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Nitro 11 crashing like crazy


Michael Miller

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Michael Miller

Hello,

Prelim: I just recently purchased and installed Nitro Pro 11 and am currently using the x64 version ending in .475

 

I am creating a form based off of a Microsoft Word document I created as a template. I "save as" the Microsoft Word document as a PDF file using the built-in PDF format support from Office 2016. This form has a LOT of fields, I mean a bunch (in the neighborhood of 1300 form fields for a 2 page document). At this point, I'm just making form fields - no Javascript, no "simple calculations." Tince a lot of these fields are essentially table entries, I have been creating a row of fields and then copying that row and pasting copies to speed up each section. After I get the fields pasted in (each field name for each column, of course, having the same name) I go through and start renaming the fields. As I plan on addressing many of these fields programatically in JavaScript, I individually rename each field to end with a ".#" (.1, .2 .3, etc). This makes it so I have the columns within a particular section of the form named something like Skill_TB.1, Skill_TB_Mod.1 and so on for the first row (.2 for second row, etc).

Things I've noticed:

1) Copying these rows causes a progressive corruption that eventually results in a crash.

2) Save File size slowly but surely rockets out of control.

3) After saving, sometimes even locked fields seem to just change size or shift position on their own (normally just by a little bit)

4) When renaming these fields (as described above), I can rename them all the way until the last field in a section (each section beging defined as a particular field name having the .#'s added to the end of it (Skill_TB for example). Renaming the last field in a section will always trigger a crash UNLESS I save first. Immediately after the save, all of the fields I just completed renaming will be renamed to just the .# - all other text in the field name is gone. When this happens, I have to go and rename each field AGAIN twice - the first time, the .# just comes back, it only sticks if I rename it TWICE in most cases. If I save the document at this point, the names are fixed and operate correctly. The downside is that it takes an extra long time to create these sections because after creating the actual boxes, I have to rename them a total of THREE TIMES for the names to stick.

5) Sometimes I get phantom fields after the save - phantom fields being where I click a field, but it has no name, its properties are blank and can't be changed. The solution for these is to delete them (sometimes I have to do it twice for it to stick) and recreate the field. This doesn't happen very often, but it still does happen sometimes.

When this got really bad, I loaded this up in an old copy of Acrobat Pro X that I have to see if I could tell what is going on - Acrobat X having a "Field List" that shows all fields in a list that I can sort alphabetically. I discovered that Nitro Pro seems to be creating a * LOT * of duplicate phantom fields hidden under the fields I am editing. Acrobat shows on-top copies off everything, and phantom field copies of them with the old names hidden under them. Deleting these fields in Acrobat makes Acrobat crash :).

 

The work around I have discovered is to periodically copy/paste the fields I have created (using Nitro) from my Nitro-edited PDF document into a fresh copy of my Word-created PDF document. I have to do this a section at a time to minimize crashes. The resulting document loses all of the weird phantom entries and the resulting file size is dramatically smaller (most recent of these went from 8M file size down to just under 2M). I do this after every major section so i can keep working on the document. 

 

Please note that this is not a complaint against Nitro - I like the software and it is certainly far more affordable than Acrobat Pro. But if I can help improve the product with my experiences, then this is what I have to do (especially with a new Nitro revision apparently just around the corner in May according to another post on this forum). I wanted to get a more modern and easier to work with PDF editor than Acrobat X (also had performance and some crash problems with this when working with really large documents), and Nitro mostly fits the bill. 

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Steven Zakulec

Is this a form you can share? If so, it might be worth filing a bug report (or posting the form so I can do one on your behalf). Nitro is obviously not supposed to crash, and I'd like to make it better if possible.

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Michael Miller

I have no problems sharing the form, I specifically kept a copy with the last set of "bugged" fields in it, just in case it was requested. I just have no idea HOW to attach the form. (Forum only allows me to attach things that are already uploaded, but there does not seem to be a mechanism available to me to actually upload anything). Also, I'm not sure how one goes about filing bug reports here... :( 

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Michael Miller

I hadn't thought of that. Good idea. I posted the last bugged build and shared it via Google Drive. Here is the link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xSYUyyvmHuVs0N-XKfDxKYhXVY4gIjZC

 

The problem section with the phantom duplicates is in Money & Equipment on Page 2 (the Eq_TB fields). Please note that this is still under construction, so box sizing and layout isn't finished. I will be doing all of that after coding is complete because my fields seem to like to change size and move about a little bit on their own, even when locked so I felt there wasn't much point to it at this particular point in the project. I also had a few test calculations I had run, but forgotten to remove that result in a string of 'F is Null' errors in the JavaScript debugger - this should not have any effect on anything, and the fields involved were not even in this section.

 

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