Section 49. About the Designer Workspace


49. About the Designer Workspace

The Adobe Designer Workspace is designed to be an efficient workspace for form creation. The main window in Designer is the Layout Editor . The Layout Editor displays the current form and contains four tabs:

  • Body Pages This is where you create and edit a form's content. Content from the Master Pages can be viewed in the Body Pages but cannot be selected.

  • Master Pages These contain the layout of the form. You create the background form design in this tab. Content from the Body Pages is not shown on this tab.

  • XML Source Pages These contain the XML source code for the form. Designer automatically adds the new source code as you create your form.

  • PDF Preview This is available only if you have Acrobat or Adobe Reader installed on your computer. The PDF Preview allows you to preview your form and test it to ensure it is functioning properly.

Palettes assist in form creation by providing easy access to the tools you use frequently and hiding the tools you do not need.

The Library palette contains three tabs: Standard, Barcodes , and Custom . The Standard tab displays the various fields and objects to place on the form, including Text Field, Text, Numeric Field, Password Field, Check Box , and Button , just to name a few. The Barcodes tab displays the most commonly used barcodes. The Custom tab contains predefined objects, such as an Address Block field, Current Date field, and U.S. States drop-down menu, that can be used as-is or modified to best fit your form.

Other available palettes are as follows :

  • Accessibility Enables you to add custom text for screen readers and change the default order in which screen readers search for text.

  • Border Enables you to change the border properties for an object.

  • Data View Displays the fields from a data source in a hierarchical view.

  • Drawing Aids Enables you to show the grid, snap to the grid, display a horizontal or vertical ruler, show guidelines, and change the grid and ruler settings.

  • Font Enables you to change the font style, size and family of the object.

  • Hierarchy Displays a graphical representation of the objects used in a form.

  • How To Displays helpful tips for common procedures in Designer.

  • Info Displays the metadata associated with the selected objects.

  • Layout Displays the dimensions of the selected object, including the anchor point, margins, and the caption position.

  • Library Displays all the objects available to use in a form. Objects are divided into three categories: Standard, Barcodes, and Custom.

  • Object Enables you to change specific properties of an object, such as field type, appearance, value, and binding.

  • Paragraph Enables you to change the alignment, indentation, and spacing of selected text.

  • Report Displays information on bindings and warnings of all objects used in the form design.

To display the various palettes, select them from under the Window menu. By default, the Object, Layout, Border , and Accessibility palettes are grouped together on the right side of the workspace. The Library is displayed in the middle of the workspace, and the Hierarchy and Data View palettes are located on the left side of the workspace.

NOTE

Designer contains all the form-creation functionality found in Acrobat, plus a lot more. This means you can edit a form in Designer that was originally created in Adobe Acrobat 7, but you cannot edit a form in Acrobat 7 that was created in Designer or that has been edited and saved in Designer.


The Font and Paragraph palettes appear as a floating box but can be added to the workspace by clicking and dragging their title bars to either side of the Layout Editor . The Drawing Aids, Info , and Report palettes also appear as a floating box and can be added to the workspace by pressing and dragging it to either side of the Layout Editor .

You can move the palettes to any location within the workspace by clicking the title bar and dragging it to the new location. To close a palette, click the close box located in the upper-right corner of each palette.



Adobe Acrobat 7 in a Snap
Adobe Acrobat 7 in a Snap
ISBN: 0672327015
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 139
Authors: Shari Nakano

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