Adobe Community: Message List - Are There Expandable Text Fields?

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 15:24:37 GMT

Hi Paul, having similar issue with an incident form.

How could I attach or send you a copy of the pdf to have a look at?

Brian

Re: Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 15:14:55 GMT

Hi Kevin,

I need help with this for sure. I am just not getting it. Like a similar poster I need Description Of Incident on an incident report form to be an expanding text box like your example.

How can I send you a copy of the pdf form to see if we can work with it?

Brian

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 13:29:09 GMT

Can someone help me with this? I have a similar issue. The test text overflow form is almost exactly what I need.

Im trying to get the text field Concat box only Concat text in (TextField1) but when it Concat's I want a ";" after each 10 characters. Please help!

$ = Concat(TextField1_";")

So essentially users can enter or paste into TextField1 a column of numbers:

0123456789

1234567901

2364567890

and TextField5 will separate like this:

0123456789;1234567901;2364567890

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 16:13:05 GMT

Hi,

I thought I followed the instructions you provided but I am still having some difficulty with expanding text. I am able to get the textboxes to expanding, however, the subform is running off the page (without creating a new page.) Can you let me know what I did wrong and how I can fix that.

(Also, how can I upload the form so you can see it?)

Thanks!

Ihsan

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 01:41:50 GMT

Hi Kevin,

I hope you will be able to read this and help me . I got the expandable fields to work but I cannot figure out how to stop it from messing up the layout of the form and not run onto the next line (see p.1 'Comments' under the Professional Competence section). I tried the 'wrap in subform' but it won't work. I only selected that name 'TextField1' and wrapped that in subform. Am I supposed to select more items then just that?

Thanks so much for any help!!

Elina

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 00:11:46 GMT

Hi Guys,

Need some help here. i have to display large text for user to read and scroll up and down as the text data is large. I am using adobe livecycle 8. Anyway i can achieve this with out overlapping the text i am typing in designer mode outside the text box size i choose.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 20:00:26 GMT

I imagine that would help. Does this one work:

https://workspaces.acrobat.com/?d=4NqF0Qec6kM70W*qpnxtOA

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 19:55:24 GMT

It's not allowing me access. Do you have it in your public workspaces?

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 19:43:43 GMT

Here's my document:

https://workspaces.acrobat.com/?d=ZmSNzXJESSm5GtZe3UbTDA

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 19:39:15 GMT

That's not you, it's me.

https://workspaces.acrobat.com/app.html

I didn't realize they want you to have all the other nonsense at the end to get to their site...

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 19:35:30 GMT

Boy - I'm batting a thousand today - I get a "cannot display page" error when using that link....tried Explorer and Firefox.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 19:23:36 GMT

The site is

https://workspaces.acrobat.com

In the top left-hand corner, you should see a button with "Upload" on it.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 19:17:34 GMT

I must be doing something wrong.....can't seem to find where I can upload a file.....

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 19:13:01 GMT

I did mark everything as flowed. I'll try to upload my document now....

Thank you!

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 18:54:11 GMT

Did you mark the subform that contains your text field and whatever is getting overlapped below it as "flowed"?

I ususally upload a document to workspaces, then chare it. You can copy the URL for that shared document and paste it into the forums.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 18:09:45 GMT

I have been struggling with this issue for weeks. This reply from Kevin was the most helpful due to the sample document (thank you!). However.....I believe I have done all of the necessary steps. When typing in my form the field expands but the text box below does not move so is overlapped by the previous. I want to attach a sample of my document but don't see how to attach a document to my post. Can anyone help? Thanks!

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 17:03:54 GMT

Great thread, have used acrobat but very new to Livecycle. Can the expandable text box be made to "snap back" to its original size so as not to disrupt/move the rest of the form down the page?

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:22:31 GMT

This was the case, again, your knowledge is greatly appreciated. Also, thanks for the tip on the content area. I am now using that area the way it was intended to be used.

Thanks for all the assistance, you guys really know your stuff.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:09:39 GMT

I think it's a relic from when you converted the topmost subform from positioned to flowed. You don't need that subform any more. You need to do two things:

1. Delete the (untitled subform)(page 1) subform. Highlight it in the hierarchy, right-click and select "unwrap subform" from the menu.

2. You'll see that your remaining content moves up to overlay the header. This is because you were using a 1" margin at the top of the subform to space the content below the heading. This is not the best way to do this. The master page has a content area (the magenta dashed rectangle) that defines where each page's content will be layed out. The items on each page will get placed starting at the top of where the content area is defined, then layed out in order down the page according to the order in the hierarchy. When a page's content flows below the bottom of the content area, a new page is added and layout continues at the top of the next page, again at the location defined by the content area. To accomodate headers/footers, you adjust the placement of the content area on the master page so that it starts below the bottom of the header and ends above any footer that you might have.

In your case, click on the (untitled Content Area) on the hierarchy. The display should show the master page and the content area will be selected. Drag the top of the content area down so that it begins below the header. That will fix the overlay. If you want a larger bottom spacing on your document, you would drag the lower part of the content area up, creating a larger bottom margin.

Hope that explanation is clear. I will take that raise since you're offering...

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:47:38 GMT

OK, that definately did it. I created my master page with a header and footer. Thanks soooo much for the help. 1 more quick question about the way this form is behaving though. My form is automatically appending a 2nd blank page even without anything flowing into it. I know that will be complained about "why does it waste paper and print a blank, blah blah blah".. I was curious if you could shed some light on why this might be?

Here is the freshly formatted document...

https://acrobat.com/#d=h1EBlj*C2dGJk1h4RoOxmQ

Thanks so much for the help, you have all been a godsend so far. RAISES FOR EVERYONE!! oh wait, I guess I can't call that shot.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:35:27 GMT

Thanks for the response Kevin. I will work on that.

Again, I really appreciate the help.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:32:00 GMT

Yes! Your form is close to being correct. The issue is that the root subform "(untitled subform (page 1)" is set to positioned content, so even though the "TextFieldContainer" subform is set to Flowed content, the root subform is restricting the growth to one page. The simple fix will be to set the root subform to flowed content.

The above fix will mess up the layout since the positional layout that you designed with will not be enforced any more, but fortunately it won't affect this form much since the majority of the content is already set up as flowed in the second subform. You should only have to move the heading and logo up to the top of the page by moving them ahead of the TextFieldContainer subform. In flowed content the order of the fields in the hierarchy will be the order that they are layed out.

Also, if you want the heading and logo to repeat on each page, you might want to move them to the master page instead. Depends on what you want the form to do.

Hope this helps.

Kevin

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:13:01 GMT

Anyone have any luck with looking at my document linked above to see what I screwed up? lol

Thanks in advance for any and all help in this matter!

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 20:56:36 GMT

Here is the link to the form as I have uploaded it to the acrobat website.

https://acrobat.com/#d=h1EBlj*C2dGJk1h4RoOxmQ

Thanks for your help.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:57:37 GMT

Sounds like the form isn't set up to flow correctly from page to page. Please post the form so I can take a look.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 21:26:58 GMT

Thanks for this advise Kevin, I got a form working 'somewhat' from your explanation, but I am having one mild issue that is hopefully a quick fix. On my form, when the text fields expand, the form will append a blank page once the fields begin to get shoved off the initial page, but the text doens't actually print on that page. I dont mean literally on "a printed job". I mean the form will seem to shove the fields and text off page one into nothingness and I just end up with page 2, 3, 4, ect all blank, white sheets.

I can upload the form upon request for anyones evaluation if need be.

Can anyone explain something simple I might be missing for this function to not work completely?

Thanks again, great community and tons of support!!!

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:32:28 GMT

I just learned LiveCycle -- created a 20 page form -- then was asked to make expandable text fields.

I made the fields expandable thanks to this forum but in order to make the fields below push down and create a new page I have to put "Flowed" on the main subform and when I do that it scatters all my other fields on the page.

Some pages are not as bad but it makes for a ton of work.

Is there any trick to make the page flow without messing up the formatting on the page.

Also I'd like to attach my file but I can't seem to figure out how.

Thanks

Marilyn

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:39:55 GMT

I need major assistance when you have time...thank you!

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:11:43 GMT

Hi Tammi, sorry I'm just getting around to looking at this - busy time of the year! Do you still need assistance or have you figured it out?

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:06:24 GMT

Here it is Kevin...thanks for offering to help. I have had

two people look at it already and it's not flowing like it should be.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:39:28 GMT

Tammie, post your form to the forum and we'll take a look.

Kevn

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:04:06 GMT

Hi~

I have started a new form and was wondering if someone could look at it to see if I am doing it (or at least some of it) correctly before I continue on.

Thanks,

Tammie

PS: I never did figure out my first project, that's still on the back burner!

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:59:16 GMT

Well so much for that idea. Now I can't figure out how to get the text field and text boxes to be beside each other.

Omg...this is so frustrating!!

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:17:34 GMT

Thanks again for all your help Paul. I was working on a test page today and so far things seem to be flowing correctly. I too am going

to just start my document over and put in the subforms, etc as I go along as I did on my test page. I cannot get my typed document to flow properly.

Take Care~

Tammie

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:54:08 GMT

Ahh. Alright, that did help a lot. I think rebuilding might be easier than cleaning up this mess I have.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:07:33 GMT

You can keep your formatting. The secret is in breaking up the page into logical parts. For exampel Header, addres block, repeating rows, questions, answers footers. Then you woudl wrap all of the objects that make upa section into a Positioned subform that is below the flowed subform. There is a good example of this technique in the samples that ship. Have a look at this one in particular....start from your Designer install folder and locate this structure:

\EN\Samples\Forms\Purchase Order\Dynamic Interactive\Forms

Paul

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:40:35 GMT

Hi Paul,

Thanks a lot for you help. I had a feeling I knew what your answer was giong to be and that I wouldn't like it. Unfortunatly the text resizing option will not work in this situation. Is is possible to see how you formated the one page? The formatting and the left justification is the biggest issue. I would like to keep the format as much as possible while having the text expandable. Does this mean I need every object in one subform? Including all the text boxes and radial buttons?

Thanks.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:39:34 GMT

The way you have built your form is limiting your ability to make it flow. I worked on the last page only to give you a feel for what you will need to do. The addition of the lines surrounding the boxes is not a good idea on a static form (unless you are only dealing with horizontal lines. The vertical lines will not grow or resize based on the size of a field. A better option is to use the border tab on the field object. This will grow according to field size and will give you the effect you desire. You have one big text field that is spaced appropriately for the captions of each field. The text box does not know anything about the isze of the field so this is not good either. I changed this to use the caption property of the field (setting the location for the caption on top) and this gives the same effiect but because it is tied to the field will react when field size is changed. Lastly the page subform needs to be set to flowed for the fields to be resized. In doing this all fields are left justified to the content area. I then added a top and left margin of .75 in to the Page subform to get the position where you wanted it. On a multipage form this can become tricky as you woudl not define pages anymore .....simply letting the fields flow and letting the product decide where the page breaks go is what is required. You woudl only define Page1 and put everything on that page (at Design time).

This will be a lot of work to redo the form ....another option is to have the text resized to fit the box as the users type info into the field. I did this on page 3 in the comments fields. The issue here is that if they type in too much info the font becomes so small it is not readable. The advantage is that you do not have to redo the whole form. let me know if you want to do this and I will show you how it is done.

Paul

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:42:51 GMT

I have been working with LiveCycle 9 for a couple months now. I have built this form and now I need all the test in the comment areas to be fully visible when the form is printed. I cannot get the whole from to move as the text expands. It just overlaps. I have been researching and trying different things for a couple days now. I understand the grouping in sub forms (got that to work), but it messes with my formatting and overlaps other objects. I am probably missing something, or my form has too much going on? I am not too sure. Any help/suggestions are welcome. I know how I build it is not optimal, but I want to see if I can make it work.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:58:56 GMT

I think the issue you are having has to do with the concept of flowed versus positioned subforms. If you were designing a static form where you knew where every piece of the form went and all objects had a fixed sized then you could use a positioned subform where each object has a fixed position relative to the boundaries of the subform. In this scenario you will know exactly what objects to place on what pages hence you coudl define what objects fit on what pages. Note that this is how your form is defined. In contrast what if you defined all of the objects on your form, but did not know (or care) on what pages they woudl appear. You woudl simply define the objects and what sequence they shoudl appear in. Then Designer woudl lay them out one after like they were on a roll of toilet paper. There woudl be no page separations. Then after all of the obejcts are layed out you coudl apply a page concept to the roll of paper and separate the roll into individual sheets. This is th eocncept behind a flowed subform. You shouls eliminate all of your page subforms and have only 1 page (at the highest level). All objects woudl be children of this Page node. The page concept is still applied but you are letting the product decide where the page breaks shoudl go (the page is defined by the Master Page). If we do this then everything will be left justified and set top to bottom. There are cases where we want to have objects beside each other. In these case we woudl wrap the objects that go together in another subform and make it positioned. This allows us to move the contents of that subform any where we want will in the boundaries of the subform. This means that you should break your form structure into managemable parts (i.e. Header, Questions, Tables, Footers) to give a few examples. Each section woudl have its own positioned subform and you can decide whether you want to allow page breaks in these sections or not. It is a different way to define a form and takes some getting used to. There are a number of good examples that ship with the product that show this concept. My favorite is the Dynamic Interactive PO sample. You can find it in the install directory of Designer in this location:

EN\Samples\Forms\Purchase Order\Dynamic Interactive\Form

One last note. Build your sections first inside of a Positioned Page1 subform. Then when you have it layed out (making sure that all of your sections (positioned subforms) are the width of the page, then make your Page subform flowed. As I mentioned earlier. It will try a left justify these positioned subforms so if they are the width of the page then they will not move.

This is alot to digest so take it slow and do little bits a time and test as you go. Hopefully you will find this helpful.

Paul

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:55:07 GMT

Hi~

I am still not understanding how to complete my form so that all the texts move down after using expandable boxes. My page 2 works great thanks to Paul, however, now the rest of the document doesn't work properly. And also, when my last expandable box is expanded onto the next page, the contents of that page move to another page, how do I keep the text directly under the expanded box?? I've come to the conclusion that I just can't understand this program. I would Greatly appreciate any help on this.

Thanks,

Tammie

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:38:53 GMT

Paul,

I did send the first one to the wrong address. I recent it to the correct address at approximately 1 PM EST. I was just wondering if you did receive it.

Thanks,

Tammie

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:45:08 GMT

Are you sure you posted it to the correct address ....I have not recieved anything yet!

Paul

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:09:16 GMT

I just emailed it to you Paul. Thanks!!

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:08:21 GMT

Here it is...thanks so much!

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:56:08 GMT

Sure ...send it to LiveCycle8@gmail.com and post back here when you have sent it.

Paul

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:03:57 GMT

Paul...thank you so much for offering to help...from what I have seen in forums...you are a God send!!!

Could I email you my form???

Thanks,

Tammie

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:36:35 GMT

Tammie,

Can you post your form ...so much depends on teh structure that you set up.

Paul

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:32:09 GMT

I think the answer is yes.

Re: Are There Expandable Text Fields?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:26:04 GMT

Sorry to be a bother. My next question is do all objects need to be

wrapped in subform?

Thanks so much~

Tammie