Anchor pound sign into an interactive text box

[Scott22497372fxfl]

Hi, I'm creating an interactive price ticket for a store but having an issue. My pound sign is designed to be smaller than the font size of the price itself, I want to anchore this small pound sign into the interactive price field and make it move with the content i.e. the full content centred whether the price be £39, £399 or £3999 - is this possible? Thanks in advance.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Why do you want to anchor it? 

Can you post a screenshot? 

[Scott22497372fxfl]

Hi, sample attached. The blue circled number is the interactive price, the magenta circled pound sign I need fixed to the interactive element so it moves whether the price is £39, £399, £3999. In summary, I need the pound sign anchored to the interactive text.

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Scott22497372fxfl and welcome.

What's an interactive price field? Are you using data merge? Creating PDF form fields?

Details and screen shots (with frame edges and hidden characters visible) help us help you faster.

~Barb

[Scott22497372fxfl]

Ticket attached above. The interactive fields on the tickets will link directly to an external .csv. Basically we have 10 stores and usually I create an editable ticket and the stores fill them in - I want to create them all internally with a .csv and save time.

[BobLevine]

Put the pound sign in with the number in the spreadsheet. If you're using Excel you should be able to format the cells with a currency symbol.

[Scott22497372fxfl]

Easy if the pound sign is the same font size, the pound sign is smaller than the numbers, that's why I need to outline it and anchor it in some way.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Easy if the pound sign is the same font size, the pound sign is smaller than the numbers, that's why I need to outline it and anchor it in some way.

By @Scott22497372fxfl

Yes, we fully understand what you want to achieve - and that's why you should use Nested Styles + CharStyle. 

Anchoring would only made sense - if it was some fancy graphics - as it's just a glyph available in pretty much every font - there is no need for Anchoring. 

[Barb Binder]

That's PDF. Is this an Acrobat question or an InDesign question?

• If InDesign, please share the InDesign file with frame edges and hidden characters visible.
• If Acrobat, we can move your question to that forum. 

~Barb

[Scott22497372fxfl]

Essentially every text box needs to be interactive, I just need the small pound sign anchored to the value (which is editable).

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Scott22497372fxfl

As @BobLevine suggested - put it together with the price - then use Nested Styles and apply CharStyle.

[BobLevine]

Nested style is the way to go here. Beyond that, you're way overthinking this.

[Scott22497372fxfl]

No worries, let me look into Nested styles as I haven't used these - will this integrate with an interactive pdf created in Indesign and then edited in stores on PC's with only Acrobat standard software?

[BobLevine]

I'm sorry but that question makes absolutely no sense. Can you expand it? Why do you need an interactive PDF?

[Scott22497372fxfl]

I am creating the ticket style in head office and then converting the ticket to an interactive pdf so that all 10 stores can download and create their own price tickets for individual items. The stores don't have InDesign, only basic Acrobat software.

[BobLevine]

Now I am completely convinced you are overthinking this. You can easily do this with a data merge and email the completed and styled PDF to the recipients. Styling the text in a form is way more complicated.

Feel free to continue pursuing this but there's no way I can recommend what you're trying to do.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

No worries, let me look into Nested styles as I haven't used these - will this integrate with an interactive pdf created in Indesign and then edited in stores on PC's with only Acrobat standard software?

By @Scott22497372fxfl

What kind of interactivity are you expecting from the £ symbol? 

[Scott22497372fxfl]

The £ symbol will not be an interactive element, I basically need it fixed/anchored to the number box so it moves with the number whether it's 2, 3 or 4 digits.

[TᴀW]

Hi Scott,

I've read the thread, and am noticing a slight change of what you're asking for.

(1) Initially, you said, I think, that you want to populate an InDesign file from a .csv.

With nested styles, you could make the £ sign smaller in the interactive fields, in InDesign. But the smaller font will not export to interactive PDF. All the text will be the same size once exported to PDF.

(2) Then, more recently, you said that you want the stores to fill the prices themselves, so, not a CSV?

Anyway, if (1) is what you want, native InDesign won't help, because it can't export different sizes of text in a single field (AKA "rich text"). Nor is it possible to create some sort of anchored object that will adjust its position based on the length of the field.

However, my (not free) InDesign add-on FormMaker (https://www.id-extras.com/products/formmaker/) would help, because when you use it to export from InDesign to interactive PDF, it will recognize the existence of different font sizes in a single field, and create appropriate rich text fields in Acrobat, so the £ size in the final PDF will be whatever you make it in InDesign.

So, with FormMaker, you could just run your datamerge, export to interactive PDF, and no further adjustments would be necessary.

If (2) is what you want, you could do the same as (1), possible using placeholder prices £000 (with the £ smaller), and then let the shops carefully modify the price by typing over 000 without touching the £ sign.

And if you wanted a more foolproof method, you could even add a format script (in InDesign with FormMaker) to automatically add the smaller £ sign to the field. That would be a bit more complicated, perhaps.

[TᴀW]

Here's an example of a PDF with an interactive field that has a small £ sign. This was exported directly out of InDesign with FormMaker: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AhLCotyhkKxphck5or_GcmvYYD9NgA?e=Jnf5NN 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

The £ symbol will not be an interactive element, I basically need it fixed/anchored to the number box so it moves with the number whether it's 2, 3 or 4 digits.

By @Scott22497372fxfl

Why? It can stay before the price field. 

Or maybe you would prefer something like in the attached PDF?

It's for custom orders - 100% automated - INDD file is built from a database and JavaScript is then automatically injected to the PDF.