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February 7, 2017
Question

"Create Multiple Copies" SUCKS.

  • February 7, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1033 views

It has options to (supposedly) change the overall size, evidently of the sum total of duplicated fields (though it's in "inches" which don't seem to correspond to the actual size of the document), yet you only get a change with every 2nd or 3rd click, and this is nowhere near enough control to fine tune a large number of fields to get them to fit in a designated space properly.

I'd created a table in InDesign with 26 rows, and the last several columns had to be check boxes in the final PDF. I exported a PDF, opened it in Acrobat, ran forms, deleted the forms from the last several columns, then drew a check box in the topmost leftmost empty cell, then right clicked for "Create Multiple Copies of Fields" - I assume this is the correct MO. Then I had to endure an extremely frustrating several minutes trying to get the resulting 26 rows of copied fields to fit in my table correctly. In fact, I could never really do it; I wound up moving the rows up using the "Overall Position" buttons to get them to almost approximately fit, and that had to do, but I HATE having to do sloppy work like this, especially when there's no reason for it other than lack on control in the app. (I tried several times to resize my original cell to make the final output fit, but that didn't seem to matter at all.)

Honestly, the way it SHOULD be is that after you run forms and Acrobat does a pretty good job of creating all those unique cells in your table, you should be able to right click and change the type of field, i.e. from text to check or radio button, while keeping them all unlinked in their properties (so that e.g. if you check the first box it doesn't check them all). Manually adding fields when there's no way to keep them mathematically spaced drives me nuts, especially alongside the perfect auto-generated fields, and the "Create Multiple Copies" option has the problems herein ranted about.

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1 reply

try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 7, 2017

I agree regarding the form fields type, which is why I've developed this tool that allows you to easily and quickly convert the type of multiple fields, while preserving as much as their display properties as possible: Custom-made Adobe Scripts: Acrobat -- Convert Form Fields Type