Acrobat form fields with drop down menus disappear after being sent through E-Signature

[David Healy]

I created an E-Signature PDF form in InDesign with two fields for selecting items from drop down menus. The drop downs work in the exported PDF but after I send the form to be signed the drop downs are gone. Here is the link for the PDF before E-Signature so you can see the working drop down menus: https://healy1.com/_acrobat/E-Sign_TestForm.pdf

[Bernd Alheit]

Does you use Acrobat Sign?

[Thom Parker]

How do you send the form to be signed?  What is the exact process?

[David Healy]

After exporting from InDesign the PDF form opened in Acrobat. I clicked on the Request E-signatures button shown below

I then added the email address of the recipient, being me at a different email address.

Clicked on Specify where to sign. The signature field had an asterik so hit Send. 

When the email arrive I clicked Review and Sign

When the PDF opened I clicked Continue at the bottom. I then click on the signature field and signed on the line:

I then clicked Apply and it applied the signature to the form but the drop down menus for District and County are gone.

[Thom Parker]

So, you are using the Adobe Sign Process. When you click the "Request E-signatures" button, Acrobat converts your regular form to an Adobe Sign form.  Which means all the form fields have to be converted to Adobe Sign Fields. You're form does not contain dropdowns. It has list fields, which are not compatible with Sign forms. Convert these to dropdowns and they'll be preserved in the conversion. 

Just for developing the form, do this process from the "Prepare Form" tools.  Select "Prepare Form for E-Signing" from the "More" tools menu.  This explicit conversion will give you better information about what's happening. 

[David Healy]

Thank you! When you say, “Convert these to dropdowns...” do you mean, “Combo Box”?:

Or should I just create the drop downs in Acrobat?

[Thom Parker]

Yes, convert to a "Combobox".  This is the same as a dropdown. 

You could also do this in Acrobat, but it's generally better to have a consistent workflow, so if the fields are being created in InDesign, and there is the option to use a combobox, then I think it's best done there. 

[Britt36454986kfkm]

I am having this same issue; however, I do not have the option to change to a "combobox." Has this since updated to not allow drop-down when preparing for an E-signature?