p. 1

http www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/tedpadova 101 forms etips 1 101 forms etips ted padova http www.west.net ted http www.acrobatusers.com http www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/tedpadova ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 2

welcome 101 forms etips 2 welcome license agreement by opening this file you agree to the terms and conditions of this license agreement 1 this document is yours you are free to do with it as you wish without reservation 2 you can distribute the document to whomever you wish 3 you can modify the document as you see fit 4 you can claim any or all information as your own without giving credit to the author this will be our secret 5 you can use the replace pages command in acrobat and eliminate any unwanted photos you see you can replace the photos on this document with your own images thereby acknowledging you as the author of this file 6 you can cut copy and paste any or all information into other documents of your own design enjoy ted ted i understand and i agree do not agree clicking agree and saving the file will eliminate this annoying message ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 3

designing forms 3 designing forms name address city email address phone contact info state indicates that the procedure cannot be executed in adobe reader ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 4

1 designing forms breaking page borders graphics and text that fall off a page can only be handled in adobe indesign to design a form with objects breaking page borders do the following add an object or text to a master page the center point of the object must be within the page border choose object interactive convert to button apply the master page to a document page export to pdf in the export adobe pdf dialog box be certain to check the box for interactive elements 2 4 changing midpoints on objects suppose you want a graphic to fall completely off a page do the following create a 1-pixel new document in photoshop on a layer save the file as a .psd file place the 1-pixel file in indesign on a master page add the graphic and place on a master page group the graphic and the 1-pixel image be certain the center point of the grouped objects falls within the page border follow steps in tip #1 to export to pdf ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 5

3 designing forms creating pdfs with adobe pdf layers in order to create adobe pdf layers you need to use an application that supports creating layers programs such as adobe indesign adobe illustrator and autocad are among those applications that enable you to export layered files to pdf layered files offer you additional design opportunities for your forms you might want to change a layer view to play a video file show a layout for a seating chart or map to a location or many other similar conditions to export to adobe pdf be certain to check the box in your application or when using the pdf maker for exporting layers such as the check box shown when exporting to pdf from adobe indesign 4 5 adding buttons to layers adding any kind of form field to a pdf in acrobat applies the field to all layers in the document if you want to add button fields that appear only when a given layer is in view add the buttons in adobe indesign to add a button in adobe indesign do the following place an image or add a line of text on a document page select the image or text frame choose object interactive convert to button alternately you can open a context menu and choose the same menu command object interactive button options object interactive button options click the select tool and double click an object or choose click the select tool and double click an object or choose choose a behavior from the drop down menu and click the add button to assign an action to the button note that there are only a limited number of actions you can assign to a button in adobe indesign if you don t find the action you want to assign to the button you can add an action in adobe acrobat t e d s t i p set the layer view in your application program that you want shown in acrobat before you export to pdf the visible and hidden layers in your application document will appear with identical visibility when you open the pdf file ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 6

5 designing forms adding hyperlinks in application documents in a word don t add links to views pages sections etc in an application document such as adobe indesign when you create links and bookmarks in adobe indesign and export to pdf the links are made to named destinations destinations add a lot of overhead to your file size when possible try to avoid creating named destinations in your pdf files 6 6 designing for rffr run form field recognition works best on forms that have lines identifying field locations if you create form designs in programs that support layers and your field objects are rectangles filled boxes with colors or gradients or other complex design elements using rffr won t properly create the field objects to over come the problem do the following create a temporary layer in your form design remember you need to be working in a program that supports layers and exporting to pdf with adobe pdf layers copy the field objects to a temporary layer if you use boxes for the final design press the option/alt key and drag selected objects in the layers panel to the temporary layer side of the boxes leaving the bottom line on each box in indesign or adobe illustrator delete the top left and right export to pdf with adobe pdf layers open the layers panel and select the temporary layer recognition choose forms run form field t e d s t i p likewise don t create links for urls and email addresses acrobat viewers 7 and above are intelligent and automatically recognize url and email text without creating links like destinations adding links increase your file size hide the temporary layer in the layers panel open the options menu and choose flatten layers t e d s t i p to duplicate selected objects on a layer open the layers panel and notice the small rectangle appearng aside the layer name press option/alt and drag the rectangle to a new layer to duplicate the selected items ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 7

7 designing forms replacing pages the command i use most when creating forms and slide presentations is the document replace pages command i always find myself tweaking the page design after i ve added fields on a form because acrobat doesn t provide you a very good editing environment in terms of editing text and images the ideal method for editing documents is to return to the authoring program make your changes and export to pdf if you added a number of fields to an original design then you ll want to change the background data while retaining the field objects to to do so 8 7 replacing pages in tiled views if you have a number of pages to replace in a document or you want a more visual approach to replacing pages you can drag and drop pages between documents here s how to do it open two documents in acrobat one file is your original design and the other file is the new design modify a form in the original authoring program export to pdf open the file containing field objects choose document replace pages select the new design and click ok choose window tile vertically open the pages panel on both documents click and drag the thumbnail on the new design to the old design containing field objects move the cursor to the page number below the thumbnail and wait until the page appears reversed in color black release the mouse button and the page is replaced t e d s tipi find that when i edit a design and export to pdf i name the new file with a number preceding the file name something like 0.myformdesign.pdf when it comes time to replace the page there s no question about what file i need to use for the page replacement ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 8

9 designing forms 8 editing text on a form the ideal of course is to return to the authoring program edit your document and export to pdf next use the replace pages methods described in tips #7 8 there may be times however where you need to edit a legacy form and you don t have the original authoring application document to edit text on such a form do the following note that this tip requires you to have adobe illustrator installed on your computer the text is reformed into a contiguous block and can now be edited with word wrap and paragraph controls edit the text as needed click a text block with the touchup object tool open a context menu and choose edit object by default the text opens in adobe illustrator when you select the text you ll notice the lines broken and the paragraph formatting is lost choose file save be certain to use save and not save as view the pdf file the text is dynamically updated in the pdf t e d s t i p open the rulers and drag guidelines to the bounding area of the text block select all the text choose edit cut command/ctrl x click the type tool in the toolbox and draw a rectangle to the guidelines note that if you don t have the same fonts installed on your system that were used in the original form opening the file in illustrator will cause font substitution if you must edit the form rather than recreating it choose a typeface close to the original font that you have installed on your system choose edit paste ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 9

0 designing forms editing images on a form again if you have a legacy form and don t have the original application authoring document you can edit images in a program like photoshop or photoshop elements to edit an image do the following 1 click an image with the touchup object tool press the option/alt key and double click the image by default the image opens in adobe photoshop edit the image and click save not save as your edits are dynamically changed in the pdf document adding document properties some authoring applications offer you options for adding document property information such as title subject author and keywords if you redesign a form and create several pdfs during the process you re best off adding document property information in the authoring application so you don t have to keep editing the properties on each new file in acrobat 12 9 flattening fields field objects like destinations and links add overhead to your files ad increase file size additionally form fields add to the file size if you have a form that no longer requires editing the field data and you want to display the form while retaining the data you can flatten the fields follow these steps to retain data while eliminating field objects choose advanced pdf optimizer click discard objects in the left pane in the pdf optimizer click ok name the file click save t e d s t i p in a program like adobe indesign choose file file info fill in the fields for document title author description and keywords export to pdf the document properties are retained this information is particularly important when you want to search for forms on your hard drive or server be certain to provide a new name when prompted by the pdf optimizer before you save the file keep the original file just in case you need to go back and make some edits on the form ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 10

working with fields 10 working with fields name ted padova address 555 techo way city davao state pi indicates that the task cannot be performed in adobe reader email address ted@west.net phone item golf balls glove hat 888.555.1212 price qty 2 39.95 12.95 29.95 1 1 amount $79.95 $12.95 $29.95 $122.80 total submit form ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 11

3 4 working with fields using run form field recognition rffr is fine for simple forms not requiring a lot javascript and calculations if you have complex tables and you need to use hierarchical names for your fields to simplify calculations you re better off not using rffr for simple forms do the following open the form in acrobat pro choose forms run form field recognition edit fields as need to finish up the form scanning for run form field recognition you can scan paper forms and use run form field recognition by following the steps below 15 spelling 11 creating comb fields comb fields are often found on government forms where a user is expected to fill in separate boxes or divisions with vertical lines as a single field object comb fields properties are applied to text fields to create a comb field do the following create a text field open the text field properties dialog box double click the click options remove the check marks for scroll long text and check field with either the select object tool or the text field tool or open a context menu on a selected field and choose properties to open the text field properties dialog box scan a form using a high interpolated resolution of 1200 ppi or above choose document ocr text recognition recognize text using ocr click the comb of check box 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 type a value in the characters field box for the number of characters you want to use in the comb field choose forms run form field recognition when you use recognize text using ocr acrobat will straighten a scan within 14 degrees of rotation t e d s t i p ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 12

6 working with fields creating arbitrary masks an arbitrary mask might be used for a section number an account number an identification code or similar type of field the mask can contain alpha numeric or both types of characters quite often you might use an arbitrary mask for an area on a form that might be used for official use only if the user needs to fill in a field with an arbitrary mask it s helpful to add an instruction or dialog box informing the user exactly how to fill in the field to create a field with an arbitrary mask do the following 17 12 formatting numbers if you add calculations to fields you must format the fields as numbers before writing javascripts using simplified field notation or using the formula presets be certain to format all the fields containing numeric values to format text fields as number containers do the following create a text field open the text field properties dialog box click the format tab choose special from the select format category drop down menu create a text field open the text field properties dialog box double click the click the format tab choose number from the select format category menu select options for the number attributes field with either the select object tool or the text field tool or open a context menu on a selected field and choose properties to open the text field properties dialog box scroll the special options list and choose arbitrary mask type a code in the field box below the special options list note wildcard alpha characters are a wildcard numeric characters are 9 any other character retains the character in the code arbitrary mask field gf-5431-761-ee ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 13

8 working with fields adding button faces a button face is an icon or an image appearing within a button field you can use button faces for importing images or using icons for buttons that invoke actions such as resetting a form submitting a form navigating pages playing and stopping video clips and a number of other action items you want to assign to a button to add a button face to a button field do the following create a button field open the button field properties dialog box click the options tab choose icon only from the layout drop down menu click choose icon click browse in the select icon dialog box navigate folders on your hard drive to locate a file to import as a button face note that from the files of type windows or show macintosh drop down menu you can choose from a number of different file formats to import for your button face 19 13 adding rollovers to button faces to format text fields as number containers do the following follow steps in tip 18 to create a button face choose push for the behavior click rollover in the state list follow the same steps for importing a button face select the file to import and click select click ok in the select icon dialog box t e d s t i p when adding buttons choose from the options in the behavior drop down menu if you choose none you can eliminate the focus rectangle when the button is clicked t e d s t i p creating buttons with transparency is quite simple for vector objects use adobe illustrator for images add an image to a transparent layer and save the file as a pdf all transparency is preserved with both illustrator and photoshop layered files ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 14

0 working with fields duplicating buttons across multiple pages a common use for a button with a button face is navigating pages if your files are displayed in full screen mode you may want to add navigational buttons to help the end user move around your document to create a navigational button and duplicate it across multiple pages do the following add a button to the second page of a multi-page document click the action tab and add an action to move to the next page you can use either an execute menu item action or a javascript action to move to the next page down menu and click add 21 click add t e d s t i p 14 adding a reset button to add a button to reset the form fields do the following create a button field click the actions tab choose reset a form in the select action menu check the fields you want to reset in the reset a form dialog choose execute a menu item from the select action drop click view>go to>next page in the menu item dialog box repeat the same steps for a button to navigate to the previous page click view>go to>previous page in the menu item dialog box click ok and close the button field properties dialog box select both buttons a context menu on the button and choose duplicate open enter the page range in the duplicate field dialog box 3 to [last page number click ok click the previous button and choose duplicate enter 2 for the page range note if you want a button on page 1 for navigating to the next page start on page 2 instead of page 3 and follow the same steps a much better way to reset a form is to use a javascript you have a much easier way to identify fields to clear data if you name the fields properly see tip 59 for more on resetting forms with javascripts ted padova ted@west.net

[close]

p. 15

2 working with fields submitting forms to email addresses to create a submit form button do the following add a button on a form open the button field properties dialog box and click the actions tab menu choose submit a form from the select action drop down click add type an email address in the top field in the submit form selections dialog box the syntax for the line of type is mailto your email address 23 item total 15 creating a table one thing to remember when creating tables in acrobat is to avoid using hierarchical names in most cases you ll want acrobat to rename the first row fields with parent/child names to create a table do the following add text fields across a row or column and format the fields especially the number fields select the fields and open a context menu choose place multiple fields enter the number of rows and columns you want for the table in the create multiple copies of fields dialog box and click ok price $19.95 check an export format and click ok t e d s t i p qty 2 amount $39.90 $89.95 $19.95 1 1 $89.95 $19.95 if you want the pdf returned to you by adobe reader users be certain to enable the form with adobe reader usage rights before sending your form to reader users $149.80 t e d s t i p to learn how to straighten up the rows and columns see tip 24 ted padova ted@west.net

[close]