Acrobat Standard 2017

[Tommie]

Ihave the standard version of Adobe Acrobat 2017 installed. I know that used to be able to compare PDF documents. Checked the web, and according to the web, go to TOOLS and then select COMPARE...straightforward enough, except that when I go to TOOLS, there is no option to select COMPARE.

Is this something that is selected during installation or a separate plug-in? I searched the web for a plug-in, but the only thing that keeps coming up is for browsers...not interested in anything for browsers. As I am NOT the admin on my system, just trying to get information together so that I can tell IT what the issue is.

You'll notice that "Compare two versions of a PDF to review all differences" only appears under the Pro tab, not under Standard (it's not entirely correct, either, as this feature does exist in Acrobat XI Pro).

That is interesting...because in all the "What's the difference between Pro and Standard" questions in this forum, no one can tell you anything except the subscriptions are different. I have been told that the only difference between the two was CLOUD access/sync, which I don't need.

One needs Acrobat Professional to have access to the Prefight flatten feature or one needs to use the JavaScript "this.flattenPages()".. Flattening only flattens annotations (comments, text boxes, lines, etc.) and form fields.

You can use preflight to flatten layers, but layers in a PDF is not always like layers in an image. All the layers visisble will flattened to I layer. That includes text content and image content but images will still be images.

what is 'preflight flatten feature' and where do I find it. my god this program is confusing. I am not going to use Java script just to flatten a PDF, that's ridiculous. I will switch to a different program before I do that.

I have a PDF with a image that I can select and move around within the PDF, I want this image to be flattened onto the document so when I click on the image it wont select the image. Or when I add a comment to a PDF and then I want to flatten it so nobody can alter my comment.

I am a lawyer who files documents on the websites for the US courts, particularly the US bankruptcy court. I use Acrobat Professional XI. From time to time I file a PDF court form with fillable fields which I have filled in. I used to "flatten" these particular docs by printing the PDF to PDF.

There has either been an update to the US courts system, to Adobe Acrobat, or maybe my Word program. In any event, I only have the choice "Microsoft Print to PDF" when I print inside the Acrobat program, and I cannot form a "flattened" image.

Last week I tried again to "flatten" the image, but could not and I filed the doc with the courts without flattening. The court called and pointed out the problem is that without flattening, the fillable fields in the doc I filed can be further edited by anyone.

OK, this is insane. I have been using Bluebeam and another program for a few years, and purchased Standard DC with a new computer. We all know what flatten means. The last time I had Acrobat Pro it was a standard menu command. It's easy to find in Bluebeam, etc. You flatten a document so that all the elements and layers become one on the page and uneditable. These responses of "what do you mean by flatten" are maddening. You all know there used to be a "flatten" command in drop down menus.

With JavaScript and folder level files one can add custom commands to the Acrobat/Reader menu bar or tool bars. I do not remember seeing this as a provided command in previous versions. But many posters here have provided a JavaScript file that can be used to add such a command with many possible options for the flattening process. With Acrobat Pro there is a Pre-flight tool to flatten a PDF file. For versions prior to the introduction of the Acrobat Pro variation, the Pre-Flight processing was part of Acrobat.

Reader never had the ability to flatten (at least in older versions). Pro always did (when I used it, about 5 years ago and longer). I just find it frustrating that some replies on here ask the question "what do you mean flatten." It's a well known term and function among those of us that edit and create pdfs on a regular basis.

I bought into Standard DC thinking it was an upgrade from Reader. But for me, it is not much of one. I'm not going to try and write script commands. Thank you for replying though. Acrobat Pro is $199 to upgrade. Other software programs that doe as much are much less expensive out of the box.

You are reading way too much into my comments, but nonetheless, I stand by them. "flatten" is and has been a standard menu item across most pdf editing platforms (including Acrobat Pro). And most of the people, like me, who replied here looking for an answer, were also dumbfounded that our use of the term would be a mystery. I was not rude and I think you missed the part where I said "thank you for your reply" .

At any rate, my frustration is ultimately with Adobe. I am upset I paid for a program that is really no better to me than their free Reader, and now I will have to spend another $150 for Nitro or Foxit to get a function that should be pretty basic.

(2) Each of these three functions can be accessed from functions from within Acrobat DC Pro. Transparency flattening is a function within the Print Production Tools. The layer flattening capability is found in the left hand pane's layer's palette drop down menu and is only active if your PDF file has more than one layer. The flattening of annotations (including form fields) into the PDF content stream is available as a fixup under Preflight or alternatively can be performed via JavaScript. These options are not and have never been to my knowledge part of Acrobat Standard, a product aimed at the more simple needs of office workers and casual users.

Dov - respectfully, while it has been quite a few years since I used Acrobat Pro, there was a "flatten" command in one of the main drop down menus. Whatever it may have meant technically, it did what I needed it to do. I don't think I'm imagining it, since I worked with PDF's on a mostly daily basis. But I suppose I could be experiencing a senior moment.

However, I am able to perform similar functions in Foxit and Nitro Pro quite easily - which I use on my other machines. Since it came as an option on my new Dell, I thought I would give Acrobat a chance, especially since the description promised editing functions. But today, when I went to do something I do all the time in other programs (and which I swear I also did easily in the last version of Pro I used) - I could not. And I discovered Standard DC, which was not cheap, cannot perform the function (unless I start installing scripts - and that is not my expertise). And Adobe wants $200 for me to upgrade to Pro after I already spent money on Standard. I am unsure why Adobe charges $500 for Pro as a standalone, when other programs do the same for $150. It's frustrating.

I recently found this forum and this topic because I am trying to do what the OP and several others have asked about. To the Staff comments, in previous versions of Adobe, under the "Document Tab" at the bottom of the drop-down there were 2 options, "Flatten Current Page" and "Flatten Document". Regardless of how many meanings the term "flatten" now has, or ever had, if a comment, stamp, text box, shape, line, etc. was added to the page or to various pages in the document, you could go to that drop-down and "flatten" the page or the whole and it would make anything that was added to the document non-selectable and for all of my purposes, non-editable.

I am currently looking at the tools for downloading to see if any of those accomplish the same end, but as noted above, there are several other softwares that offer "flatten" as a basic function that does not have to be added as a separate tool, and in the context that has been discussed above. Regardless of the outcome, I must say that while I am sure I will learn to navigate the new layout, I do not find it user friendly, especially coming from the older versions, and I do find frustration in knowing that it was rather costly to upgrade, and now a number of the basic functions that I have used for years are no longer included in the basic package and must be added as a separate add-on.

And second, I am currently using Adobe Pro 2017. I downloaded a flattening script, but when added to the Javascript folder with the "debugger" script, it does not show up as a usable tool. So I deleted the script and am still on the search for a way to accomplish the "flatten" task as described herein. If only for up to version 9, that would explain why it didn't work.

3a8082e126