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Participating Frequently
March 29, 2025
Question

Fillable Form Dropdown list requires two clicks to open

  • March 29, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 1394 views

I have found numerous instances of people having the problem that the user trying to fill out a PDF form must click the dropdown box twice to make a selection.  

 

I am using Acrobat Pro with a current license and I too am experiencing this issue and have never seen a resolution.  Here is my experience with this situation.

 

Upon first opening a fillable form, all the fields appear as originally intended.  Here is an image of my form.

But when the user clicks on a dropdown box, the options appear momentarily and then disappear leaving the dropdown box with a change in appearance ... 

 

... but when clicking the dropdown a second time, the options list remains so the user can make a selection ... 

... once the selection is chosen, the field return to the correct appearance intended.

Is there a resolution for this issue?  From various searches I have seen that this problem has been going on for a few years now.  What is the problem?  Why hasn't Adobe been able to determine why this occurs?

 

Best regards,

 

Steve 

2 replies

JR Boulay
Community Expert
April 9, 2025

"I have found numerous instances of people having the problem that the user trying to fill out a PDF form must click the dropdown box twice to make a selection.  "

Tariq Ahmad Dar, I have the same issue on my PC, still not fixed for over 3 years.

The same forms works fine on Macs, and with Foxit on the PC, it's not a document issue.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe
Participating Frequently
April 9, 2025

I expect that the techies at Adobe just hate it that so many people are experiencing this problem and that it appears to be an Acrobat problem versus a document problem.  If there were a reasonable alternative to Acrobat Pro I would use the alternative in a heartbeat.

try67
Community Expert
March 29, 2025

Can you share a sample file?

Participating Frequently
April 1, 2025

Yes.  I have uploaded the file into Box and you can download it here ... 

 

https://app.box.com/s/biaii21nc8svk9bzw5uwhqpvgs8p2fhj

 

 

 

 

Participating Frequently
April 3, 2025

This is just a display setting. It shouldn't have any effect on how the fields work.


As this is just a display setting, I have no problem.  The only issue I have is that the display setting is for the PC and not for file.  So a user with the display setting enabled will not view the form as it was originally designed.  This is quite poor design.