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Setting Tab Order - Acrobat X Pro

Jun 21, 2012 11:23 AM

Categories: Windows Tags: #order #tab

I was using Adobe Acrobat X Pro, but the "Set Tab Order" does not operate the same as it did in previous versions. The way you manually set the tab order in X is not feasible to use when a form has hundreds of form fields. Is there a patch or something I can install to have the "Set Tab Order" back the way it was in previous versions? I have gone back to Version 8 just so I could set my tab order the way I want it, but I'm missing out on the features offered by Version X Pro.

981 Views 4 Replies Latest reply: TByrd101, Jun 22, 2012 5:25 AM

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9,220 posts
Aug 11, 2002

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1. George Johnson,

Jun 21, 2012 11:56 AM in reply to TByrd101

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Yes, it's really bad. I still use Acrobat 7 when I need to set the tab order for most of my forms. Even worse is how it intentionally messes up the manual tab order when you merely move fields. It's trying to be helpful, but rarely is. To answer your question, there is no patch to restore the old method, though I remain hopeful they they will eventually make the current approach more useful by fixing the buggy behavior and providing some enhancements, such as being able to select and move multiple fields in the list at the same time. I doubt they will ever restore the old method, even though it is usually considerably more efficient.

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2. TByrd101,

Jun 21, 2012 11:59 AM in reply to George Johnson

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Thanks George! I was afraid of that since I was unable to find anything about it in other forums. It would be nice if both options were available. I, too, am hopeful that this will be corrected (some how) in the next version.

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3. MarkWalsh,

Jun 21, 2012 1:01 PM in reply to TByrd101

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This is one of my biggest grievances in PDF forms (It might come close after the horrendous Javascript 'editor'). I too use older version of Acrobat whenever possible, but have several forms which I cannot edit because they have been edited in newer versions and that seems to prevent you from editing the order in older versions (the tab order is not accessible on some of these forms). I have also on a few occasions, seen a form change it's sort order spontaneously.

I'm not holding my breath for any changes/fixes, though, since the Javascript editor hasn't been fixed in how many versions?

I too doubt that they would go back to the previous method; it's similar to the 2-steps-back changes made to the 'Compare Documents' feature, which is another reason I keep older versions of Acrobat around.

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4. TByrd101,

Jun 22, 2012 5:25 AM in reply to MarkWalsh

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Mark, I use very little Javascript in my forms, but what I do use seems to disappear regularly. I keep a document on my computer with the code so I can just copy and paste when it disappears.

Oh how I wish for a perfect world!!!

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