fillable text fields and their disappearing borders

[Danielle Cantor]

I'm creating a document that will need to be both printed AND published as an interactive (fillable) PDF. The borders around my interactive text fields aren't visible after export to PDF (print or interactive). Am I doing something wrong? 

Setting aside concerns about image resolution (this document has very few imagesI want to have one InDesign doc that I can export both for print and digital use.

[BobLevine]

The answer to your question is yes, but since we have no idea what you've done, there is no way to know what to change.

[Danielle Cantor]

I added a .5 pt border around an interactive text field, embedded it in the document's larger text box, and exported to both print and interactive PDFs. The border around the text field disappears in the printable PDF; in the interactive version it is only half visible. 

If I increase the border to 1 pt, it is more clearly visible in the interactive PDF, but still disappears in the printable version. 

[Barb Binder]

Hi Danielle:

Sharing screen shots and details on your workflow will help us help you. In the meantime, if you define a stroke around a text field in InDesign, it will be visible when you export to PDF and view it in Adobe Acrobat or the free Adobe Reader.

~Barb

[Danielle Cantor]

Thanks - here are two screenshots - one of the InDesign workspace, and one of the printable PDF, showing the blank space where the interactive text field was placed, and below it a defined area where I had placed a single-cell table.

[Danielle Cantor · Accepted solution]

Wait - I figured it out. I forgot to include interactive elements when exporting for print!