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coopjack
Inspiring
June 4, 2025
Answered

InDesign Buttons & Forms – adding tracking to text in PDF

  • June 4, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 732 views

I am creating a form in InDesign. I need to be able to add tracking to the text the user types into the Text Field in Acrobat, so the letters are spaced out to fit within the little tick marks. Is this possible within InDesign? I attempted to add a Paragraph Style to the Text Field, but that did not stick when I exported an Interactive Form.

 

I have the previous version of their form where this is accomplished using a Univers Condensed font. The spacing between letters within the tick marks is super clean. I could not achieve this so cleanly in InDesign with tracking (about 1060), but I hope the solution exists there, and not something that needs to be done afterwards in Acrobat.

Correct answer Mike Witherell

Hi CoopJack,

InDesign does not have the ability to make comb form text fields. That is a modification of a text field that is accomplished in Acrobat Pro.

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/pdf-form-field-properties.html

3 replies

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Mike WitherellCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
June 4, 2025

Hi CoopJack,

InDesign does not have the ability to make comb form text fields. That is a modification of a text field that is accomplished in Acrobat Pro.

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/pdf-form-field-properties.html

Mike Witherell
TᴀW
TᴀW
Legend
June 4, 2025

Thanks @BobLevine for the mention.

These sorts of fields are called "comb" fields. They're a built-in feature of PDF forms in Acrobat.

They can't be created natively in InDesign. You can apply them with 1 click in Acrobat, or, if you do want to do it in InDesign, you would need FormMagic or FormMaker (https://www.id-extras.com/products/formmaker/)

Visit www.id-extras.com for powerful InDesign scripts that save hours of work — automation, batch tools, and workflow boosters for serious designers.
BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 4, 2025

Yup...see my edit above.

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 4, 2025

Either look into this: FormMagic – Id-Extras.com or do it in Acrobat.

That said, this seems like an exercise in futility to me. That's just not what forms are for so perhaps if you fill us in on what you're really after here, we can offer alternatives.

Edit: For some reason I couldn't see the screenshots so I guessed above. Now I can and that is called a comb field. Each digit/letter would have its own field. As far as I know you'll have to do it in Acrobat.

 

Choose the text field, right click and choose properties. At the bottom of the dialog you'll see comb of. Choose the number of characters and you should be good to go.

C
coopjackAuthor
Inspiring
June 4, 2025

Thank you. This is very helpful. (Knowing what the thing is called – comb field – is super helpful by itself.) I think I will try FormMaker for this project so I can keep things within InDesign. I will likely use it for a month here and there.

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