You enter Form Editing Mode via menu commands in the Forms menu. The Forms menu has two commands that take you into Form Editing Mode. At the top of the menu, Start Form Wizard appears as the first command. The second command is Add or Edit Fields. To choose this command, you must have a document open in Acrobat's Document pane.

In this section, we explain the menu commands and the differences between the two options that eventually get you into Form Editing Mode. For more detail on using one command or another, see the section "Using the wizards to create PDF forms" later in this chapter.

Using the Start Forms Wizard menu command

When you choose Forms

Figure 5.1. Choose Forms

Start Form Wizard to open the Create or Edit Form wizard. You have different options in Windows (left) and Macintosh (right).

• An existing electronic document (Windows)/Start with a PDF Document (Macintosh): On Windows, you can choose a PDF document, a Word document, an Excel document, or many other native documents. When you open the document, Acrobat converts the file to PDF and opens the document in Form Editing Mode.

  On the Macintosh, the same thing happens, but you are restricted to opening only PDF files. If you're a Mac user, you need to first convert your native files to PDF and then use the Create or Edit Form wizard.

• A paper form: As you can see in Figure 5.1, a paper form is an option for both Windows and Macs. Choosing this option performs three steps. A paper form is scanned using Acrobat Scan, the form is converted to text using Acrobat's Recognize Text Using OCR (form fields are automatically applied), and the form opens in Form Editing Mode.

  Note

  For more information on scanning paper forms, see Chapter 6.

• No existing form: This option is available only in Acrobat Pro and Pro Extended. When you choose No existing form and click Next, the Adobe LiveCycle Designer New Form Assistant wizard opens, as shown in Figure 5.2. Note that if you don't have Designer open in the background, Acrobat launches Adobe LiveCycle Designer and your computer pauses a moment while Designer opens.

Figure 5.2. When you click No existing form (Pro and Pro Extended only), the New Assistant Form wizard opens.

Note

For more information on LiveCycle Designer, see Parts VI through IX.

Using the Add or Edit Fields menu command

To use the Forms

You can enter this mode using one of several different kinds of PDF files. Here are some examples of the files you can use to edit in Form Editing Mode:

• Form designs: The most frequent use you'll have for entering Form Editing Mode is to add field objects to populate a form.

• Editing a form: If you have an existing PDF form and you want to edit your form, choose Forms

  

• Non-PDF form: Any document you convert to PDF that was not originally designed as a form can be opened in Form Editing Mode. If you want to add a series of text boxes containing a URL for your company's Web address and copy the field across multiple pages, that's a reason for using Form Editing Mode. The only way to access the Text Field tool is through Form Editing Mode.

  Tip

  You have one workaround available for adding different field objects while remaining in Viewer mode. You can add a Button field from the Advanced Editing toolbar and open a context menu on the button field. From the menu choose Add New Field. A submenu opens where you can choose from all the field types and add a new field while remaining in Viewer mode.

• Flash videos: If you convert Adobe Flash videos to PDF, you can enter Form Editing Mode and add fields on top of the video. You might want to add text fields that appear on top of a video playing in Acrobat. If you want to add play buttons to a video file, you can remain in Viewer mode and access the Button tool in the Advanced Editing toolbar.

Browsing Form Editing Mode

If you open a PDF form that contains field objects and choose Forms

Note

If you don't have a form to open in Form Editing Mode handy, open the Chapter05 folder on the CD-ROM accompanying this book and open the file globalCommitteeMembership.pdf.

Tip

Press Ctrl/

Figure 5.3. Open a PDF form, and choose Forms

Add or Edit Fields.

The view you see in Figure 5.3 applies to all commercial Acrobat viewers. The options include:

Note

When we talk about the commercial Acrobat viewers, we're talking about Acrobat 9 Standard, Acrobat 9 Pro, and Acrobat 9 Pro Extended. In other words, we mean the Acrobat products you need to purchase. The interface and editing features are not available in the free Adobe Reader software.

1. Menu bar: The same menu bar that appears in Viewer mode appears at the top of the interface. Many menu commands are not available in Form Editing Mode. For example, open the Comments menu, and most commands are grayed out.

2. Select Object tool: Acrobat's toolbars are not accessible in Form Editing Mode. Because the Select Object tool is frequently used when editing PDF forms, the Advanced Editing tool appears in the toolbar row.

3. Add New Field pull-down menu: Open the Add New Field pull-down menu, and you can select from eight forms tools. You also can choose to have the tools appear in the toolbar. Choose Show Tools on Toolbar from the menu commands, and the tools are displayed in the Form Editing toolbar, as shown in Figure 5.4. When the toolbar is expanded on the Form Editing toolbar, the Add New Field menu disappears. You can collapse the tools and display the menu again by clicking the Collapse button on the toolbar (see item J).

   

   Figure 5.4. Open the Add New Field pull-down menu and choose Show Tools on Toolbar to display the form tools on the toolbar.

   Note

   For more information on the eight form tools, see Chapter 7.

   Tip

   If you manually add several fields of the same type on a form, such as a number of text fields, check the Keep tool selected box and the tool remains selected until you click another tool.

4. Preview: Click the Preview tool, and the display in Form Editing Mode changes to preview your form. While in Form Editing Mode, you cannot edit fields and test them for data entry. The Preview button enables you to remain in Form Editing Mode, but the editing options disappear, and you can add field data to your forms and test buttons and JavaScripts.

5. Viewing toolbar: Following the form tools are several tools used for viewing a form while remaining in Form Editing Mode, including:

   • Previous Page: Click Previous Page to view the previous page on a multi-page form.

   • Next Page: Click Next Page to view the next page on a multi-page form.

   • [1]/1: The number denotes the page number (of x pages) on a form that's in view in the Document pane. In multi-page forms, you see the current page number followed by the total number of pages in the document. The first value is editable. For example, if you have a ten-page document and you want to open page 5, type 5 in the text box and press the Enter key to move to that page.

   • Zoom Out: Click to zoom out at fixed zoom levels.

   • Zoom In: Click to zoom in at fixed zoom levels.

   • Magnification: Type a value in the text box and press Enter to zoom to a percentage value. Adjacent to the text box is a pull-down menu with fixed page magnifications.

   • Scrolling Pages: Click the tool to display a form in a continuous view. When you scroll pages, you can see the bottom of one page as the top of the next page comes into view.

   • One Full Page: One Full Page displays a whole page in view in the Document pane (see item N). As you drag the scroll bar, a mini page thumbnail displays the current page in view, as shown in Figure 5.5. The page thumbnail appears because as you scroll pages swiftly in Acrobat, the page view in the Document pane doesn't change. You see the thumbnail as you scroll pages and when you arrive at the page you want to edit, release the mouse button and the page snaps into place in the Document pane. This interface design enables you to scroll through long documents swiftly because each page in the document pane isn't refreshed on your monitor as you scroll the pages.

     

     Figure 5.5. Scrolling pages in the One Full Page view shows a pop-up thumbnail of pages as you move the scrollbar. This design for displaying page views helps speed up Acrobat editing because the screen refresh takes place when you release the mouse button.

6. Distribute Form: Click the Distribute Form button, and the Distribute Form wizard opens. In the wizard, you make a choice for how you want to distribute a form.

   Note

   For more information on distributing forms, see Chapter 15.

7. Close Form Editing: Click this button to return to Viewer mode. All the menu commands are available when you return to Viewer mode.

8. Fields panel: In Acrobat 8 and below, the Fields panel is available in Viewer mode and can be docked in the Navigation pane. In Acrobat 9 and above, the Fields panel is available only in Form Editing Mode. As you add fields to a form, the panel dynamically updates to display the field objects added to a form.

9. Collapse/Expand Fields panel: Click the Fields panel icon, and you collapse the Fields panel, but the icon remains in view. Click the icon again, and the panel is expanded.

10. Collapse: This button also collapses the Fields panel. The same button appears in the Toolbar when the form tools are in view (refer to item C). Click the button, and the form tools disappear.

11. Sort pull-down menu: Open the pull-down menu, and you find two options for sorting fields in the Fields panel. Choose Alphabetical Order to display the fields alphabetically by field name. When you sort alphabetically, the Tab Order (see item L) disappears. Choose the Tab Order menu command from the Sort pull-down menu, and the fields are sorted according to tab order.

    Tip

    Fields in the Fields panel can be moved to rearrange the field tab order. Click a field and drag up or down to reorder the fields.

12. Tab Order pull-down menu: The Tab Order pull-down menu provides several commands for setting the field tab order.

    Note

    For more information on setting tab orders, see Chapter 7.

13. Rulers: By default, rulers appear in the Document pane. You can hide the rulers using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/

    

14. Document pane: The space where your form pages appear is the Form Editing Mode Document pane.

Getting in and out of Form Editing Mode and changing views are common tasks you'll perform as a forms author. It's important to commit to memory how you navigate the different interfaces when you edit forms.

In Preview mode, you see the Acrobat Message Bar. On the Message Bar, you find some tools not available when in Edit mode. The Highlight Fields tool, which is selected in Figure 5.6, highlights the fields on the form with a light blue highlight. Adjacent to the Highlight Fields button is the Submit Form button. This button appears on forms designed in Acrobat 9 and above.

Figure 5.6. Click Preview in Form Editing Mode to test field objects for form completion.

When you examine the Forms menu in both Form Editing Mode and Viewer mode, you will notice that some commands are not accessible when in Form Editing Mode. In Figure 5.7, the Forms menu commands are shown when opening the menu in Viewer mode. Some of the commands do not appear in the Forms menu when you open the same menu in Form Editing Mode.

Figure 5.7. The Forms menu commands available in Viewer mode.

The commands not available to you while working in Form Editing Mode include:

When in Form Editing Mode, you find a few additional menu commands not available in Viewer mode. In Form Editing Mode, open the Forms menu and you find the commands shown in Figure 5.8. Commands not available in Viewer mode include:

Figure 5.8. The Forms menu commands available in Form Editing Mode.

A few other menu commands that are used frequently by forms authors appear in the Advanced menu. For a summary of what's available in one mode or the other and the Advanced menu commands that are accessible according to the interface mode, look over Table 5.1.

As we stated earlier in the section "Toggling views", you can choose to edit fields in either Form Editing Mode or Viewer mode. To edit fields in Viewer mode, you first need to open the Advanced Editing toolbar. This toolbar should be loaded in the Acrobat Toolbar Well when you are engaged in a form editing session in Acrobat.

To open the Advanced Editing toolbar, open a context menu on the Toolbar Well and choose Advanced Editing from the menu commands. Alternately, you can choose Tools

Figure 5.9. The Advanced Editing toolbar contains the Select Object tool.

Additionally, you can select the Select Object tool by using a keyboard shortcut. Before you use keyboard shortcuts in Acrobat, you need to adjust one preference setting. Open the Preferences dialog box by pressing Ctrl/

In the Preferences dialog box, click General in the left pane, as shown in Figure 5.10. In the right pane, check the box beside Use single-key accelerators to access tools. Click OK in the Preferences dialog box, and Acrobat is set up for you to strike keys on your keyboard to access tools. The preference change is dynamic, and you don't need to quit Acrobat to use keyboard shortcuts.

Figure 5.10. Open the General Preferences and check Use single-key accelerators to access tools.

After you have the Select Object tool as your active tool, you can click form fields to select them in Viewer mode. Click a field and open a context menu, and you find a number of commands that aren't available from the Forms menu for editing fields, as shown in Figure 5.11.

Figure 5.11. Click the Select Object tool in Viewer mode and open a context menu to see additional options, features, and commands.

If you choose Properties from the menu commands, you have access to all field properties where you can change field names, edit appearances, edit options, change field formatting, and add actions. In other words, you don't need to work in Form Editing Mode to handle all the properties changes you want to make on fields.

If you're a Mac user, you need to first convert native documents to PDF, and then open the PDF document in Acrobat and choose Forms

In addition to converting native files to PDF, Windows users can apply a one-step operation to convert to PDF and open the PDF document, run Acrobat's auto field detection, and open the form in From Editing Mode. To see how to convert a native document to PDF on Windows, do the following.

STEPS: Converting a Native Microsoft Word Document to a PDF Form on Windows

Tip

For a quick look into file formats supported by Acrobat for PDF conversion, open the Preferences dialog box (Ctrl/

If you're a Mac user and you want to populate a form, you need to first convert the native document to a PDF file. On Windows, you may have several MS Office files that you want to convert to PDF and later add field objects. To convert a PDF file to a PDF form with field objects on either platform, do the following.

STEPS: Converting a Microsoft Word Document to a PDF Form

Using Auto Field Detection

Adobe added a very impressive feature called Run Form Field Recognition to Acrobat 8. Quite often we refer to the feature simply as auto field detection. In Acrobat 8, you visited the Forms menu and chose Run Form Field Recognition. Acrobat inspected your form, detected areas where fields belonged, and added the fields automatically to the form.

Acrobat 9 has the same feature, but it's much improved; however, there is no separate menu command to use RFFR. When you choose Forms

When Acrobat creates fields using auto field detection, it picks up caption text and adds the caption text for a field name. On some forms, you may find using auto field detection undesirable because you may want to add your own field names. If you need to manually name fields, you can choose to use auto field detection and later change the field names, or click No in the Add or Edit Fields dialog box and manually add fields using the Form tools.

The form used in the steps here is a rather simple form. However, you can see that converting a number of forms—especially forms designed for HR departments and in-house use—can be accomplished easily with little or no editing.

If you use tools such as the PDFMaker in MS Office programs and convert to PDF or you're a Macintosh user working with PDF documents, you can use auto field detection on the PDF files. When you open a file in Acrobat and choose Add or Edit Fields, Acrobat opens the Add or Edit Form Fields dialog box. If you click Yes, then auto field detection populates your form with field objects in the areas where Acrobat recognizes the location for a potential form field.

Not all your designs can successfully be populated with fields using auto field detection. Form designs with gradients and field locations not clearly identified with lines and boxes that appear with stroke values are often a problem for auto field detection. Figure 5.14 is a form designed in Adobe Illustrator. When we select Forms

Field Properties appear in a particular field type's Properties dialog box. When you click a field with the Select Object tool in either Form Editing Mode or Viewer mode and choose Properties from a context menu, double-click a field with the Select Object tool, or select a field in Form Editing Mode and choose Forms

Figure 5.14. Auto field detection can't recognize field objects on a form that doesn't have design elements such as lines and boxes with stroke values.

Each field type has different properties that can be assigned to fields. With text fields, you have options for calculating fields; with buttons you have options for adding button face images; with combo and list box fields, you can add lists of items for user-selected choices. Some properties are common to all the field types, such as naming fields, setting appearances, and assigning actions, as well as the unique choices according to the field type you use.

Figure 5.15 shows the Text Field Properties dialog box, with the Options tab selected. On our sample form created in the section "Converting a native file to a PDF form", we might want to right-align the text field for the Number attending field. To do so, we open the field's Properties dialog box, click Options, and choose Right from the Alignment pull-down menu.

As you browse through different properties, many options choices are self-explanatory. In other cases, you may need help deciphering the choices. For now, we want to introduce the Properties dialog box. Later in Chapter 7, we cover all you need to know about field properties.

Figure 5.15. Click the Select Object tool, and double-click a field to open the field's Properties dialog box.

You use the Form tools in Form Editing Mode to add fields to a form. If you use auto field detection and populate a form, you may want additional fields on your form. Certainly if you create fields manually, you'll need to use the Form tools to add fields.

For a brief look at adding a field to a form, follow these steps.

STEPS: Adding a Field to a Form

Many forms have two essential buttons that you prepare for form recipients. One button is used to clear a form. Although Acrobat users have a menu command to clear a form, Adobe Reader users do not have such a command. Having a button on a form designed for clearing the form data is great for a user who wants to start over. This type of button is optional when creating forms, but is usually added to help form recipients complete your forms.

Another button that you need on many forms is a submit button. If your forms are distributed to using the Distribute Form button, a Submit Form button automatically is added to the forms Document Message Bar. If you e-mail a form or someone downloads a form from your Web site, you'll need a Submit Form button so the form recipient can return the form to you.

Adding a reset form button

Buttons are often used to execute an action on a form. For clearing form data, we use a button field and assign an action to reset the form. Here's how it's done.

STEPS: Creating a Reset Form Button

1. Open a form in Form Editing Mode. We'll continue with the form we used earlier in this chapter. While the form remains in Viewer mode, you can add buttons to your form. There is no need to enter Form Editing Mode.

2. Open the Advanced Editing toolbar. If the toolbar is not open, choose Tools

   

3. Select the Button tool. Click the Button tool in the Advanced Editing toolbar.

4. Click in the document where you want the button placed. Our form has some graphic objects identifying the Reset Form button and the Submit Form button. We clicked the Button cursor over the Reset Form graphic image, as shown in Figure 5.19.

   Note

   See the sidebar later in this chapter, "Using Loaded Cursors," to understand the meaning of terms such as Button cursor.

   

   Figure 5.19. Click the mouse button, and the field drops on the form with the mini Properties window open.

5. Resize the field. Drag any one of the eight handles on the rectangle to reshape the object.

6. Type a name. Type a name for the field in the Field Name text box. In our example, we use resetForm for the field name.

7. Click Properties to open the Button Field Properties.

8. Change the appearance. By default Buttons have a dark gray fill. Since we have a graphic on the page that clearly identifies the existence of a button, we want our button field to appear transparent. When the button field object is transparent, the background graphic is not obstructed from view. In the Appearance tab, click the Fill Color swatch and choose No Color in the palette, as shown in Figure 5.20.

   

   Figure 5.20. Click the Fill Color swatch to open the pop-up color palette, and choose No Color.

9. Open the Actions tab. Click the Actions tab in the Button Properties dialog box. Open the Select Action pull-down menu, and choose Reset a form, as shown in Figure 5.21.

   

   Figure 5.21. Choose Reset a form from the Select Action pull-down menu.

10. Add the action. After choosing the option you want from the Select Action pull-down menu, click the Add button in the Actions tab to add the action. When adding the Reset a form action, the Reset a Form dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 5.22.

11. Select the Fields to Reset. In our example, we created a field in the section "Adding fields" earlier in this chapter that was added to the form so we could add a form number. After we added the form number, we marked it as Read Only. That field isn't one we want to clear. If we reset all fields on our form, the form number will disappear. Therefore, when the Reset a Form dialog box opens, we scroll down to the field we don't want cleared and deselect the check box. By default, all boxes are checked, so you need to remove check marks from those boxes for fields you don't want cleared of data.

    

    Figure 5.22. Remove check marks from all fields you don't want to be reset.

12. Set new defaults. Click OK in the Reset a Form dialog box, and click Close in the Button Properties dialog box; you return to the Document page. At this point, your field is set for clearing data on the form. If you want to add more buttons to a form, you may want to use the new appearance settings you adjusted for a button field to become a new default. When you create additional buttons, you won't need to bother with the Appearance tab.

    To set the current appearance as a new default, open a context menu on the button field and choose Use Current Properties as New Defaults.

13. Test the button. If you're in Viewer mode, click the Hand tool and add data to the form. If you're in Form Editing Mode, click Preview and add data. After adding data to the fields, click the Reset button (in Viewer mode or Preview mode). All data but the Read Only field is cleared on the form.

Using Loaded Cursors

When you choose any one of the eight field types from the Add New Field pull-down menu, the cursor changes to reflect a visual of the type of field you have selected. We refer to the cursor as being loaded with the field type after you select a field from the Add New Field pull-down menu. A loaded Text Field cursor, therefore, is one that contains the Text Field object.

When you select a tool from the Add New Field menu, the cursor remains loaded until you click the mouse button. You can move the cursor around a form page, and the cursor displays guidelines to help you position the field in the right location before clicking the mouse button.

When you click the mouse button, the field drops down on your form. Precise alignment is not necessary because you can click and drag a field after it has been dropped on the form.

You also can click and drag a rectangle to shape a form field before dropping the field on the form page. In this manner, you can estimate a size for a field before actually creating the field.

Adding a Submit Form button

Submit Form buttons are used to submit forms and/or form data to you or a location you identify when setting up the button properties. To create a Submit Form button, follow these steps.

STEPS: Creating a Submit Form Button

1. Open a form in Acrobat. In this example we'll continue with the form to which we added a Reset Form button.

2. Add a button field. We can create a new button using the Button tool, or we can use an easier method: duplicating the Reset Form button and changing the properties. To duplicate a field, press the Ctrl/Option key and click+drag with the Select Object tool. Drag the new button to position on the form.

   Note

   For more information on duplicating fields, see Chapter 7.

3. Rename the field. At this point, we have a duplicate of the Reset Form button. To rename the field, double-click the duplicate button with the Select Object tool to open the General tab in the Button Properties dialog box. Type a new name in the Name text box.

4. Delete the action. Click the Actions tab. The current action is to reset the form. Click the Mouse Up text in the actions list, and click the Delete button to remove the action.

5. Add a new action. Open the Select Action pull-down menu, and choose Submit a form. Click the Add button, and the Submit Form Selections dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 5.23.

6. Add a URL link. In our example, we want the form e-mailed back to us. Type mailto:<your email address> in the Enter a URL for this link text box, as shown in Figure 5.23.

7. Choose an export format. For our example, we want the complete PDF document sent back to us, so we click the PDF The complete document radio button.

8. Click OK in the Submit Form Selection dialog box, and click Close in the Button Properties dialog box. Your form is now set up with a submit form button.

Figure 5.23. Type mailto: followed by your e-mail address in the Enter a URL for this link text box, and click the PDF The complete document radio button.

Warning

If you intend to have Adobe Reader users fill in the form and send it back to you, you must enable the form with Adobe Reader usage rights. For more information on enabling forms with Adobe Reader usage rights, see Chapter 10.