PDF forms hint when not working

[christianm28414320]

Hi,

i've got a PDF with forms and some Javascript calculations in it.

All working fine when being opened in Acrobat, but behaving buggy when it comes to the Mac Preview App. The forms are shown, but the buttons and calculations do not react on any click. 

I understand that this is an Apple Software problem. But is there any way i could at least show a hidden field that says "Javascript is not working here, please open me in Acrobat reader"? Or any other workaround that the user get's aware of this?

thanks,

Christian

[Joel Geraci · Accepted solution]

The way to approach this issue is to add a layer to the PDF that shows the warning that it must be opened in a more capable JavaScript-capable viewer to function properly. The layer should be shown by default. Then you create a document-level script that checks to see if the JS properties and methods that you need exist. If they do, hide the layer. If not, the layer remains visible. This will allow the file to run in any number of PDF tools that can run JavaScript while showing the warning in the rest of them.

[christianm28414320]

Thank you, Joel! This worked.

[Joel Geraci]

Thanks - I generally go the extra step of making all of the fields hidden by default so they don't "show through" the layer in some PDF viewers and then make them visible in a JavaScript viewer but that's not absolutely necessary.