"The value entered does not match the format of field" issue in regards to calculated values

Report · Jun 14, 2021

Sorry to be lengthy. I am also attaching the file I am working on. I am doing incremental saves so I can go back to what worked or not. I will not touch this one for a while as I am asking for help and this is where I stopped.

Note: I am also on Acrobat 9. Long story short, employer refusing to provide documentation that can allow me to purchase the educational priced latest version.

I’m getting the dreaded “The value entered does not match the format of field [ Balance 4 ]”

Some things generate the issue for Balance3. These things do not use the Balance4(they don’t go that far)

If I share the PDF, the issues are on Page 8, where I have also consolidated all my fields for testing in one convenient area so I don’t have to go back and forth. There are elements in the white space at the bottom of the page, all of which will be removed from the final document.

Balance 4 is a final calculation that pulls information from all over the place. I am adjusting an existing PDF form, but we didn’t do certain things before, and now we have to. I have adjusted calculation orders as that has resolved a good many problems. I also feel that the calculations are correct because at every step, I am seeing correct numbers, which is confirmed via an Excel spreadsheet that I am using as my safety check. I can manipulate the numbers in the Excel file and see how they line up in the PDF. Also, before I started manipulating this PDF, everything was working. Also, I have had to change the calculation order around because this was a problem for a bit. Anything that is important as far as calculations are concerned has been moved to the end of this area. Most of the “calculations” are really just “copy down from this area”, and it is text. I mostly did that because I didn’t want to COPY fields, I wanted them to be read only and/or also do some basic adjusting for formatting so it looks nice when printed.

Page 1 is just an informational collection page. When this was added to the original form, no issues came up. This is used to populate certain fields and generate the two final pages that are given to me for data entry.
As far as Page 2, the only notable things are the Program selection and Full/Part time, which are carried down to Page 3 and can be selected/adjusted from there as well. I am considering moving these items also to Page 1 for convenience. ON Page 3, we do have a few fields that need to be populated or adjusted, but the only one notable for this is the transfer hours/”Number of clock hours accepted as transfer/re-entry”. This field is important.

Skipping to the top of Page 8, we have two check boxes, which are important to this scenario. While the values next to these check boxes does not change, the check boxes adjust another set of boxes that are used for calculations..

I will focus on Page 8. Starting from the top area, the “starting balance” calculation is confirmed correct and when it comes to things being calculated on the page, this is the first item. It gets its numbers from the addition of 3 locations I think on Page 3. All page 3 calculations are correct.

Then there is a visible but non-printing “adjusted rate” calculation, with a green outline. Green outlines means “this is a value I am generating and will use in other calculations and will be marked as hidden when I am done”.

When I skip down just a tiny bit, I see 4 fields: Hours 1-4. These fields are being populated by the document javascript for populating those fields. This is correct, text only, no calculations.

The next line is “PlannedPayment1-4”, and all those values are correct and are calculated.

The next line is “Balance 1-4”, where Balance3 and Balance4 generate issues. 2 programs have an issue with Balance3 because they don’t use Balance 4. 2 programs have issue with Balance4 because they use Balance 4. For those that end on Balance3, the value for Balance 3 should be a zero and the calculation shows that. For those that end on Balance4, the value for Balance 4 should be a zero and the calculation shows that. I am convinced the calculations are correct so I am puzzled as to why there is this issue.

The white space at the bottom is being used as a temporary work space for troubleshooting. I can remove all these fields here and the problems still exist. There is a pull-down menu that allows the programs to be selected. This is a copy placed here for convenience. There are two check boxes, which are defaulted as unchecked, and make the box next to it either a value or zero. These are the same check boxes on the top of Page 7. I did things this way because it made the most sense to use the box values for calculations. Checking and unchecking these checkboxes generates the error as well. I’m open to a better way of doing it. There is also a field where the value can be changed. I won’t go into all the details but let’s just say for my testing purposes, the calculations are adjusted based on this number being changed and the calculations are coming out correct. The Javascript for the document set-up is pushing a a value of “0” into this field whenever a program is changed and I added a validation script to ensure a zero is populated if the field is blanked. This is intentional because if someone changes programs, I want to start “fresh” for that program. I also added my document reset button for convenience. I have an issue with people using the form and NOT clearing it out so the reset is necessary.

Setting the format Balance 3 and 4 to text makes the error go away but then I lose the formatting I would like to use.

The Java console is not generating any errors.

Thank you in advance for pointing out all the things I am doing wrong. This is a big learning curve for me.

Report · Jun 17, 2021

I'm going to share the Page 7 of an older form, which for lack of better term is working. These are just "results".
They both show ideally how things should look. The numbers may or may not be accurate, as I am not doing various calculations.

For the mani/Esthi/XOver, Payment 4 is blank and so is Balance 4 as these programs only go to the 3rd payment period. For thse programs, Balance3 should be showing zero in the end because Payment 3 and Balance 2 should be the same although are calculated differently.

For Barber/Cosmo, it's the same thing except it goes to the 4th pay period.

Regardless of any value for transfer hours(well, provided it is under the total number of hours for the program), and any combination of checked/no checked for books and kit, those final balance fields should end up being zero.

Right now, what happens is that at least for barber looks right until I mess with options and then Balance 4 vanishes. With Cosmo, the Balance 4 is never seen.

With the other 3 programs(that stop at Balance 3), Balance 3 never shows up.

We are accepting a growing number of transfer students due to COVID-19 and places not accepting students back, so transfer hours is very important. We have a lot of students who want to bring their own kits and supply thier own books so we need to have that option. California is looking to stick it to the people a bit more so the STRF fee is now needing to be calculated and collected.

Here's the thing, I just want to do 1 PDF for all the programs to make things easier. I suppose if I have to, I could just do 1 per program. Ideally I don't want to do that but if it becomes necessary it can be done. The only person who has done the work on this PDF is me. Anything can be redone. I'm completely open to suggestions. Management will go with whatever I provide. I'm just under the "gun" so to speak and learning things like Java is not easy for me.

Report · Jun 18, 2021

Following up. I've stripped the "fluff" and am just going to work on this for troubleshooting as it puts everything I need in one convenient place as far as the important calculations. The rest are pretty much just "pull value from here" stuff and therefore I'm not concerned about those, because those are almost all text anyways. This removes a lot of complexity that doesn't need to be addressed.

I'm going to work off a copy of this and start over with most of the formulas, trying to get back to where I was before I even started. For the meantime this will be a starting point

Report · Jun 18, 2021

Sorry, ignore that one. I found a small error and corrected it(needed to add back 2 fields). Same file name. I know I normally do incremental changes but I didn't this time since I had to get to a base-level.

Report · Jun 21, 2021

Hi,
Here is my result which is working fine if I understood correctly what you needed.
Let me know.
You can also have a look on the other scripts I slightly corrected or modified as I will have personally written them.
On the other hand, I assumed without checking the calculations that you carried out were correct.
I hope that suits you and help you.
@+

Report · Jun 21, 2021

It appears to be behaving exactly as I was hoping to see. I need to disect this to learn what I can from it.

Thank you so much. I'll know in a day or two if this is "battle ready". I have 2 of my other co-workers do the testing since they are the ones handling people actually filling out the forms. My quick tests on Page 8 are telling me "things are good".

Again, thank you so much. It is much appreciatead.