How do I change the line spacing in a multi-line text field on a PDF form? (on MAC)

Report · Feb 07, 2018

How do I change the line spacing in a multi-line text field on a PDF form?

One answer I saw mentioned highlighting the text field and pressing ctrl + e, and then clicking on "more" in the menu that opens. They said you must then click on the "paragraph" tab. However, this does not exist on the MAC version as far as I can tell. What can I do? This is the answer I'm referencing and it does not work on my MAC.

Report · Feb 07, 2018

What version of Adobe Acrobat?

Report · Feb 07, 2018

Ctrl-e displays the properties toolbar, which has a number of font an paragraph options. However, these options are only available for Rich Text fields. Rich Text is a setting on the Options tab of the Properties Dialog for the text box.

On Mac the keyboard shortcut is Cmd-e. On Acrobat DC this toolbar is also available from the "View > Show/Hide > Toolbar Items > Show Properties bar" menu item. You'll see the keyboard shortcut next to the menu item.

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScripting
Use the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

Report · Feb 11, 2019

You're missing the point. It's saying that Paragraph tab on the properties toolbar is NOT available on Mac version.

Report · Feb 12, 2019

It is not available in old versions of Adobe Acrobat.

Report · Nov 30, 2020

It is available since Acrobat 5, at least.

Report · Nov 30, 2020

The Paragraph tab is not available in Acrobat 5.

Report · Nov 30, 2020

Oops. You're right, RTF option came with Acrobat 6 and PDF 1.5

Report · Feb 15, 2019

Sorry I missed the 'Exit form editing mode' part - it does show up, if you are in 'form entering mode'. Still doesn't make sense to me because no one who fills in the form will do this. Am I missing something?

Report · Nov 29, 2020

This is extremely helpful. The folks at Adobe must have worked several overtime shifts when determining out how best to hide this functionality in a way that is nearly impossible to locate. Thank you for describing where the ability to edit leading on multi-line form fields is buried.

Report · Feb 17, 2021

This is fine but does not allow you to format an existing document PDF with multi-line forms with the correct spacing set up for others to fill in (the document in question has come from a third party and has lines included where the multi-line forms are). You can set the spacing but when you delete the text it will default back.

So, you either leave the text in and ask the user to delete it when filling in the form or explain to them how to set the spacing. Either way is not ideal. A method of locking the formatting would be a great deal more useful.

Report · Feb 18, 2021

Lines are only useful on paper to guide handwriting. They don't make sense in a digital form.

Since we cannot manage line spacing in form fields, when I use this type of field in supplied documents (with lines) I use an "onFocus" script which changes the background color of the field (mostly white), and a validation script which leaves the white background if the field is filled or which makes it transparent if it is empty.

Report · Mar 11, 2021

This solution works, however, if you want a user to see a blank form and just start typing without having to change the line spacing themselve, JUST ADD A BLANK SPACE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FORM FIELD. Field will now hold line spacing when saved.

Report · Apr 22, 2022

Oh my goodness - THANK YOU for this workaround. I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to retain the line spacing when sending it off.

Report · Apr 26, 2022

It's the 2022, this question was asked in 2018, and Adobe still hasn't made setting leading easy. I can't believe how much time I've spentg on this one problem today.

Report · Mar 22, 2023

This doesnt work for me. Very frustrating that this is not possible.

Report · Mar 23, 2023

What doesn't work?

Report · Aug 17, 2022

This is still not fixed. I pay £20/mth for a useless function. I would have thought Adobe would be the best at creating a fillable PDF. Not the case!
I have wasted too many hours trying to fix the multi-line spacing in a fillable PDF (windows)

I have tried the suggested fix of coming out of editing > changing the line spacing > leaving just spaces on each line to keep the spacing. But this just leaves code in its place when I then open the PDF using PDF program other than Adobe. Not everyone uses Adobe as their PDf reader!

How is line spacing on a mulitline line box NOT AND OPTION?!

This is a fix that just so happens to work, sometimes. It is a fix figured out by a user and not put there by Adobe.

Anyone paying for Adobe Pro just for the Fillable PDF function, is better off with PDFEscape. It's free and has the same functions as Adobe. Still no line spacing. But at least if your set the font size to fit your lines, they keep their posistion. This is not the case for Sdobe. What you see is not what you get in the saved copy

Report · Mar 23, 2023

You should understand that line spacing is a form field attribute.
Form fields attributes are not software-dependent, they are governed by the PDF specifications (ISO 32000).
Features requests should therefore be addressed to ISO, and neither Adobe nor any other software publisher can do anything about it.

See: https://www.pdfa.org/resource/iso-32000-pdf/

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