incorporate any returned forms from other folders. When done, select Ok.
Once completed, each added PDF form appears as a component file of the PDF Portfolio.
Follow these steps to save all the entries in a PDF Portfolio response file to a spreadsheet or XML file.
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Open the response file in Acrobat and select the data you want to export.
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From the All tools menu, select Export a PDF, select a format, and then select Convert to (format selected).
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In the Select Folder To Save File dialog box, specify a name, location, and file format (CSV or XML) for the form data, and then select Save.
Manage form data files
You can transfer the responses on a PDF form to and from other file formats that store all the data in less space than a full PDF.
Sometimes, individuals submit filled-in forms as data-only files rather than complete PDF files. These files aren't PDFs, but use another file format, such as FDF or XML. You can see the data submitted by an individual recipient in the context of the PDF by opening the original file and importing the information from the data file.
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In Acrobat, open the PDF form you want to import data into.
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Select All tools from the global bar in the upper left, and then select Prepare a form.
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From the Prepare a form panel, Select Options
> Import data. NoteImporting data from another file into a PDF form replaces any existing information in the individual form fields. However, if the imported data file contains one or more blank form fields, the original data won't be cleared upon import.
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In the Select File Containing Form Data dialog box, select a format corresponding to the data file you want to import. Then locate and select that file, and select Open.
NoteSome formats are available only for specific types of PDF forms, depending on the application used to create the form, such as Acrobat or Designer ES2. Data imported from a text file (.txt) must be formatted in tab-delimited rows that form columns.
To save the information in a completed PDF form as a data file in another format, follow these steps:
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In Acrobat, open the completed form file.
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From the All tools menu, select Prepare a form, and then from the left panel that opens, select Options
> Export data. -
In the Save As dialog box, select the type in which you want to save the form data. You get FDF, XFDF, XML, or TXT options. Then select a location and filename, and select Save.
NoteSome file formats are available only for specific types of PDF forms, depending on how the form was created.
To compile data from forms that aren't already in a data set, follow these steps:
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Select All tools from the global bar in the upper left, and then select Prepare a form.
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From the Prepare a form panel, select Options
> Merge data files into spreadsheet.
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In the Export Data From Multiple Forms dialog box, select Add Files.
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In the Select file Containing Form Data dialog box, select a file format option in the File Of Type option (Acrobat Form Data Files or All Files). Then, find and select the form files you want to merge into the spreadsheet, and select Open.
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Repeat the previous step to add form data files from other locations as needed.
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Select Export, choose a folder and filename for the spreadsheet, and select Save.
In the Export Progress dialog box, select View file now to open the spreadsheet file, or select Close dialog to return to Acrobat.
Note
If returned forms are in a response file, use the Export Data button in the left navigation panel for the PDF Portfolio response file to export the information into a spreadsheet more efficiently.
To manage your distributed or received forms, use Tracker. It lets you track responses, edit response file location, add more recipients, email all recipients, and view form responses.
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From the Acrobat Home view, select All tools from the Suggested tools section. From the Edit section, Select Edit a PDF.
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(Windows) Select the hamburger menu in the upper left. Then select Form Options > Track
(macOS) From the upper left, Select View > Tracker.
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From the Tracker dialog box, expand Forms in the left navigation panel.
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Choose a form and take one of the following actions:
For viewing all responses, select View responses.
To change the response file location, under Responses File Location, select Edit file location.
To access the original form, select Open original form.
To send the form to more recipients, select Add recipients.
