Importing or copying Excel list into drop down list

[drphil120]

Can anyone help me with this??  I have a list of 115 departments that I would like to populate the drop down box in an acrobat pdf form and dont have the time to enter them one by one..  Is it possible to either import this list or do a copy and paste??  Please help..  Thanks so much!!

[George_Johnson · Accepted solution]

Here's a link to a very simple PDF that demonstrates how you can populate a combo box (aka drop down) with a list of items that can be pasted into a text field, after copying them from Excel (or some other source): https://acrobat.com/#d=sIJoabh12oYOY19AuTZ9yw

The idea is that once the drop-down is populated after clicking the "Populate combo box" button, you can copy & paste the field to your form. Be sure to check for duplicates and blank lines.

[drphil120]

Thanks for your response George!  I still dont understand how to get it back into the drop down list.  It doesnt allow you to paste all the list..  Its just pastes the very first line of the list..  What am I doing wrong??

[George_Johnson]

Where you able to use the form to populate the drop down that it contains? If so, you're then supposed to then copy & paste the actual field (the entire thing) from the demo form to your form. You can then change it's appearance to suit your needs.

[drphil120]

Yes, that worked!  Thanks so much George!!  I very much appreciate your help..  Have a great day!

[network2fwisd2]

Once I get the list in, it is way too big. How can I make it smaller so I can move it? I read earlier about setting a preference, but I cannot find that. Please help!

Thanks,

Kristen Hernandez

[tara897]

Hi George,

I cannot get the combo box list to populate.

I pasted an abbreviated list of my VERY long list, clicked populate combo box, but then nothing displays in the combo box.  I've tried this in Chrome and in Edge.

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if there is an issue.

*AcroForm combo box dropdown populate demo (acroscript.net)

[rparker2b1]

Hi George,

Seems like the link you provided some years ago is no longer active. Any chance you might recall the title the link lead to?

Thanks!

[pieterc14064078]

Hi George,

I've used ComboPopulateTest several times and it's a real lifesaver.  I was wondering if there was an answer to an earlier question on how to modify the input field and/or the javascript to include each line's export value as well as the item itself.  I've read up on SetItems, which requires a comma-separated list and the number of columns (ie 2), but have now got stuck.

Many thanks in advance!

[default9wq98r6yef5b]

This link is dead and I can't find it anywhere.  Poor UI, adobe.

[Thom Parker]

Specifically, which link is dead?  All the important ones work for me.

[CCC-Qatar]

the link did take mea to a file

do u have an updated link, or any new suggestions, i need a drop down list for countries or nationalities on a form

[Thom Parker]

Here is a pdf file that demonstrates how to copy a list of text items into the items of a dropdown. 

https://www.pdfscripting.com/public/FreeStuff/PDFSamples/PDFS_CopyPastListEntries.pdf

[Joseph38574079ssr2]

^^^THIS!!! Thank you so much!

[Hemansu32884812ird0]

I have a list of 150 departments that I would like to populate the drop down box in an acrobat pdf form and dont have the time to enter them one by one..  Is it possible to either import this list or do a copy and paste??

[Thom Parker]

Did you read the posts?

That's kinda the point of this thread.

[Joseph38574079ssr2]

^^^THIS!!! Thank you so much!

[gemma2]

Hi all

This PDF seems to have disappeared from the internet! Is anyone able to help out with this same issue?

Cheers!

[elizabetht22312932]

The link in your post only takes me to a page to buy Adobe DC!! I've tried it several times, and all I can get is a big fat page to buy buy buy.  Grrrrrrrr!!!

[George_Johnson]

Here's a new link to the sample form: http://acroscript.net/pdf/demos/comboPopulateTest.pdf

In practice, I use something else that I've developed that is more useful and a lot more efficient. Feel free to contact me by email if interested: acroscript at gmail dot com

[elizabetht22312932]

I appreciate that, but I'm on a temp job (I'm retired and only come back

for 3 months during the admissions process), and will only be creating ONE

form, so it is not feasible for me to spend $50 to create one form. I have

a list of 71 colleges and a list 270 countries that I need to import. I

already did the colleges, I guess I'll have to do the countries too.

Thanks anyway.

On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 1:50 PM, George_Johnson <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[George_Johnson]

OK, I hope you find the demo useful for the form you're developing.

In case others who may be interested read this, there is a fee for the utility I mentioned, but it's considerably less than $50.

[tarekahf]

George_Johnson  wrote

OK, I hope you find the demo useful for the form you're developing.

In case others who may be interested read this, there is a fee for the utility I mentioned, but it's considerably less than $50.

Hi George,

You sample worked like a charm, and ... I am looking for something similar but the reverse. The users provided us good number of Acrobat Forms with a lot of drop-down fields that are populated with items. We need to export the list of group of items by field, and separated into a raw list, comma separated or each item on a separate line. After that, we want to import the items back into Adobe LiveCycle Form after adding a code for each item (value, Text).

I was wondering of you have idea how to do that to save time.

Appreciate your help.

Tarek

[George_Johnson]

Tarek,

The utility I mentioned (which can export to tab-delimited (item/export value on new line) and FDF) is designed to work with Acroforms (forms created with Acrobat), not XFA forms (forms created with LiveCycle Designer).

[tarekahf]

George,

Yes, I understand. Can I see a demo how the tool works? I want to export the drop-down items from Acroforms PDF to a text format (each item on a separate line), then finally paste to Adobe LiveCycle Form Drop-Down Field.

Will it work?