CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#pdfitext
Nico Enking
Nico Enking

Reputation: 49

Change text of label in PDF

I have problems with editing fields inside of an PDF document.

I created a simple invoice with OpenOffice and added some fields via the form creation tool. I exported it as PDF with forms after that.

One of the fields I want to change is named "{Firma}" and I want to fill this field with a string.

Below is a short example-code which doesnt seem to work, the field "{Firma}" in the output-file is still empty.

public static void ReplacePdfForm()
    {
        string fileNameExisting = @".\template\templaterechnung.pdf";
        string fileNameNew = @".\rechnung.pdf";

        using (var existingFileStream = new FileStream(fileNameExisting, FileMode.Open))
        using (var newFileStream = new FileStream(fileNameNew, FileMode.Create))
        {
            // Open existing PDF
            var pdfTemplate = new PdfReader(existingFileStream);

            // PdfStamper, (PDF to be changed)
            var pdfInvoice = new PdfStamper(pdfTemplate, newFileStream);

            AcroFields fields = pdfInvoice.AcroFields;

            // set form fields

            fields.SetField("{Firma}", "Test1");

            pdfInvoice.FormFlattening = true;
            pdfInvoice.FreeTextFlattening = true;
            pdfInvoice.Close();
            pdfTemplate.Close();
        }
    }

(I have some more fields which also don't change but I deleted them from code because they behave the same way.)

Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

Here's my PDF: http://www.file-upload.net/download-11071404/templaterechnung.pdf.html

EDIT2:

This is how I set the property in OpenOffice: OpenOffice TextField Property

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1523

Answers (1)

Bruno Lowagie
Bruno Lowagie

Reputation: 77606

When creating a form with Open Office, Open Office adds a parameter to the PDF instructing software processing the PDF not to create any appearance streams, but to leave it up to the PDF viewer to create those appearances.

This works as long as the form remains interactive, but as soon as you flatten the form, no appearances are created at all.

You can work around this problem by adding the following line:

fields.GenerateAppearances = true;

This way, you force iTextSharp to generate the appearances.

Upvotes: 1

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