Adobe Acrobat for Creative & Business – Forms Part II

Last week we got started with forms by adding a basic text input field, this week we are going to look at more form features and finish adding input fields to our example pdf.

We can add a multi-line text field the same way we added a single line text field, click Add New Field, then selecting Text Field and click on the pdf where we want it added.

Click All Properties to launch the palette. Just like the single form field you can edit a variety of things like the font and color.  To make this a multi-line form click the Options tab and click the Multi-line check box. Click the Close button to look at our form.

Multi-line is applied to the message box, however it is still small, and would hard to type much info in, so we need to make the box bigger.  Click on it to select, then click on one of the little dots on the side or bottom and drag it out to your desired size.

Now, let’s add more fields to the form.  In the Tools Menu on the right click Add New Field, then select Radio Buttons.  Click in the pdf file to place the radio button. 

To use a radio button group there needs to be more than one radio button placed.  Click Add Another Button at the bottom of the palette window and click in the pdf to placed another, continue doing this until all the radio buttons for this group are added.  It automatically assigned  a name and grouping for our buttons, each is unique so we don’t need to change it but we can by typing new names in each box.

Finally let’s add a drop down menu by clicking Add New Field in the Forms tools palette on the right, then click Drop Down from the sub-menu.  Click on the pdf where the new drop down box should go.

Like other input fields you can change the name and click the Required Field check box to not allow form processing until a selection is made from this field.  

Click on All Properties to add items to the drop down list.

Like the other entry fields you can edit the color, font and look of the test in Appearance.  To add items to the list click the Options tab.  Notice towards the top Items, Export Value and Item List. 

Type the name as you want it to appear on the actual form in the Item field.  If the information is going to be exported to a database the Export Field should have a value that matches the database configuration, for example I put TX for Texas.  This field can be left blank if not applicable.  


Click the Add button next to the Item field and you will see the name added to the Item List.  Repeat entering the name into the Item field and clicking the Add button until all items for the drop down are added.

Once all items are added move down to the item list, you can click on each item and move it up or down with the buttons to the right, this order will be the order items will display on the actual pdf form.  You can also delete items with that button.  

Remember clicking an item in the list and then clicking close (at the bottom of the palette) will make that item the default value for the drop down.

Check out our form!  We did radio buttons, text boxes including a multi-line box and a drop down.  I am going to finish dropping in form fields to get ready for next weeks buttons post!

Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Standard Windows