Highlighting fields in Acrobat Pro that do not print

[Senoj Tech]

Hello!

Is there a way to highlight a field or fields in Acrobat Pro for informational purposes that does not print when the document is printed or saved? I am interested in using the highlight feature to bring attention to areas that should not be overlooked.

I appreciate your responses or an alternate way to achieve this goal. 

Thank you!

[PDF Automation Station]

Do you mean the highlight does not print, or the field does not print?  Do you want the field highlighted until text is entered, or do you want it to remain highlighted, just not print the highlight?

[Senoj Tech]

It would be wonderful for the field to be highlighted until text is entered. The highlight should not print. 

Thank you so much for helping me clarify.

[PDF Automation Station]

Enter the following as a custom format script:

if(event.value)

{event.target.fillColor=color.transparent}

else

{event.target.fillColor=color.yellow}

[Senoj Tech]

Thank you so much! It is perfection. Many thanks to you. 

[Senoj Tech]

I have one additional question: does this script work on dropdown menus? Is there a workaround for that? It does not appear to work on the dropdown field. 

Thank you!

[PDF Automation Station]

Yes, it works with dropdowns.  The reason it probably isn't working on your dropdowns is because you manually entered a space for the first dropdown selection.  The first line of the script, if(event.value), means if the field has a value.  A space is a value so it doesn't work.  You have two options to fix this:

1)  You can set the dropdown items using a script in the console like this:

this.getField("Dropdown").setItems(["", "A", "B", "C"]) so the first item is an empty string (no value).  If your dropdowns have long list of items you save time with this dropdown filler tool (*purchase cost*) I developed.

2)  Modify the script for your dropdown fields to this:

if(event.value==" ")

{event.target.fillColor=color.yellow}

else

{event.target.fillColor=color.transparent}

[Senoj Tech]

This is wonderful! And how did you know I had a space in the first field? Lol. 

Many thanks to you!

[PDF Automation Station]

You can't set a null value in a dropdown unless you use a script.  The workaround is to put a space, but a space is a value.