How do I edit a field?

[amandaf66727491]

I've created text fields for my form but I'm unable to edit them in Adobe Acrobat. The main purpose of editing is to align the text to the top of a large field in question and to enable the text entry to wrap within the field so that all of the entry can be read by the user. At the moment the text is aligned to the middle of the field and any text entered after one line length overflows and hence cannot be read.

[George_Johnson]

How did you create the fields and what have you tried in your attempt to edit them?

[amandaf66727491]

The form was created in InDesign CC. I can select all the elements in Adobe Acrobat Pro CC except for the form fields which seem locked.

[George_Johnson]

To edit form fields in Acrobat DC, you'd start by selecting: Tools > Prepare Form

and you can then double-click a field and the Properties dialog will appear. Is that what you've tried?

[amandaf66727491]

Thanks for that, but as there are so many fields can they all be given the same type style, background colour, etc. or do I have to do them  one by one?

[George_Johnson · Accepted solution]

Some properties can be changed at once for all selected fields, especially if they are the same type (text, checkbox, button, etc.), but others cannot. You'll discover which you can by trying it out.

[amandaf66727491]

Thanks for your help. Another workaround I'm trying is to copy and paste the field then use the align function to neaten everything up. Thanks again!

[try67]

It's also possible to apply the same properties to multiple fields using a script.

For example, these (paid-for) tools I've developed allow you to select the field names from a list, or to process all fields that have a certain (partial) name in the same way:

Custom-made Adobe Scripts: Acrobat -- Mass Edit Fields Properties

Custom-made Adobe Scripts: Acrobat -- Mass Edit Fields Actions

The second tools allows you to do something that is not possible using the Acrobat user-interface, which is to apply the same actions to multiple fields at once. This is possible with some properties (e.g. text color) but not with actions (e.g. Validation).