Prioritise overlay of one field on top of another (for display to end user)

[first.officer]

Hi,

I have two fields in a form, one of which is calculated (e.g. field name "A" and calculates fields "B"+"C"), the other field (lets call it "WARNING") is set with some custom calculation script and a default message set in the "Options" default value area and that will appear if the value of "B"+"C" exceeds a threshold value - lets say ">=2".

Now, the functionality of the above works just fine, but I want to overlay the "WARNING" field on top of the "A" field, and obscure the calculation this field has made (if the threshold value is exceeded), with the "WARNING" field and its associated message (as set in the Options - default value). The problem seems to be that the calculated "A" field is layered over and above the "WARNING" field - is there a way of prioritising the layers? i.e. when "WARNING" is displayed, it sits on top of the "A" field and obscures it.

[Nesa Nurani]

Use app.alert instead of WARNING field. Read about it here https://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/popup_windows_part1/ 

[first.officer]

Hi Nesa,

Yeah, know about that function - but on an iPad it will appear in a specific place - and equally the requirement of the displayed field ("WARNING") is to completely obscure the calculated result in field "A", when the custom calculation script sets the "WARNING" field to visible. The app.alert function allows the end user to click OK and remove the pop-up from view as well, so sadly the app.alert isn't really going to work here...thanks for reply ;-).

[try67]

You can't do that. Just hide the other field when the warning is visible, and display it when it's hidden.

[first.officer]

Hi try67,

Yeah, would do that - but there is a requirement to have the calculated ("A" field) hidden when no calculated value is made from fields "B"+"C", as there are times when the form may just be printed and filled-in by hand, so the space in that instance should be completely empty/blank, i.e. nothing displayed in the area at all on the form itself and thus allow space for manual pen marking....of course, would then say using "Visible but doesn't print", but this would then prevent the electronic version from being printed out with the value calculated in this field ("A").

In summary, I think that it will have to be acceptable for the warning to be displayed elsewhere, and that the end user trained to make sure they read and observe said warning! lol.

Many thanks for reply try67 😉