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Jennifer Badr
Participant
June 12, 2023
Answered

Interactive PDF's duplicating answers among fields

  • June 12, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 318 views

Hello,

 

I created 30 interactive documents in InDesign for some new hire packest as we must mix and match which goes where (One large document/book was not an option to the client).

 

I exported them all as interactive PDFs and combined them. They worked great until recently when a field on page 3 populated the same answer on page 20, for example. After reading, I created a PDF Portfolio, which eliminated the issue. We now have a significant spike in new hires being unable to open it despite updating Acrobat, etc.

Any advice?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Lukas Engqvist

    Fields with same name are instances of the same field… this is a good thing, say you want to fill in the information multiple times. What you must do is create unique names for the fields for them to be different fields. Having a name "Form1 Name" etc would work, but is tedious… forms and portfolio not a good match. Portfolio is not supported by all PDF readers, but If you are using forms best stick to acrobat. 

    Advice is to keep as seperate forms and let tem find the correct form.

    3 replies

    J
    Jennifer BadrAuthor
    Participant
    June 13, 2023

    Thank you all so much! I will get the field names sorted out today!

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 13, 2023

    Hi @Jennifer Badr:

     

    Filling out new patient forms drives me nuts. I wish the doctors who provide online forms would combine them into one PDF (not a portfolio) and use the same field names on purpose. For example, at top of every form I have to type in my full name and date of birth. If they used field names like fullName and birthDate intentionally, I could type them once and they would populate every page automatically.

     

    And as per @Lukas Engqvist, just change the field name on page 20 so that it doesn't share the same name as the one on page 3.

     

    ~Barb

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Lukas Engqvist
    Community Expert
    Lukas EngqvistCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    June 12, 2023

    Fields with same name are instances of the same field… this is a good thing, say you want to fill in the information multiple times. What you must do is create unique names for the fields for them to be different fields. Having a name "Form1 Name" etc would work, but is tedious… forms and portfolio not a good match. Portfolio is not supported by all PDF readers, but If you are using forms best stick to acrobat. 

    Advice is to keep as seperate forms and let tem find the correct form.

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