Why can't I distribute objects (not form elements) in Acrobat DC

[Steve25310287rmas]

For the life of me, I can't find the option to horizontally distribute elements across a page. I'm not talking about form elements. I have been scouring the internet for information and can't find anything except how to distribute form elements using "Prepare Form," which won't do what I need.  I can see a button to "Align Objects" and one to "Arrange Objects" but neither of those is what I need. I have 3 text boxes that I need to distribute evenly across the bottom of the page, on every page of a  40-ish page PDF doc. How do I access feature?

Details:

  * Acrobat DC (22.001.20169).

  * Windows 10.

Thanks!

[Bernd Alheit]

Does you mean Comment text boxes?

[JR Boulay]

Using the "Edit" tool, select two or several boxes then right-click or use the "OBJECTS" icons in the right pane.

[Steve25310287rmas]

Thank you for your response. I'm trying to distribute the objects, not align them. I want them to be evenly spaced along the width of the page, like you can do in Illustrator and other products. Align doesn't do that. It just aligns all objects to the left, right or center, horizontally or vertically. It doesn't distribute them, as far as I can see.

I thought I remembered being able to distribute objects in Acrobat in previous versions, but maybe I'm mistaken???

[Bernd Alheit]

Use form text fields for this.

[Steve25310287rmas]

Can you explain how form text fields would help here? I don't understand.

A little background on my PDF(s): They are data reports generated from a browser and the text fields I'm hoping to distribute are generated automatically on the bottom of the page with file/document information (filename, page number, sheetname, etc.) I have been modifying the center text field with additional information, which is what makes the field look out of center. So to summarize, I am trying to distribute three automattically generated text boxes horizontally across the page. I don't know how I would use form text fields for this (since the text fields are generated by the browser). 

[Bernd Alheit]

You can distribute form text fields.

[Steve25310287rmas]

Hmmm... As I stated above, these are automattically generated objects, not form fields that I'm adding to the documents. That would be unfeasible and a ton of work.

Based on the answers I'm getting, it appears that there is no way to distribute objects in a pdf, other than creating/adding my own form fields. Is that correct? 

[Amal.]

Hi there

++ Adding to the discussion.

For more information about form field please go through the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/pdf-form-field-properties.html

Regards

Amal

[JR Boulay · Accepted solution]

"I have 3 text boxes that I need to distribute evenly across the bottom of the page, on every page of a 40-ish page PDF doc"

You can do this in less than 4 minutes:

- Create 3 text form fields, distribute them, fill them and set their appearance.

- Select the 3 fields and right-click > Duplicate Across Pages.

- Flatten the document. You can use a Preflight fixup, a line of Javascript, or this free tool: https://www.abracadabrapdf.net/?p=972

[Steve25310287rmas]

@JR Boulay @Bernd Alheit @Amal.  Thanks for the replies. I appreciate your time. I must say that using manually created form fields for this purpose really seems like a hacky workaround for what should be a basic functionality. (It's a lot more work too, in my use case, since the info in the form fields will be different on every page.)

I get that not everyone needs this, but it is core in other products--even in other Adobe products. Ah well... I guess we don't always get what we would like. Would love to see this added to Acrobat as a basic feature, side by side with "Align."

I will check out Abracadabrapdf. Thanks for the suggestion.

Regards,

Steve

Thanks

[Amal.]

Hi there

Please share your feedback/feature request with the engineering team using the link https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

Regards

Amal

[JR Boulay]

In a normal world it is up to the engineering team to get feedback from users, not the other way around.

[albertjin]

Snap to Grid may help here to reduce the need of this feature. 😂