Several people on campus have Ecopy Desktop on their computers to enable the scanning of documents. Once loaded Ecopy becomes the default program that opens ANY PDF that computer accesses whether it is on that computer or on the web. This becomes a problem when the PDF form was created to be filled out in Adobe Acrobat. Ecopy does not view the fields in a PDF form that were created using Adobe Products.
Another problem is that once a PDF is opened with Ecopy all of the form fields are permanently deleted and will not be there if the file is saved and later opened with Adobe Acrobat/Reader. So if you have Ecopy on your machine and wish to utilize a PDF form posted on the web you need to take some steps to ensure the PDF opens in Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Here are some of your options…
Use a machine that does not have Ecopy to access these forms.
Have someone without Ecopy e-mail you the desired form to drag onto your desktop and NEVER open it with Ecopy. This means you should never double click on it but instead should right click on the icon go to 'Open With' and choose Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Remember to do this EVERY TIME you use the form.
Change the way your computer views/opens all PDF files.
To change the way your computer opens PDF files (Windows)
Go to your desktop Start Menu in the left hand corner and RIGHT click on the menu.
Choose ‘Explore All Users”. A Start Menu dialog box will open.
Locate ‘Tools’ drop down menu at the top.
Choose ‘Folder Options’, a dialog box will open.
Go to the ‘File Type’ tab.
Scroll down to the extension ‘PDF’ (in alphabetical order) and select it.
Look down to the details for that extension, it should say ‘Opens With:’ and currently is set to Ecopy. Click the ‘Change…’ button.
The ‘Opens With’ dialog box will open giving you several options. Among the ‘Recommended Programs’ you should have a program listed as any version of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader. If you have both, choose Adobe Acrobat (versions 7 or 8 will allow more functionality). If you have more than one Adobe Acrobat version choose the one with the highest version number. Or choose the highest Adobe Reader version you may have.
Click ‘OK’ and close the Folder Options and Start Menu dialog boxes.
You will need to reboot your computer before the change takes effect. You should then be able to go to PDF forms on the web and they will open with all of the created form fields that you can now fill out.
When you go back into Ecopy it will ask you if you want to make Ecopy your default--ALWAYS SAY NO, or you will need to repeat these steps to use PDF forms again.
