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Matthew3184335904m3
New Participant
October 25, 2024
Question

Why Are 'Hidden Until Activated' Buttons Appearing When Printing Interactive PDFs?

  • October 25, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 400 views

I made an interactive PDF form that has buttons to switch between metric and imperial measurements by turning the text boxes with the units (such as inches or mm) into buttons next to the fillable fields. I have Imperial measurement units set to show unless the metric button is clicked. Metric units I have set as hidden until activated by the metric button. I have an imperial button as well to make it switchable.

 

It works fine on screen, however if I try to print it without selecting imperial or metric on the form first, both will show. I'm trying to understand why the buttons marked "hide until activated" are showing when printed. If you click one of the buttons it will show correctly when printed. 

I tried making the unit button on top (imperial) with a white fill hoping that would help but it didn't. It still worked the same. Hopefully my question makes sense. Any ideas?

 

 

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2 replies

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
October 25, 2024

I tried deselecting "Printable" in InDesign but the PDF just changed the object to "Visible" and NOT "Visible but doesn't print".  Maybe a bug?

 

I was able to fix it in Acrobat as follows (this is just for one object--you would have to repeat for mulitiple objects):

 

Inside the JavaScript Editor (Button1 would be the name of whatever object you wanted to affect):

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
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Matthew3184335904m3Author
New Participant
October 25, 2024

I was able to click one of the button then unclick it to fix the problem in house but when I upload it to the rep portal on our company website and download it from there as a test, it's back to having the proplem. If I added the script to it in acrobat and uploaded it and then had a separate person downloaded it. Do you think the scripted change would stick or would it be lost like the change I did? I'm not very skilled in coding and haven't tried coding anything in acrobat.

 

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
October 25, 2024

Not quite following your post, but I did my edits in Acrobat Pro. It should work as long as your IT has not disabled JavaScript and they are using Acrobat Reader*. 

 

*Other readers should work but your mileage may vary.

 

 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
Abhishek Rao
Community Manager
Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
Community Manager
October 25, 2024

Hi @Matthew3184335904m3,

 

Thank you for reaching out to the community!

To help troubleshoot this issue, could you please provide a few additional details? 

1. Could you let us know the specific version of InDesign you’re using and the details of your operating system? Sometimes, certain features behave differently depending on the version, and knowing this can help us provide more accurate guidance.

2. Is this issue happening with just this particular interactive PDF file, or have you noticed it across multiple files? If it’s specific to this file, there might be something unique about the document setup that could be causing the issue.

3. As a test, could you try creating a new, simple InDesign document with just one or two interactive elements set to "hidden until activated" and see if the same printing issue occurs? This can help us determine if the issue is related to the original file or the interactive feature itself.

4. If possible, could you share a screen recording of the workflow you’re following? Seeing the steps in action can often reveal details that might otherwise be missed, helping us provide a more effective solution.

 

These details will help us get a better understanding of the issue and assist you further. 

We will be looking forward to your response!

 

Thanks,

Abhishek Rao

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Matthew3184335904m3Author
New Participant
October 25, 2024

Hi Abhishek Rao,

Question 1: I'm currently using Indesign 2024 version 19.5 and my OS is Windows 10.

 

Question 2: I've made a whole series of these. They're request for quote forms meant to be either filled out on screen and emailed back or printed and filed out manually depending on the sales reps preference. They all have this problem.

 

Question 3: I made a simple one as a test as you suggested. Only two text box buttons, one set to be hidden until triggered, the other set to visible. And two check boxes with actions set on click to hide and show them respectively. Then I placed both text buttons over each other with the one that is meant to be seen on top. As before, it works on screen perfectly but when printed without clicking one of the check boxes, which should leave the one marked visible normal and leave the other hidden since it wasn’t triggered… they both show.

 

Question 4: While my employer likely wont let me send a video of what I’m doing I hope the previous description helps.

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