Interactive PDF, Printing all text from within multi line scrolling field

[MattyHM71]

I have an A4 form created in Indesign CS4 and made interactive in acrobat 9 pro on Mac with several fields and have a question.

I have a requirement for a number of the form fields to scroll in order to capture lengthy content if need be, my client also wants the ability to print the content in full from the fields if they so wish. However if the content is lengthy say filling more than the field area shows on screen how would this be printable?

So :

• A form is set up to show 3 lines of text and employs a scrollable field solution to accommodate infinite text entry
• The user writes 6 lines of text (only 3 show on screen though due to the forced form field area)
• They want to print a record for hard copy or distribution showing all 6 lines

I have just purchased the CS6 version with Acrobat X, but would like to solve this in with my previous version if possible, have only just installed CS6 and due to learning curve need to retain it in Acrobat 9 pro if possible.

Thanks

Matt HM

[Phillip M Jones]

You should be able to customize the install. and leave out Acrobat.  When I got 5.5 web premium Acrobat was completely different install even had a a separate disc. I would advise if you have Acrobat already to avoid like the Plague installing over top your current version it will cause major league pain

[MattyHM71]

Hello Phil

Thanks, but maybe I'm missing something..... in what way does this answer my question about forms and printing? I am not struggling with install.

In what way does it install over top the previous version? I still have CS3 CS4 and CS6 incase i ever need to run them for specific archive scenarios all running and located with their individual preference and plugins folders.

Matt

[George_Johnson]

As long as you limit the size and font size of the field, you can't get the entire contents to be printed.

Some alternate approaches:

1. Set the font size to Auto and preventing the text from scrolling. This will cause the font size to auto-reduce as more text is added than can fit within the bounds of the field.

2. Create a separate larger field on a separate page, such as the last one, that is large enough to display all of the text. Whenever an entry is made in the smaller field, it gets copied over to the larger field.

[MattyHM71]

Okay thanks George,

Let me get this right:

Option 1  makes the textscale to fit within the field area? I'd think that would not work well in theory as for example if the form field had say 15 lines in a 3 line display the text would essentially be reduced to 1\5 of its original size resulting in illegibility (too small).

Option 2, can you expand, how would i link all 8 boxes to flow into he large box on the last page?  Basically I have 8 fields all housed in one page currently scrollable ad allowing 4 lines of text to be seen. All 8 fields all require the same solution (the abiltiy to contain infinite text but also the ability to be printed and also print the full text contained within no matter how much)

I'm just trying to see if this is an achievable solution for my client.

thanks so far

Matt

[George_Johnson]

Achieving that will be tough and you may want to look into using a dynamic XFA form that you can create with LiveCycle Designer. Your requirement to be able to print any amount of text that can be entered pretty much rules out forms created with Acrobat (acroforms), especially if it needs to work with Reader.

[George_Johnson]

Since it looks like you're using Mac, my suggestion to use LiveCycle Designer may not be feasible, as it is only available on Windows.

[MattyHM71]

Thanks fo the feedback George.

Yes I am on Mac...I pretty much suspected it was going to be that way re. tryng to achieve a solution that caters for both. I will persue the infinite text via acrobat option, much easier.

Would there be any way of extracting he text data to a text file something like that in the event that large amounts of text witin any given field needs to be reviewed etc other than copy paste of course)

Thanks again.

[George_Johnson]

Sure, you could do that fairly easily with just a bit JavaScript. It would have to be done by someone with Acrobat who receives the filled-in form. The text from the fields could be extracted and placed in a text file attachment that you create with JavaScript, and then extract the file attachment.

For the general methods you'd use, see:

createDataObject: http://livedocs.adobe.com/acrobat_sdk/9.1/Acrobat9_1_HTMLHelp/JS_API_AcroJS.88.450.html

exportDataObject: http://livedocs.adobe.com/acrobat_sdk/9.1/Acrobat9_1_HTMLHelp/JS_API_AcroJS.88.463.html

Another less flexible approach is to extract to a tab delimited text file: http://livedocs.adobe.com/acrobat_sdk/9.1/Acrobat9_1_HTMLHelp/JS_API_AcroJS.88.460.html

For this, you can specify just the fields you want to include, so you don't have to bother with all of the fields in the form being included.

[AmeliaSWS]

Hi Matty,

Did you ever find a solution? I am having the exact same problem with a form that I am making.

[Phillip M Jones]

On Mac the only solution, since Adobe refuses to develop a Mac version of LiveCycle Multiple line Is to as shown here:

In Options check Multi-line

Then you will have have your form text set up to accommodate the length and width of the Field Box.  Then you can set to predetermined Font size.