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chiknflea1
Participating Frequently
February 1, 2024
Question

Indesign Radio Buttons append when copy/paste

  • February 1, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1365 views

Radio buttons append when copy/pasted, right? For instance, when a text field is copy/pasted, the new field will have a number appended onto the name. Field 1, when copy/pasted, becomes Field 2. That way multiple fields can have the same name and tab correctly according to the numbers in the name.

 

We have been creating a bunch of forms over the past few months and I swear I have used copy/paste on the radio buttons. There are multiple radio "Yes No" buttons in many of our forms that need to have numbers appended to the names for them to tab and work correctly. I started on a new form that has 26 lines, with four radio buttons on each line. There will be multiple pages with this exact setup. I always get the first line set up and named, then copy/paste all the lines after that so that they tab in order. This time I noticed the radio buttons weren't working, and on further investigation realized they will not append when copy/pasted. I KNOW they were doing this before but now I'm questioning myself. Anyway, I need to get this figured out so we can finish up the rest of these forms, and hopefully I don't have to edit each radio button manually. 

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2 replies

RobOctopus
RobOctopus
Inspiring
February 2, 2024

Copy/paste will maintain the radio button names which will keep them linked together

in this photo, the top yes/no buttons are name "radio button 1". since they share the same name they will interact with each other and turn the other off when a new one is clicked.

the button yes/no were copied from them, they were also named radio button 1 after copying. upon export, all 4 will interact as a group.

you will have to change the name manually. the good thing is you can highlight all the buttons together and change the names of all of a set at once. so you should only have to do this 25 times

C
chiknflea1Author
Participating Frequently
February 2, 2024

Also, how do you group them to change the name of a set all at once? Thank you for your help!

RobOctopus
RobOctopus
Inspiring
February 2, 2024

Right, but the point was not to have to change the name for each button in Indesign because it's super inefficient. 


without a script of some form, you have to do this manually. but if you press a (or v if the buttons are not in a group) and select the items you want to edit, you can edit the names of all the buttons at once, so it should go faster.

to original point, maybe they worked differently in the past, but they currently do not automatically number upwards like checkboxes or other forms do. 

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 2, 2024
quote

Radio buttons append when copy/pasted, right?

 

No, it's not right. Radio buttons are intended for making a single choice. When you turn one on, the other turns off. You can try checkboxes if you don't want to go through the renaming thing.

C
chiknflea1Author
Participating Frequently
February 2, 2024

Well, no, I need them to be a single choice. I don't see what that has to do with whether they append a number when copy/pasted? Every other field does. The radio buttons don't work at all if they have the same name as another radio button, so it stands to reason they would rename upon copy/paste.

BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 2, 2024

I disagree.

 

Radio buttons are for yes/no types of things. With radio buttons, you can only have one choice. Pick one and the others turn off.

 

Sounds like you should be using checkboxes.

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