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TS2265
Participant
May 13, 2026 3:05 PM UTC
Question

Dashes are disappearing in the Prepare a Form boxes

I have been using the same document that was created using Prepare a Form. I input SSN's and use dashes between the numbers. This has worked fine, however, today the form looked different, and it started using a different font. Unfortunately, the dashes disappear after you click out of the box and is blank where the dashes should go. I also put dates and if I put 3-3-23 the form would automatically change it to 03/03/2023 which was a great feature. Now it will not let me enter the date without entering the full year. This part is no big deal just makes it inconvenient. I am not entirely sure how to fix this. 

    2 replies

    Thom Parker
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 13, 2026 10:20 PM UTC

    Are filling the form in Acrobat/Reader, or a different PDF Viewer? Did you change the PDF Viewer that you are using? Has anything else changed? 

    The behavior described fits with a the form being opened in a different PDF tool than the one that was used previously. 

     

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    Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
    Dave Creamer of IDEAS
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 13, 2026 4:32 PM UTC

    Check out the Format setting under the field’s properties to see if an arbitrary mask has been applied. 

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    David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)