Setting Form Preferences


Before you start working with Adobe PDF forms, you should modify some preferences settings to help make your form sessions a little easier. Form preferences help you with viewing form fields, handling data, and activating auto-completion tasks.

PDF Forms with special usage rights can be downloaded from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Web site at http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html. Click the link for "Forms and Publications by Date." A list of PDF forms appears in a scrollable box in descending date order. Download any form after October 25, 2004, and the form data you add to the form can be saved from within Adobe Reader.


To set form preferences options:

1.

Press Ctrl/Command+K to open the Preferences dialog.

2.

Click Forms in the left pane, and the Forms preferences appear in the right pane (Figure 19.1).

Figure 19.1. Open the Preferences dialog and click Forms in the left pane.


3.

By default, the first four check boxes are enabled. If you want the forms message bar to disappear when working on forms, check the box for Always hide forms document message bar. Hiding the Document Message Bar provides you with more room to work in the Document pane.

What is the advantage of keeping the Document Message Bar open?

Sometimes form fields are not clearly visible and may exist on a page in areas without a box or some graphic indication that a field is present. On those forms, you can toggle on and off highlighting to show the fields' border hover color so you can see the fields. The Message Bar has a check box where you can turn the border hover color on and off: Checking this Highlight fields check box (Figure 19.2) is faster than opening the Preferences dialog each time you want to change the highlight.

Figure 19.2. Check the Highlight fields check box to turn the border hover color on and off.



4.

If you have problems finding fields on a given form, check the box for Show border hover color for fields. You can change the Fields highlight color by clicking on the color swatch. The default color is adequate for most documents, but if the color conflicts with the background color, open the swatch palette by clicking the color swatch and choose a different color. Likewise, the Required fields highlight color can be changed by clicking the second color swatch and choosing another color from the palette options. Figure 19.3 shows the border hover color disabled. Figure 19.4 shows an example of the same form when the border hover color is enabled.

Figure 19.3. A form with no border hover color.


Figure 19.4. The same form with the border hover color enabled.


5.

Open the Preferences Auto-Complete pull-down menu. By default, the Auto-Complete features are set to None. You can use a Basic or Advanced option where Adobe Reader records field entries and later automatically fills in fields when it encounters a similar field it thinks is likely to be populated with the same data. Select Basic, and check the box for Remember numerical data (e.g., telephone number).

6.

Click OK in the Preferences dialog and the preferences options remain in effect until you change them.



    Adobe Reader 7 Revealed. Working Effectively with Acrobat PDF Files
    Adobe Reader 7 Revealed: Working Effectively with Acrobat PDF Files
    ISBN: 0321305310
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 168
    Authors: Ted Padova

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