Creating multiple copies of fields in a dynamic form

Question

I have a form that requires I list people (could be one person, could be eight), along with 2 detailed factors for each (one text field and two drop down fields to the right). I need the end user to be able to essentially 'create multiple copies' of those 3 fields and have the following also be true:

1) they have unique field properties (they're not just straight copies and can be changed independently)

2) the text and fields on the rest of the form move down to make room for these new fields - i.e. the whole form is dynamic

I currently have this feature in Word (Repeating Section Content Control). In the Word document, I have to click a little '+' for each field to insert another below it (the text and drop downs), and am hoping there is a way to duplicate this funciton in Adobe Pro.

We're trying to get away from the Word form and go with Adobe - this is the one feature I can't figure out. Is this even possible?

Thom Parker · Answer

PDF documents have static page content, meaning it cannot be dynamically reflowed. This is a very deliberate feature of the technology. It's part of ensuring fidelity of the content reproduction. Which is part of the whole point of PDF, that it is supposed to be like printed paper. The other part is portabililty, which means the PDF file contains all resources needed for reproduction.

On the other hand, form fields are dynamic and are not part of the PDF page content. So you can dynamically create form fields, but there is no built-in management of this process. You'd need to write code for placing them correctly, and there are use cases where this is a useful feature.

But for your case, the typical PDF solution is to use Page Templates to add a full page of extra lines, keeping with the digial paper model, i.e., with paper forms you cannot reflow content to add new lines, you have to add another page.

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