Adobe Acrobat 7 TIPS and TRICKS THE 100150 BEST [Electronic resources]

Storing Forms Data

There is no specific place on your hard drive to store FDF and other data files. If you fill out forms on a regular basis, decide on a location and use it consistently. That way, you can keep track of the files you have stored, and will be able to find them easily when you need them. I store data files in the main Acrobat 7 folder in the Program Files folder.

Deleting Form Information

You can remove information from a form in one of several ways. To clear a form in Acrobat 7, choose File > Revert. Often the form's designer includes a button you click to reset the form, which removes all the content you have added, as described in this tip.

Forms behave differently in a browser than in Acrobat. To clear a form in a browser, exit the browser and start over. The Refresh or Go Back button on the browser's toolbar may not clear the form

1.

Select a button on your form, right-click/Control-click the button, and choose Properties. The Button Properties dialog opens. Click the Actions tab.

2.

Select the Reset a form action from the Select Action pull-down list. Click Add, and the Reset a Form dialog opens.

3.

All the fields in the document are listed in the Reset a Form dialog and are selected by default (Figure 69a). Deselect fields that you don't want to reset and click OK to close the dialog.

4.

Click Close to dismiss the Button Properties dialog. Acrobat removes the content in the fields according to the selections you made in step 3.

Exporting and Importing Form Data

If you complete a form once, you can save the content and reuse it the next time you fill out the form.

When you have completed a form, choose File > Form Data > Export Data from Form to open the Export Form Data As dialog. Browse to the location on your hard drive where you want to store the file. Acrobat names the file using the form's name in the FDF file format. To complete the process, click Save. If you work with a lot of forms, leave the default filename. That way, you know which data file belongs to which form.

The next time you need to add information to a form that you've filled in and you've stored data from that form on at least one previous occasion, try importing the data file instead of typing the content for the fields again. To do so, choose File > Form Data > Import Data to Form. When the Select File Containing Form Data dialog opens, locate and select the data file on your hard drive, and click Select. The dialog closes, and Acrobat fills in the form fields for you. If you import data from a form that doesn't match the form you are importing into, only matching form fields are completed and the rest are ignored. Any text in matching text form fields is replaced with imported data.

1.

Choose the button you want to use for the action.

2.

Right-click/Control-click the button, choose Properties, and then click the Actions tab in the Button Properties dialog.

3.

Select the Execute a menu item action from the pull-down menu and click Add.

4.

In the Menu Item Selection dialog, choose File > Form Data > Import Data to Form (Figure 69b). Click OK, and then click Close to dismiss the Button Properties dialog.

5.

Save and test the form.