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Prepare Form tab order keeps changing!

Community Beginner ,
Sep 20, 2018 Sep 20, 2018

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I'm mapping a bunch of fill tabs on a form to flow as one would expect; left to right, up to down. I took hours changing the automatically generated tabs to flow the way I wanted, but after saving, closing, and opening the document the next day, the order is all screwed up again! I tried putting them back in order, saving, closing, and reopening the file once more, and it happened again. I called Adobe Support about it, but the called claimed I was the first to ever have this problem and that she'd let the developers know.

This is very frustrating. Does anybody have any idea why this might be happening?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Sep 20, 2018 Sep 20, 2018

Go to Edit (or the Acrobat menu if you're on a Mac) - Preferences - Forms and tick off "Automatically adjust tab order when modifying fields".

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Community Expert ,
Sep 20, 2018 Sep 20, 2018

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Go to Edit (or the Acrobat menu if you're on a Mac) - Preferences - Forms and tick off "Automatically adjust tab order when modifying fields".

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 20, 2018 Sep 20, 2018

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Ah, gotcha. I saw that at some point, but assumed it only happened when the Prepare function auto-generated tabs for the first time. Not sure why that Adobe Support rep didn't think to mention that to me, but I'm glad somebody else did. Thanks!

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 20, 2018 Sep 20, 2018

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Actually, that didn't quite do the trick. I unclicked that "Automatically adjust tab order when modifying fields" option, hit OK, and went about my way editing the tab order again. Most of it is sticking whenever I reopen the file, but it's still happening somewhat. I'm starting to think this program is just buggy and inconsistent.

Also, on an unrelated topic, the "Automatically calculate field values" option in Preferences > Forms keeps on reselecting itself even when I disable it...

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Community Expert ,
Sep 20, 2018 Sep 20, 2018

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Are you dragging groups of fields in the Fields List panel to change the tab order, by any chance?

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 21, 2018 Sep 21, 2018

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I do sometimes. Is that what's causing me trouble?

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Community Expert ,
Sep 21, 2018 Sep 21, 2018

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Probably... There's a super annoying bug in Acrobat for many years now where if you drag a group of fields in the Fields List to change their tab order it does so, but it also reverses the internal order of those fields. So if you have fields in this order:

A

B

C

D

E

And you drag B,C,D to be before A it looks like this (as you would expect it to be):

B

C

D

A

E

But in fact it's:

D

C

B

A

E

And you'll only see that it's like that if you save the file, close it and then re-open it.

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 21, 2018 Sep 21, 2018

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That makes so much sense! I was wondering why my flow was reversing...I'll make sure to shift single tabs from now on. Thank you so much for your help!

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Community Expert ,
Sep 21, 2018 Sep 21, 2018

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You're very welcome! This stupid bug cost me a lot of time and effort before I figured out what was going on...

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Explorer ,
Oct 01, 2021 Oct 01, 2021

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I feel your pain and appreciate the info offered above. I found another trick that may help others set the tab order for the fields on a page. This is assuming you have already set the document to order the tabs manually.

To move a group of fields on the page which have their owncorrect internal tab order, select them all, cut and immediately paste. They will appear at the end of the tab order for that page.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 01, 2021 Oct 01, 2021

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Just keep in mind it will also do the same in the fields calculation order...

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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Having similar problem in InDesign Interactive Form

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New Here ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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Hello Denise,

It could be that you are not in Acrobat Pro DC, but are in Acrobat Reader DC? 

I have included a marked up screenshot so you can see where it should be in the menu:

AcrobatDC_Form_Pref.png

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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Yeah -- actually the problem is InDesign

 

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New Here ,
Jun 11, 2020 Jun 11, 2020

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Hi Denise,

 

Could have sworn your comment didn't mention InDesign - I thought that you said you couldn't find Forms in the Preferences menu. Did I reply to the wrong thread?

Anyway, have you seen this?

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/indesign/using/forms.html

 

 

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Community Expert ,
Jun 12, 2020 Jun 12, 2020

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Try asking here.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 20, 2020 Oct 20, 2020

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Hello! I'm having the same frustration! I noticed the comment about not dragging a group of fields, but my problem is that when I try to move only one nothing happens; it won't move at all. When I drag a group, they appear to move, but they don't stay there. I did click off the box in preferences, but that doesn't seem to help either. Is it just a bug and there's nothing I can do???

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New Here ,
Dec 22, 2020 Dec 22, 2020

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Same issue - I am only trying to reorder by dragging 1 field. Nothing happens. FRUSTRATING!!!  It worked on the first page, no go on the second page.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 30, 2021 Jun 30, 2021

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Hi Julie, I'm currently in the exact same situation. Did you ever get this resolved?

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 30, 2021 Jun 30, 2021

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Hi there, I'm currently in the exact same situation as Julie was in Oct. 2020: "when I try to move only one nothing happens; it won't move at all. When I drag a group, they appear to move, but they don't stay there. I did click off the box in preferences, but that doesn't seem to help either." 

Has there been any solution to this in the meantime?

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 30, 2021 Jun 30, 2021

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I Solanaclair,

 

To tell the truth, I haven't had a need to do this since last year, so I can't really say. I have worked on forms, but haven't needed to move them. It sounds like the problem isn't fixed! I'm sorry I can't help. Good luck!

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Community Expert ,
Jun 30, 2021 Jun 30, 2021

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Can you share the file in question with us?

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