HOW TO PREPARE PDF DOCUMENTS
TO FILE IN CM/ECF
CONTENTS
Filing Preparation ...................................................................................................................................... 1
Why Prepare Your PDFs ............................................................................................................................ 1
How to Test Your PDFs .............................................................................................................................. 1
How to Prepare Your PDFs ........................................................................................................................ 2
Fillable Forms and Non-Scanned PDFs .................................................................................................. 2
Scanned PDFs (Created via scanner/copier) ......................................................................................... 3
Scanned PDFs: Further Troubleshooting .............................................................................................. 4
Filing Preparation
Review the following technical requirements before you begin to file:
ECF User Manual Section II: Technical Requirements
CM/ECF FAQs: Technical
Why Prepare Your PDFs
When filing in CM/ECF, all PDFs that you upload should undergo one of the two below preparation
procedures, including fillable forms provided on the Court’s website. Following these procedures will
ensure:
CM/ECF successfully uploads your document(s).
All parties can successfully download and view the document(s) from CM/ECF.
Your document(s) are more secure.
How to Test Your PDFs
CM/ECF has a utility that allows you to test your PDFs to ensure they meet the technical requirements
prior to filing them in your case. Go to Utilities > Miscellaneous > Check PDF Document and upload your
PDF. The system will notify you if the PDF meets or does not meet the technical requirements. If your
PDF fails, follow one of the steps below.
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HOW TO PREPARE PDF DOCUMENTS
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How to Prepare Your PDFs
The following instructions are specific to Adobe when discussing PDFs as this is the most commonly used
software. If you use different PDF software, the procedure may be different. You will want to research
how to “flatten a PDF” with your specific software.
Fillable Forms and Non-Scanned PDFs
This process is for forms and documents in both Word and (Adobe) PDF format that were not created by
scanning.
1. Create or open your form or document.
2. Fill in your form or document with all the required information.
3. Once your form or document is complete, select File.
4. Select Print > Printer > Print to PDF or Adobe PDF, then click Print.
Word to PDF PDF to PDF
Note: If you include highlights or other markups in your PDF, be
sure to select Document and Markups under Comments &
Forms.
5. Select where you want to save the new PDF to your computer, then click Save.
6. You have now created a more secure PDF you can successfully upload to CM/ECF.
Note: Be sure to select the correct version of the PDF when uploading in CM/ECF. It may be
helpful to save the new PDF as PrinttoPDFComplaint to differentiate the versions.
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HOW TO PREPARE PDF DOCUMENTS
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Scanned PDFs (Created via scanner/copier)
If you uploaded your document to your desktop by a scanner (or you received a document that was
scanned from a scanner/copier rather than created from Word or from PDF creation software) and it
was not scanned at our recommended settings, you will need to follow the below procedure to ensure
the document conforms to our resolution requirements (see ECF User Manual Section II: Technical
Requirements).
1. Open the PDF from your desktop in Adobe Reader or some other PDF reader - not in your
browser.
Note: Many computers auto default to opening PDFs and other documents in your browser if
you open them from your desktop/File Explorer. If you are unsure what are your computer’s
default settings, first open the software in which you would like the document to open, i.e.
Adobe Reader, then go to File > Open and navigate to where you saved the document. This will
ensure it opens in the correct software.
2. Select File > Save As.
3. Name the new version of your
PDF under File name:
Note: We strongly recommend
you save the document under a
new name in case this process
over optimizes your document
making it illegible.
4. Select Adobe PDF Files,
Optimized (*.pdf) under Save as type:
5. Click Save.
6. Your document is now optimized. Open the new version and check to make sure you can still
read the PDF. This option can sometimes over optimize and make some scans unreadable. If you
determine you cannot adequately read the document, return to your original version and
attempt Scanned PDFs: Further Troubleshooting.
7. Once you verified that you can read the document, you can now upload that version into
CM/ECF.
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Scanned PDFs: Further Troubleshooting
If you performed the process in Scanned PDFs (Created via scanner/copier) and you still cannot upload
your document, you can further optimize your PDF by performing the following:
1. Open the original PDF (it is not recommended to perform this process on the already optimized
PDF from the previous step) from your desktop in Adobe Reader or some other PDF reader, not
in your browser.
Note: Many computers auto default to opening PDFs and other documents in your browser if
you open them from your desktop/File Explorer. If you are unsure what are your computer’s
default settings, first open the software in which you would like the document to open, i.e.
Adobe Reader, then go to File > Open and navigate to where you saved the document. This will
ensure it opens in the correct software.
2. Select File > Save As Other > Optimized PDF.
3. When you see the popup screen (PDF Optimizer), ensure the Image Settings are set between
150 and 200 ppi for all three settings (Color, Greyscale, and Monochrome Images).
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HOW TO PREPARE PDF DOCUMENTS
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4. Select Discard Objects in the selection box on the left side of the screen, then select the
following boxes that appear on the right side of the screen under Discard Objects Settings:
5. Select Discard User Data in the selection box on the left side of the screen, then select the
following boxes that appear on the right side of the screen under Discard user related
information:
6. Click OK to return to the main PDF Optimizer screen.
7. Then click OK to optimize your PDF.
8. Open the new version and check to make sure you can still read the PDF. If you cannot read the
document, you must split the document up into sections and upload as separate attachments.
9. Once complete, you can now upload to CM/ECF.
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