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gdtalbottjr
New Participant
February 14, 2012
Question

Unlinking Copied Fields in a PDF Form

  • February 14, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 116813 views

I've created a PDF form with 100+ text fields which have identical size and properties.  To place those fields in the form, I simply copied them, giving each one a different name.  In the sample below, the fields are the blue squares.

When I fill in the first field, that value appears in the other fields.  For example, when I keyed in the number 3 above, that number automatically appeared in the field directly below.  How can I unlink all of them so that each field might have a unique value which doesn't automatically appear in the other fields? 

I realize one answer would be to tediously create each field as a separate entity, but that would so time consumming. 

Many thanks for any suggestions!

    2 replies

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    gkaiseril
    Inspiring
    February 14, 2012

    If you use the "Place Multiple Fields" from the context menu, your fields will automatically be named differently.

      E
      Esther246744992srw
      New Participant
      May 31, 2022

      Thanks! Where do I find the "Context Menu"?

      Bernd Alheit
      Bernd Alheit
      Community Expert
      May 31, 2022

      Use Tools > Prepare Form, select the field, and mouse right click.

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        George_Johnson
        Inspiring
        February 14, 2012

        Each field that you want to behave independently from any other needs to have a different name than any other. Fields with the same name will automaticaly get the same value. Acrobat can help you create numerous fields from a single one by right-clicking the field and selecting "Place Multiple  Fields".

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          gdtalbottjrAuthor
          New Participant
          February 16, 2012

          Dear George,

          Many thanks for replying so quickly.

          I tried your suggestion.  When I right-clicked on one of the 100+ fields in the form and selected "place multiple fields" I received the following error message:

          I'm not sure what to do next.  Would appreciate your suggestions.

          Thanks,

          Doug

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          George_Johnson
          Inspiring
          February 16, 2012

          It might be easier to rename the fields you've already created. Just rename them so they are different from each other. Otherwise, you'll have to delete the current duplicates and try the "place multiple fields" again.

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