I spent a fair amount of time researching this very thing and trying all sorts of VBA code. I have successfully created code that will open a PDF and then insert data from Access into the form-fillable PDF. Getting code samples from Acrobat forums is extremely difficult. It's as if Acrobat programmers don't like to share code.

That said, I've been wanting to share how I did it because I can't be the only one who needed this. Yes, Access can output to Word. Yes, Access can output a report as PDF. But what if the PDF is not your creation? What if you just need to populate it with data you have in your database?

I am using Adobe Acrobat X Standard. I have a couple of ways I populate PDFs with data.

1. pass an array of values to the procedure that populates the PDF and loop thru the array to insert the data

2. use recordset and get data, then hard code the names of the PDF fields and populate them

3. use a table to store the field mapping so that I can use a loop to populate the PDF fields with the corresponding Access data

I work PT for an insurance brokerage so some of the forms I'm populating are called ACORD apps. You do NOT want to recreate these in Access so populating a PDF is 100x easier.

I'm attaching a text file with the various code samples. It's all VBA code so it can be pasted into a new module. It will have to be modified quite a bit to meet your needs, but it's a start. Here's a basic sample:

' VERY BASIC EXAMPLE OF INSERTING DATA IN A PDF

Public Sub PopulateCertHolder(ByVal sValue As String, ByVal sAcord As String, ByVal sSaveAs As String)

Dim WshShell As Object

On Error GoTo PopulateCertHolder_Error

'open pdf fillable form

1 Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")

2 WshShell.Run "Acrobat.exe " & sAcord

'delay to let the form load completely

3 PauseTime = 1

4 Start = Timer

5 Do While Timer < Start + PauseTime

6 DoEvents

7 Loop

8 Set APP = CreateObject("Acroexch.app")

9 Set AVDOC = CreateObject("AcroExch.AVDoc")

10 Set AVDOC = APP.GetActiveDoc

11 Set PDDOC = AVDOC.GetPDDoc

12 Set jso = PDDOC.GetJSObject

'populate fields

Dim val As Variant

18 Set x = jso.GetField("FormFieldName")

19 val = sValue

23 x.Value = val

'save file

31 PDDOC.Save 1, sSaveAs

32 AVDOC.Close 1

DoEvents

33 APP.CloseAllDocs

DoEvents

34 APP.Exit

'just in case window didn't close

35 fCloseApp "AcrobatSDIWindow"

'housekeeping on the way out

36 Set APP = Nothing

37 Set AVDOC = Nothing

38 Set PDDOC = Nothing

39 Set jso = Nothing

Exit_PopulateCertHolder:

Exit Sub

PopulateCertHolder_Error:

Call LogError(Err.Number, Err.Description, "AcrobatCode.PopulateCertHolder", Erl)

Resume Exit_PopulateCertHolder

End Sub

Hope this helps!

Diana