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ABBYY FormDesigner is a tool designed specifically for creating machine-readable forms. In addition to forms that meet the requirements of automated document processing, designing forms with ABBYY FormDesigner also gives you a Document Definition that is almost completely ready for processing these forms in ABBYY FlexiCapture.

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Create the form in ABBYY FormDesigner

1

Create a form

Design the form in ABBYY FormDesigner.
2

Publish the form

Publish the form.
3

Export to XML Form Definition format

Export the form to XML Form Definition format. You get a file with the *.xfd extension.
For more information, see how to create a form, publish a form, and export a form to XML Form Definition format in ABBYY FormDesigner.

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Import the form into ABBYY FlexiCapture

1

Open the Document Definitions dialog box

In the main window, select Project → Document Definitions.
2

Start the import

In the Document Definitions dialog box, click the Import button.
3

Select the XFD file

In the Open file for import dialog box, select XML Form Definition Files (*.xfd) from the Files of type drop-down list, and specify the path to the *.xfd file.
The name of the new Document Definition appears in the Document Definitions list of the Document Definitions dialog box. After you open the imported Document Definition for editing, the markup of fields and static elements is already present in the image. Edit the field properties and configure export.

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Update a Document Definition with an XFD file

A Document Definition created from an XFD file can be updated with an XFD file without losing any changes made by the user in the Document Definition editor.
1

Run the Update Definition with XFD command

In the Document Definition editor, open the Tools menu and click Update Definition with XFD.
2

Select the XFD file

Specify the path to the XFD file in the dialog box that opens.
Page images are replaced with images from the XFD file, and blocks are created based on the new description in the XFD file. Document Definition fields that are not present in the updated Document Definition remain in the document structure. They are marked with an asterisk, and their blocks do not appear on images. A warning is displayed when these elements are updated.
If the Document Definition contains multiple sections, update every section individually. To update a section, select it in the document structure and run the Update Definition with XFD command.