Change field colour depending on empty or completed field

[jadef82210029]

Hi - I have an editable PDF form, that I basically want to turn all the fields red if the boxes are empty, once they have been completed they turn back to white - note they are just free text boxes not based on any specific values.

Its just as a prompt to the user to complete the field.

Can you advise please? I have got close using code I have found online but can't seem to get it to work correctly.

[Amal.]

Hi Jadef

Hope you are doing well and sorry to for the trouble.

Please open the PDF form in Acrobat Pro DC >  Go to Tools > Prepare Form > Double click on the Form field to open the form field properties and Select 'Required' to make the field required.

It will force the user to fill in the selected form field. If the user attempts to submit the form while a required field is blank, an error message appears and the empty required form field is highlighted.

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/pdf-form-field-properties.html

Regards

Amal

[try67]

This does not achieve what they asked for. A required field will always be painted in red, regardless of whether it has a value.

[jadef82210029]

Hi Try67

Yes this is correct, I want all the fields red if the boxes are empty, once they have been completed they turn back to white. Do yoy know if this is possible?

[JR Boulay]

Place this script as a Validation script in each concerned field:

if (event.value == event.target.defaultValue) {event.target.strokeColor = color.red};
else {event.target.strokeColor = color.white};

[jadef82210029]

Thank you - I get a SyntaxError:syntax error 2:at line 3, can you advise please?

[try67]

Change it to:

if (event.value == event.target.defaultValue) {event.target.strokeColor = color.red}
else {event.target.strokeColor = color.white};

[jadef82210029]

Thank you for this, is there a way to do this for the fill color instead of just the stroke?

Also, I originally added some javascript to the page which on opening turnt the fields red. I have removed the code, but its still turning the fields red (all other of my other fillable pdf's!) - do you know how I can stop this?

[try67]

- Add another line where you set the fillColor property, too. Like this:

if (event.value == event.target.defaultValue) {
	event.target.strokeColor = color.red;
	event.target.fillColor = color.ltGray;
}
else {
	event.target.strokeColor = color.white;
	event.target.fillColor = color.white;
}

- You probably enabled the fields highlighting, which will override these colors. To disable it go to Edit - Preferences - Forms and tick off "Show border hover color for fields". You can also do it from the purple bar at the top of the document when you open it.

[jadef82210029]

So I have toggled off the 'Show Border hover color for field' so it changed all fields to white.

However, I have added in the validation script to a couple of fields and no colour shows at all.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

You have to change their values or clear the form for it to kick in.

[jadef82210029]

Amazing - thank you for your help! 🙂

[jadef82210029]

Sorry - do you know how to make it apply to check boxes too?

[jadef82210029]

This code works great when a PDF is open in the default Acrobat, but if you open it in a web browser (some users default here) it ignores the stroke and fill colour when there is a value entereed and it stays red. Do you know how to stop this?

[try67]

There's no solution to that. You need to instruct your users to open the file in Reader if they want it to work properly.

[JR Boulay]

"Thank you - I get a SyntaxError:syntax error 2:at line 3"

Sorry.

"do you know how to make it apply to check boxes too?"

The principle is the same but as checkboxes don't have "Validate" nor "Calculation" it is necessary to execute the script from another field.