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TIP 65: Configuring Form Fields

Regardless of the type of form tool you use, form fields share many features in common; some configuration options are used for only certain types of fields. For example, you don't find a Calculate tab in a Check Box Properties dialog, nor will you find a Validation tab in a Button Properties dialog.

Here's a brief rundown of the configuration tabs you can use with form fields in Acrobat 7 Professional:

• General tab
  This tab is common to all types. You add a name and tool tip in this tab of the dialog, as well as define whether the field is visible or invisible. In addition, you specify if a field is required (an entry is mandatory) or if the field is read only. You may want to make the user's name field required, for example, or specify calculated text fields as read only (Figure 65a).

  Figure 65a. All types of form fields offer the General tab, where you name the field and choose other basic characteristics.

  
  

  

• Appearance tab
  This tab is common to all types of form fields. You configure the color of the border and fill, as well as other characteristics, such as text.

• Options
  All form fields have an Options tab; the contents vary according to the type of field. Buttons, for instance, contain options for choosing labels and images for their display; a Check Box field allows you to choose the appearance of the object, such as a checkmark or a star; Combo Box and List Box fields include areas where you can insert lists of items; a Radio Button field allows you to choose the style of the button and whether or not it is automatically selected (Figure 65b).

  Figure 65b. Define the appearance and style of a radio button, as well as its default selection state

  
  

  

• Actions
  All form fields have this tab, and it looks and works the same in all types. Actions are activities Acrobat performs in response to some sort of interaction. For instance, clicking a button that opens another document is an action, as is typing a number in a form field that then shows a calculation in another form field. Actions are described in several tips in this chapter, as well as in Chapters 12 and 13.

• Format
  Some types of form fields, such as Text Box and Combo Box fields, include this tab in their properties dialogs. Click the pull-down menu and choose a type of formatting to apply to the text your user enters in the field (Figure 65c).

  Figure 65c. Define how the text entered in a Text Box or Combo Box is formatted.

  
  

  

• Validate
  You can restrict what your user enters in a field, such as a number or characters added in Text Box and Combo Box fields. Choose options in the dialog or use custom JavaScript validation scripts.

• Calculate
  Perform a number of arithmetic functions using this tab of the dialog. (See Tip 66 for information adding calculations to a form).

• Selection Change
  This tab is seen only in List Box Properties. You set the behavior that occurs when the list box's selection changes.

You don't have to draw, name, and position form fields individually if you are adding a group of fields to your PDF form document. Draw and configure the first field; then right-click/Control-click to open the shortcut menu and choose Create Multiple Copies to open the dialog. Choose how many fields you want to add horizontally and vertically. Click OK to close the dialog and Acrobat adds the extra fields. See Tip 101 in Chapter 12 for more information on adding multiple fields and using alignment tools for manually aligning objects.

For example, if you were building an order form, how many similar fields would you have to add and configure if you added them manually? A whole lot, right?

The value of using an automated method when building a form is how the fields are named (Figure 65d). The original field at the upper left was named pen_blue. Adding the other fields automatically appends .0.0 and .0.1 to the fields in the top row, and 1.0 and 1.1 to the fields in the second row.

When you use the automatic feature to add fields, the fields are also automatically spaced on the document. If necessary, you can manually align them as well. Refer to Tip 91 in Chapter 11 to see how grids and guides can assist in placement of objects on the page.