Interactive Tools - More Programming in Adobe InDesign

[Mickey5C6B]

Can someone explain why I can "sort of create" an iteractive form in indeisgn but I can't specify, date, phone number, Social Security number until I open it and change it in Adobe Acrobat? Why can't the properties features be a part of Adobe InDesign so that I can get the majority of it formatted inside InDesign. 

Additional Plugins?

Mickey

[Derek Cross · Accepted solution]

InDesign feature requests should be entered here: https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi Mickey,

not a plug-in, but one or two scripts for InDesign that may fit your workflow:

FormMaker

https://www.id-extras.com/products/formmaker/

FormMagic

https://www.id-extras.com/products/formmagic/

There are free editions for testing on a small scale of interactive elements.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Mickey5C6B]

I'm going to look into it and see if it can help me.  I hate to be teathered to a yearly or monthly fee but I suppose that is the new model that we are stuck with. I do really appreciate this information. Maybe this can really improve my process and be worth the money to spend.

Mickey

[BobLevine]

I'll explain it with a bit of an analogy.

Have you ever seen a carpenter with only one single tool in his/her toolbox? Why can't the saw sand down the edge of the wood? Why can't the hammer cut a board in half?

[John Mensinger]

Can someone explain why . . .

By @Mickey5C6B

Not really. It's a matter of currently available features, and while those you suggest could be added to InDesign, we fellow users have no real visibility of the decision-making at Adobe in that regard. Just applying some logic, however, such decisions are typically a matter of prioritized allocation of resources, equated to potential sales growth, and I wouldn't expect the InDesign-to-Interactive PDF platform—effectively already dead for all but a few quite specific purposes—to receive much in the way of those prioritized allocations.