New Participant

Answered

Fillable Forms text box is blue - can I make them white?

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
October 25, 2016
4 replies
143111 views

I've created a Fillable form using text boxes and it works well in the preview except that all of the text boxes are blue. I would like my users who are going to fill out the form to not see the blue text boxes; the text boxes should just look white/transparent (like nothing is there) until they put their cursor in the answer area.

Does anyone know how to edit/fix this? I'm not a proficient user of Adobe so I may be making newbie mistake!

Thanks.

Correct answer try67

whats the code to turn off the highlight all together "app.runtimeHighlightColor = false.;"????????

No, it's this:

app.runtimeHighlight = false;

B

Bensox79

New Participant

Found this thread as its exactly what I want to do - however, I now realise that Acrobat forms feature was made by non-creatives, for non-creatives - ie librarians, parking fine processors etc.
It seems that its only @staceyleepd and myself that require such design function (in 7 years!!), so...
Here's my creative work-around I can offer you; Create a png of #dde4ff colour code and size and position this between each form field. You then have no visible boxes spoiling your design - you'll just need to persuade your client or boss that the new blue background you've introduced enhances the brand!

try67

Community Expert

Many people have come up with that solution before... It's also possible to change the highlight color using a script, although that's not recommended, as it will affect other files, too.

D

darinc38122

New Participant

In a nut shell this is what I did:

Open the pages panel in Acrobat
Right click on the first page
Choose "Page Properties"
In the dialog that comes up, click on the "Actions" tab
Make sure "Page Open" is chosen by "Select Trigger"
By Select Action, choose "Run a Javascript"
Click "Add"
In the field that comes up, paste in "app.runtimeHighlight = false". Click OK
Click OK
Save the file

Hope this helps. You may have to do it for each page.

P

Phoebe22003878550y

New Participant

Hi there,
I used the previous mentioned script in my pdf - created from InDesign.

It's turned off the blue text fields for me, but when I sent it to a colleague he's still viewing them. Is there a way to turn off the feilds for everyone who get the document?

Cheers.

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

What app does the colleague use?

E

eSimpson

New Participant

Stacey,

You CAN change the color of the fields if you use a different TYPE of field. The LIST field generates blue background as soon as you enter items in the list. If you use the COMBO field instead, you will still be able to create list without blue background.

A

andrewt23907588

Known Participant

Another question relating to the blue box which appears behind editable text.

So from reading the above, I deduce that when I print out the PDF the blue boxes don't appear. However, if I'm not using the editable PDF for printing purposes, I am making text changes in the editable area and then want to send it on to a client for their final use, how do I save it with the new text I've entered showing and not the blue box?

In case that didn't make sense -

I have for example a form which has the following text on it:

Dear

Blah blah blah blah

Many thanks

I have created an editable area next to Dear, and I just want to be able to input someone's name, save the pdf off and email it to them. How do I save it without the blue box behind that text??

Many thanks

try67

Community Expert

Please stick to one thread: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/remove-blue-box-behind-editable-text-on-pdf-for-emailing/td-p/11854446

T

Tariq Ahmad

Community Manager

Hi Staceyleepd,

Text boxes are blue it is not a form property, it just a highlighting feature of Acrobat/Reader to give a user an idea those are fillable.

If you print the form they will turn out to be normal with white background. To check Launch Acrobat/Reader , click Edit>Preferences> Forms, Highlight color "Fields highlight color." You can change the color and if you print the color doesn't have any impact. You can turn it off by un-checking the preferences "Show border hover color for the fields. "

Hope that answers your questions. Let us know if you have further questions.

Regards,
Tariq Dar.

M

MattMcTap

New Participant

Tariq,

You are asking us to ask all our users to go and change their settings.

Changing the settings on my machine won't make it look good on the OPs.

I just spent an hour with someone on Adobe chat and literally the suggestion they had for me was to delete the text fields.

You can't change it, they'll always be blue, they'll always look horrible, Adobe know this and aren't going to fix it.

I promise you. You can't do it so you can distribute it out to people.

try67

Community Expert

You can easily do it. It's possible to embed a simple script in your file that will disable the fields highlighting in any computer it is opened on. The problem with doing that is that it will also apply for other files, which the user might not like, so it's a good idea of at least informing them (or better yet, ask for their permission) when doing it.

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