Create an interactive calculator in InDesign that works in PDF

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I have created an interactive calculator for a few of our price list documents. To do so, I have to copy/paste the calculator created in PDF to the PDF documents. I would like to see if there is a way to do it directly from the InDesign document so it will save me time. I have 9 documents to do this to. Here is a link to what we are using: https://logiflex.ca/medias/documents/graphics-test-calculator.pdf

J

Jeffrey_SmithCorrect answer

Community Expert

Indesign's form fields are basic and can not include a calculation script.

One thing you could do is create the content in Indesign. Keep a master PDF with form fields and calculation scripts. In Acrobat, merge the 2 by replacing the page in the master PDF.

TᴀW

Legend

Calculation, validation and formatting scripts, as well as keyboard and mouse-event-triggered scripts, can all be added to interactive PDFs directly in InDesign with our FormMaker add-ons: https://www.id-extras.com/products/formmaker/

For short forms there is a free version as well.

Ariel

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id-extras.com | InDesign tools & scripts for typesetters, form designers, and translators

June Rabbit

Known Participant

This looked like the solution I needed, but while watching the tutorial video in the link posted, it seems that this add-on will only work when the end user also has it installed.

Is my understanding correct, or can auto-calculating fillable PDF forms be created with this add-on so that the PDFs can be sent off and filled in (with auto calculations) by other users who don't have the add-on installed?

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Ryan_Park

Participating Frequently

Hello June Rabbit. I'm reviving a bit of an old thread here, but did you ever get an answer to your question about whether or not an end user would need to have the FormMaker plug-in installed on their end for calculations to work correctly? I have a 7 page order form with approx 200+ fields I need to setup calculations for. It would ceratinly be ideal to use this plug-in, but it all falls apart if the end user needs to have it as well.

Thanks in advance for your answer

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J

Jeffrey_Smith

Correct answer

Community Expert

Indesign's form fields are basic and can not include a calculation script.

One thing you could do is create the content in Indesign. Keep a master PDF with form fields and calculation scripts. In Acrobat, merge the 2 by replacing the page in the master PDF.

Translate

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blaurie2Author

Inspiring

Thanks, that is what I have been doing, but was hoping for a way to streamline operations. This calculator is popular where I work and there are 3 versions, US, Canda English and Canada French and it is in 3 different price lists, so an automation would have been a real time saver.

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