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pamb85064850
pamb85064850
Inspiring
January 7, 2021
Answered

Tab Sort Order Grayed Out

  • January 7, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 1444 views

Hello,

I'm working in InDesign 2021 and ran into an issue with tab sort order being grayed out.

I have a simple table in which I've converted some of the cells to interative text boxes. 

After inserting & naming the text boxes, I normally select the row and check the tab sort order (Object/Interactive/Set Tab Order); however, in this one particular document, Set Tab Order is grayed out. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why! 

Any suggestions or am I doomed to delete the table & start from scratch?

Thanks in advance!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer pamb85064850

Hi John,

I eventually figured out what was causing my issue (can't copy/paste an interactive table that's in another document & set the tab order).
To answer your question, following is how I go about setting this up...after inserting my table, I:

  1. Hi-light the cell I want to make interactive
  2. Right-click & choose Convert to graphic
  3. Remove the hi-light, but make sure the "graphic" is still selected
  4. Choose Buttons & Forms
  5. Type=choose Text Box and name it something unique (important)
  6. I'm using this functionality for a product ordering guide on a specification sheet, so I continue doing this with each cell, then:
  7. Choose Object/Interactive/Set Tab Order
  8. Make sure to export as an interactive PDF

I learned how to accomplish from someone on this forum! Such a helpful, sharing community.

Thank you!

 

2 replies

pamb85064850
pamb85064850AuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
January 10, 2021

Hi John,

I eventually figured out what was causing my issue (can't copy/paste an interactive table that's in another document & set the tab order).
To answer your question, following is how I go about setting this up...after inserting my table, I:

  1. Hi-light the cell I want to make interactive
  2. Right-click & choose Convert to graphic
  3. Remove the hi-light, but make sure the "graphic" is still selected
  4. Choose Buttons & Forms
  5. Type=choose Text Box and name it something unique (important)
  6. I'm using this functionality for a product ordering guide on a specification sheet, so I continue doing this with each cell, then:
  7. Choose Object/Interactive/Set Tab Order
  8. Make sure to export as an interactive PDF

I learned how to accomplish from someone on this forum! Such a helpful, sharing community.

Thank you!

 

John Mensinger
Community Expert
John MensingerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2021

 

"I have a simple table in which I've converted some of the cells to interative text boxes. 

After inserting & naming the text boxes..."

 

It's not really clear how you arrived at the construct you claim to have. To my knowledge, InDesign doesn't facilitate the conversion of individual table cells to text fields. You may anchor a text field in a table cell, but any table-based selection methods would not afford you access to its interactivity settings (tab order).

 

So, what you're seeing (tab order unavailable) is what I'd expect, but you state it isn't that way "normally". Can you clarify exactly how you go about this?

 

 

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