Compatibility

[Ndmand]

Has anyone figured out which versions of Adobe and/or other programs to which Foxit is incompatible?

I own the full Acrobat 5.0 and have the 5.0.5 patch. Yeah, its a dinasour, but it's my dinasour. Anyway, I completed my new forms in Foxit. Now, when I open the filled in PDF in Acrobat, none of the data entered in the form field is present, and the fields don't operate. When I reopen the form in Foxit, the data is there. I also remember a couple of weeks ago, Adobe would sometimes tell me that a filed save in Foxit was a corrupt file, or it would improperly render text that was entered in Foxit. Finally, yesterday, a client told me that she couldn't open my Foxit PDF in her Acrobat Reader. Scary.

I think these must be a compatibility issues, and I hope that it is limited to certain builds of Adobe. (A) Is there a list of compatibility issues? (B) Can you give me any direction on how to avoid such issues? I mean, is there a way to save to an earlier PDF version.

Thanks,
Ndmand

[Erik_Bryant]

Hello Ndmand,

A) Foxit is compatible with the latest PDF standard that Adobe created. Acrobat 5.0 only supports the PDF Standard 1.4 and below, while Foxit Reader 2.2 is up to date and supports 1.7. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format) Adobe does not allow you to fill in forms and save the form data. That may be why you don't see the filled in forms in Adobe.
B) If you have a PDF file that does not open up in Foxit Reader but opens in Adobe Reader, please send support the file: support@foxitsoftware.com and development will work towards releasing a version that will allow this file(and files like it) to open correctly.

Are you saying that you created a form in Foxit Reader and it is not opening in Adobe? Please e-mail support about this issue so they can help you.

[Ndmand]

Eric,

Thanks for the follow-up. I will probably create something to send to support. The particular file that has troubled me lately has confidential client data, so I can't send it.

After reading your message, I downloaded and installed the latest Adobe Reader, hoping that my problem was just associated with my old Adobe. Adobe Reader could not open the file although Foxit continued to be able to open the file. If I recall correctly, the article from Wikipedia suggested that the latest Adobe ought to use the latest format, which, according to you, Foxit uses. Thanks anyway. I will plan on sending something to your support team.

Ndmand

[Erik_Bryant]

Thanks for testing, Ndmand.

Is this a file that you created in Foxit Reader Pro Pack or Foxit PDF Editor? And yes, if you downloaded Adobe 8.0 then it should open up the PDF files that Foxit does. Is it possible for you to take out some of the confidential data and send to support? Or maybe you have another file that does not have confidential data. Then the development and support teams will figure out why this file can only be viewed in Foxit.

[Ndmand]

Erik,

I will try to put together something. On this particular file, I downloaded a PDF from a government website, then extracted pages with Adobe. Then I used Foxit to make it a form. Maybe I can reset the form, the refill it with other data.

Several weeks ago, before registering Foxit, I created several forms so that I could test which PDF program I wanted - Foxit, Adobe Professional 8.1, and NitrodPDF. Those test files, when filled by Foxit, showed some peculiarities too. They're on my hard drive. Maybe I can pull something from there. I actually sent some of those files by email to friends to see if they could use them. Not. Thanks for your attention to this.

Ndmand

[elisha]

Hi Ndmand,

Maybe you can extract one page which is not important from the particular file and send it to support@foxitsoftware.com. We need your sample file for further testing. Thanks much.

[Ndmand]

Hi,

I have emailed a copy of an extracted page to the support address that you mentioned. I created on that form a rather long explanation of the problem, but when I last saved it in Foxit, the text disappeared.

Summary. I can create and complete a form in Foxit, but when I open that form in Adobe (5.0 or the latest Adobe), the data entered either does not appear in Adobe or it renders a second time above or below the entered text. Strikethroughs seem to render. Foxit Typewriter entries (see bottom of page) seems to render and are even editable in Adobe.

I think this is a compatibility issue and not a corrupt file since I have had similar problems occur on forms created in Foxit. I use the latest Foxit. When I sent the PDF file from which the attached (and sent) page was extracted to a client, the client could not open the file.
:1_22:
Ndmand

[Erik_Bryant]

Hello Ndmand,

I see that if the attached file opens in Adobe, you cannot even see the text fields. But in Foxit it looks like a normal form.

Support, can you please check the attached file and find out why there is a compatibility issue? Thanks.

[Ndmand]

I appreciate the follow-up.

Thank You,
Ndmand