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Leslie22448004on87
New Participant
January 13, 2022
Answered

how to create text labels for form fields

  • January 13, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 10568 views

New to Acrobat, making all sorts of rookie mistakes. After frustratingly dealing with text being grouped, I checked the Community and see that I should have created these labels as form fields instead of static text. So I am trying to redo the form. I create a text field, enter the text, set it as read-only, but the text doesn't show up. I have the background set to transparent and the text set to black. I read about the issue with Preview on the Mac, but having the same trouble opening the file from the desktop on a different computer (also a Mac). I have reimported the file as well.

What do I need to do to get a read-only label to show up next to a form field?

The documentation is useless, so I am reaching out to the community for both how to do what should be a basic task as well as best practices and caveats so I don't have to redo this form for the thousandth time.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer try67

Apply the text as the field's Default Value (under Properties - Options) and then reset the form.

2 replies

try67
try67
Adobe Expert
January 13, 2022

Where did you enter the text, exactly?

 

A "best practice" is not to add what should be static text in Acrobat. It should be added in the original file format, and then converted to PDF. You should only be adding form fields in Acrobat.

    J
    Julie32636720kh5n
    New Participant
    October 15, 2023

    then why the F*&Z to they have the option of adding "Text" in the program...i've been wasting huge amoutns of time just trying to a basic thing of labeling the fields that need to be filled in...i feel like people HAVE to be missing something here...i cannot comprehend that the program would have an option for adding Text and that the design is to only add text fields and the other form component options....labeling the text fields seem basic and important...this is super frustrating.

      Bernd Alheit
      Bernd Alheit
      Adobe Expert
      October 15, 2023

      You can add text. Try it.

      Bernd Alheit
      Bernd Alheit
      Adobe Expert
      January 13, 2022

      Can you share a sample form?

        L
        Leslie22448004on87Author
        New Participant
        January 13, 2022

        I understand I have to redo the form. I was editing a PDF form created by someone else long ago. I made a lot of changes. Here's a copy of the form without identifying info. Most of the static text is still there. I was trying to enter a label for the first form field, "Employer."

        Can you figure out why I can't see the text?

        Am I better off changing the static text fields to read-only form fields, or should I start over and create a form from scratch?

        Bernd Alheit
        Bernd Alheit
        Adobe Expert
        January 13, 2022

        You doesn't have entered a text in the field.

        https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:3fde8b21-e9eb-4ffe-9485-e82dbd960f8b 

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