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C
carynf68137994
Participant
July 10, 2025
Question

Acrobat Form Tab Order and Character Limits Not Remaining In E-Sign

  • July 10, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 247 views

Hi everyone, 

 

I have created a .pdf form to share for electronic completion.  I have created many forms in the past, and I have used the same process for this form.

 

In the "prepare a form" tool, I have confirmed all fields are in the proper tab order and all fields have been set with the necessary character limits so the text does not expand past the field box.

 

When I send the form through e-sign, the recipient version of the form does not have any character restrictions (as it multi-line or scroll long text is selected, which they are not) and the tabs are definitely not aligned with the tab order in the "prepare a form" tool.

 

Does anyone have any insight into how I can correct this?  E-sign is unusable with the format of the form as it is right now.

 

Thank you.

1 reply

Amal.
Amal.
Legend
July 10, 2025

Hi there,

Hope you're doing well, and thanks for reaching out.

As described, the PDF form looks fine on your end, but when it's sent through E-Sign, the recipient doesn’t see the character limits, and the tab order isn’t working properly.

Can you please check how the recipient is opening the form? Are they using Adobe Acrobat Reader (the free desktop app), or a different program? Ask them to download the form to their computer and open it with the Acrobat Reader desktop app. That’s the best way to make sure everything works as expected.

 

You can also try sending the form to yourself through E-Sign and see if the same issue happens. That might help narrow things down.

Let us know how it goes.


C
carynf68137994Author
Participant
July 10, 2025

Thakn you for your quick response last night.

 

Yes, to confirm, in the pdf form, I confirmed the tab order for each page is correct, and the character limit is in place for each field on the entire form.

 

The form is being sent through e-sign (request e-signatures).  When the recipient receives it, they are provided the message to review and sign.  There is an option to download the .pdf and in doing that, the document is just a .pdf, it loses all form fields during the download process.

 

I have sent this to myself multiple times (using multiple computers and cell phones) and the tab order and character limit are just not sticking).  

 

When the form is opened, it opens to the Adobe Acrobat Sign webpage, so the form is being completed directly, not being opened in Adobe Reader.

 

I was not sure if this is a bug or if anyone else has experienced this issue.  The last time I created a form using the same process I used for this update was earlier this year. I did not have any issues, so it seems strange that this is occuring now.

T
Tariq Dar
Legend
July 11, 2025

Hi @carynf68137994,

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing the details — I understand how frustrating it must be to see your tab order and character limits not behaving as expected in the signing workflow.

 

Just to clarify, when you send a form using Adobe Acrobat Sign, the PDF is converted into a web-based version for signing, which means:

  • Tab order and character limits from the original PDF may not carry over, especially if those were configured using PDF-specific tools or scripting.

  • The form shown to the signer is rendered in an HTML viewer, not Adobe Acrobat or Reader.

  • You won’t be able to preview or verify this behavior by opening the original form in Acrobat Reader — the rendered signing experience lives in the browser. Unless the link directly allows you to open it in Acrobat or Reader. 

 

If strict formatting, tabbing, or validation is critical to your workflow, one workaround is to avoid using Acrobat Sign and instead:

  • Send the form directly to users as a fillable PDF, which they can fill and sign in Acrobat or Reader (though this sacrifices built-in signature tracking and automation).

 

A video of what happens from start to end would help us understand more clearly what the problem is or what is expected as designed. 

 

 

Alternatively, you can redesign your form inside Adobe Sign’s web authoring tool to ensure that the field order and limits match those expected in the environment.

 

Let us know how you’d like to proceed. We can help guide you based on your workflow needs.



Best regards,
Tariq | Adobe Community Team

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