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8
8r3nd4n
Participant
July 12, 2017
Answered

Pdf field names appended when exported from InDesign

  • July 12, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 1118 views

I have a weird issue where I have set up my form in InDesign and names each field a unique name.

When I export to pdf and open the fields, they all have an extra number or 2 added after the field name. It is like the are adding an incremental number to every field as a suffix.

See the image below.

The annoying part is I just spent the last hour renaming the fields in InDesign to be unique and I don't want to have to do it again in acrobat. (Plus this will be the first of many forms I need to make)

Is this a bug?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer George_Johnson

That's just what InDesign does when you use hierarchical field names. A fix would be to remove and periods in the field names. It certainly could be considered a bug in InDesign.

2 replies

M
MikeMayo
Participant
April 25, 2021

Yes, this is most likely my problem, I am trying to duplicate/copy the text field in Indesign. I am forcing to rename them but it won't work. I wish there were copy/paste options for this one.

G
George_JohnsonCorrect answer
Inspiring
July 12, 2017

That's just what InDesign does when you use hierarchical field names. A fix would be to remove and periods in the field names. It certainly could be considered a bug in InDesign.

8
8r3nd4nAuthor
Participant
July 12, 2017

Ah,

I was trying to save myself work in PDF by using the periods to make it easier to call calculations of all fields starting with a certain string. Definitely a pain and seems strange that the 2 products don't seem to play that well with each other.

A short follow up then (somewhat related but another question), can the field values from InDesign come into pdf as the default values? They always come in as blank.

Cheers

G
George_Johnson
Inspiring
July 12, 2017

I don't know of a way.

I primarily use InDesign to create the form design, and add the final fields using Acrobat, for a number of reasons, including bugs like this. To make it easier, over the years I've developed a number of tools to automate the process of adding fields and modifying the field properties. I usially use a spreadsheet to manage and document the fields in a form, so it's fairly easy to automate things.

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