Inspiring

Question

Can't change the appearance of a Checkbox in InDesign

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
June 10, 2021
3 replies
3308 views

I am formatting a pdf form using InDesign and I want to style the checkboxes using one of the styles from the Sample Buttons And Forms palette. I select the checkbox and then click on the style I want but nothing changes. If I modify the appearance manually, the new appearance will show in the pdf momentarily but then revert to the default appearance as soon as I click on another part of the form. I've tried using ID 2020 and ID 2021. My Acrobat is also up to date. I feel like this is a bug. I can make a workaround but I’d prefer to know why it's not behaving as predicted. Attached is a sample file of a checkbox I modified manually. Thanks in advance for your insights.

sample_checkbox.pdf

Bug

Barb Binder

Community Expert

HI @L Gryfe:

I don't find the Sample Buttons And Forms palette to be useless—it works for me, as expected. I use it in forms design.

However, so does your checkbox, @L Gryfe. When I enable it, it is a full to the edge of the frame black square. It does not change when I click outside of it.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

L GryfeAuthor

Inspiring

Barb, thanks for letting me know. That's interesting. Maybe the problem is with my Acrobat and not my InDesign. I’ll see what the client says. If it works for them, I guess I can live with it. I recently updated to Big Sur and my Adobe apps haven’t been great since then.

J E L

Community Expert

@L Gryfe I've read a lot of people had problems with their GPU performance settings in Big Sur. Have you tried turning it off or on?

L

Laubender

Community Expert

"Jeffrey, are you saying that the Sample Buttons And Forms palette is, essentially, useless?"

I think it was of good use by its introcuction, around InDesign CS5, more than 10 years ago.

Things change… Buttons back then were also used with Flash controls.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

L GryfeAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for you insight. But if they're going to offer a feature, it should be one that works – especially considering all the apps are part of their own design suite.

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

Acrobat will override all appearance of a checkbox, and use the check box style. This is a propery of the checkbox within Acrobat: Property > Options > Check Box Style. You have a choice of: Check, Circle, Check, Diamond, Square, or Star. Check is the default style. And regardless of how you style it in Indesign, it will use Acrobat styles.

J E L

Community Expert

@Jeffrey_Smith Thanks, I never knew that but I have also never used InDesign to create the functions of a PDF form... good to know!

L GryfeAuthor

Inspiring

Jain, normally it’s a huge time saver. But in this case, not so much…

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