how to create text labels for form fields

[Leslie22448004on87]

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.

[Bernd Alheit]

Can you share a sample form?

[Leslie22448004on87]

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]

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 

[try67 · Accepted solution]

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

[Leslie22448004on87]

Hooray! Thank you. What do you mean by reset form? Only references I see to resetting the form have to do with filling it out, not creating it.

[try67]

Yes, that's what I mean. What it does is set the field's value to the default value, which in your case is the text you want to display.

[try67]

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.

[Julie32636720kh5n]

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]

You can add text. Try it.

[try67]

You can add static text, but you can't associate it with any form fields. PDF files were simply not designed to work that way. If you want to have a field that has a text "label" that can be moved along with it then create a (read-only) text field, with the label as the default value, next to it, and drag both of them together. This is the closest you will get to a real "text label" for your field.