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New Participant
March 22, 2019
Question

Changing a Text Field to a Check Box

  • March 22, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 40135 views

In Prepare a Form, Adobe automatically mad check boxes a text field.  Anyone know how to change this text field to a check box?

4 replies

JR Boulay
Community Expert
March 18, 2022

In InDesign form fields are text fields by default.

It's up to you to determine the type of form field in the "Buttons and Forms" panel when you create them in InDesign.

See this (French) screenshot, where "Case à cocher" means "Checkbox":

 

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe
New Participant
March 17, 2022

Ugh!  It's super disappointing that you have to delete the fields and replace all of them.  In my document, I created it in In-Design, drew boxes, and exported it as a PDF.  When I had Acrobat prepare the form, it made them all text boxes.  There should be a way to change the undefined field into the field you want it to be (especially for how much you have to pay for the creative suite).  I mean, in all of these updates, they haven't figured this out?  LOL.  They update it like twice-a-month and reset my presets everytime and they can't fix this?  LOL.  Okay rant over.

New Participant
August 24, 2024

I agree, I have the same issue or problem here, converting a pdf document into a form. It recognizes the fields very well but it does not see that the small little square boxes are check boxes not text fields. I dont understand why its still doing this, should it not know that its a checkbox? it would be so much easier. So it puts a text field into the box. Now I have to delete these and replace with a checkbox, many of them. The other thing I find crazy is you can duplicate a checkbox or while moving it make a dup but it creates an exact dup of it, so when you check it later, mouse click in the box, it checks every single one you duplicated. Anyway, would be nice one day if they fixed things

S_S
Community Manager
Community Manager
January 21, 2025

Hi @angus4552,

 

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the trouble, and the delayed response.

 

Do you still see the issue with the latest version? If yes, would you mind sharing a sample file with me for further investigation?

 

Also, please feel free to write your feedback here: https://adobe.ly/3CfgrEU to ensure it reaches the dev team for investigation and future implementation.


-Souvik

try67
Community Expert
March 22, 2019

There's no direct way of converting a field's type in Acrobat. The way to do it is to delete the old field and create a new one in its place.

This can be done using a script, though.

I've developed a (paid-for) tool that does just that.

You can find it here: Custom-made Adobe Scripts: Acrobat -- Convert Form Fields Type

Inspiring
March 22, 2019

Open the PDF and use the "Prepare Form" tool to edit the form fields. I would delete the text field and then add the check box.