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M
MDW70
Participant
September 27, 2023
Question

Is there a fix to merging of text boxes yet?

  • September 27, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 6285 views

I've searched previous posts and not found anything useful, logical or coherent that can make any sense of the issue - and before anyone chimes in with the "PDF's aren't meant to be edited this way" hokum, first answer the question of why the text box function exists in the first place, or check boxes, or any form tools at all for that matter.

I have tried every trick recommended on this forum and elsewhere imaginable, and unimaginable - short of making each text box an image file.

Is there a work-around or a legitimate and actual fix for the incessant merging of text fields within a form during the form creation process?

 

    2 replies

    Thom Parker
    Community Expert
    Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 27, 2023

    You're mixing up different things.  Interactive form fields (text, checkboxes etc.) are for collecting data from the user and do not merge.  In fact, they are a completely different kind of thing from the text areas that do merge.

    The merging text fields, or text boxes, that people complain about are misnamed. This text is part of the page content and the boxed text shown in PDF Edit mode is a collection of one or more "text runs".  When Acrobat is placed in PDF Edit mode (not Form edit mode), Acrobat analyzes the page text and tries to put related text runs together for your editing convenience.  Acrobat is guessing because unless the document content is properly tagged, there is no information in the document about what text runs actually belong together.    

    I have to agree this situation is non-optimal. However, you would be really unhappy if edit mode displayed the individual text runs. And I am sure that you understand the massive difficulty of creating an algorithm for parsing random text into a sensible structure.  

     

    Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
      M
      MDW70Author
      Participant
      September 27, 2023

      OK, that makes some semblance of sense - however, when you place a check box or other data entry point on the page - it doesn't assign a label, so it becomes necessary to utilize the text boxes, or "runs" to identify the data collection point to the user utilizing the form.

       

      Which circles us back to the original problem. 

       

      If the form fields had a toggle to assign a text label based on, I don't know - the "tooltip" field in Options, this entire topic of conversation would be basically non-existent. Other use-cases and situations might still find some grief in the poor implementation here, however.

        Thom Parker
        Community Expert
        Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        September 27, 2023

        Labels are generally page text. I design my forms, even test forms, as word documents, then convert to PDF.  This is a very simple and direct technique. Making changes is trivial and it keeps the design separate from the working form.  

        You could however, use a text form field, or a text box annotation for the label on the PDF. But the only reason to do this is for some quick test. There is no good reason to do this on a real working form.  

         

        Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
        try67
        Community Expert
        try67Community Expert
        Community Expert
        September 27, 2023

        No.

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