Button values dropping glyphs on export to interactive PDF

Report · Jul 17, 2024

I am posting this bug report here, as well as at the Uservoice, because I'm hoping that people can discover it here and upvote it at the Uservoice.

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/48650594-button-value

I'm elbows-deep in a major 25-langauge localization project, and I've found a bug where anything outside of ASCII in a "button value" fails to export to interactive PDF. Since it's a long & complicated form, I'm hoping to avoid being stuck with post-export remediation of the incomplete PDF.

If I set the Button Value in the Buttons and Forms panel:

and export to Interactive PDF, then the Button Value drops any character outside of ASCII:

Note that the Vietnamese has lost half its glyphs, and the Russian is gone entirely.

Report · Jul 21, 2024

I am posting this bug report here, as well as at the Uservoice, because I'm hoping that people can discover it here and upvote it at the Uservoice.

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/Sedgwick /48650594-button-value

I'm elbows-deep in a major 25-langauge localization project, and I've found a bug where anything outside of ASCII in a "button value" fails to export to interactive PDF. Since it's a long & complicated form, I'm hoping to avoid being stuck with post-export remediation of the incomplete PDF.

If I set the Button Value in the Buttons and Forms panel:
and export to Interactive PDF, then the Button Value drops any character outside of ASCII:
Note that the Vietnamese has lost half its glyphs, and the Russian is gone entirely.

By @Joel Cherney

Hello, @Joel Cherney

Thank you for reporting this issue! It’s essential to highlight such bugs, especially when they impact critical workflows like your 25-language localization project. Let’s hope the community can rally around this and get it addressed.

I’ve checked the link you provided, and indeed, the issue with non-ASCII characters in the “Button Value” field affecting interactive PDF export is a significant concern. Losing glyphs and entire text in languages like Vietnamese and Russian can disrupt the user experience and cause headaches during post-export remediation.

Workaround Suggestions: While waiting for a fix, consider these workarounds:

Export to IDML or INX:
Export your InDesign document to either IDML (InDesign Markup Language) or INX (InDesign Interchange format).
Then reopen the IDML or INX file.
This process can sometimes eliminate problematic data and improve compatibility.
Test Different Fonts:
Experiment with different fonts for your button text.
Some fonts may handle non-ASCII characters better during export.
Limit Non-ASCII Characters:
If possible, limit the use of non-ASCII characters in button values.
While not ideal, it might help avoid the issue until a proper fix is available.

I hope this is helpful to you.

Best Regard,
Gregory Chavez

Report · Jul 22, 2024

Hi @Joel Cherney

I tried this with Hebrew values for radio button values and indeed it fails.

Interestingly, items in a combo box work fine with non-ascii chars.

I also tried it with my FormMaker script, but the InDesign bug carries through there as well. But this is simply because for radio-button values, FormMaker was presuming that InDesign could handle it.

Now that you've identified this bug, this is something that would be fairly trivial to fix in FormMaker.

I don't know how important this particular issue is for you, but if you'd be interested in using FormMaker for your project, I could probably hammer out a quick fix rather soon.

Ariel