Text in a text box disappears upon clicking outside the text box

Can you post an pdf file that has this issue? If you have no where else to post it you can create an account at acrobat.com. These forums to do not support posting pdf files.

Hi Robearbeach,

It seems that you are using MAC Preview to fill up the forms. I would rather ask you to use Adobe Reader for Mac instead of Mac Previewer.

You can download reader for mac from the below mentoned link

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?platform=Macintosh&product=10

Hope this help.

~Pranav

If the user used MacIntosh Preview to process the form, then there is a minor corruption of the form that can be fixed. Script to Fix Mac OSX Preview.app Form Fill and Save

For those who haven't looked at the posted document, it is not a form and there's no indication that Preview was used.

The problem seems to be the the opacity of the text (typewriter) annotation is set to a very low value, so it cannot be seen normally. I do know that there have been various bugs reported relating to this problem, but I don't know how to fix it on the Mac. It is possible on Windows to edit a registry setting, so it may be possible to edit the corresponding plist entry. The other approach is to simply reinstall Acrobat, although I would try a repair first.

I'm having exactly the same problem in both text boxes and typewriter tool.  Anyone found a solution?

I have seen several threads indication the problem can be fixed by changing the value "dopacity" from the original value (a decimal number close to zero) to 1 in the following registry item:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\{Acrobat Version #}\Annots\cAnnots\cFreeText_003aFreeTextTypewriter

I tried it and it worked ... once.  When you close the text box created by the typewriter tool the text remains visible, but as soon as you create a second text box with the typewriter tool and close it the text again disappears.  I immediately looked back at the registry, and somehow the registry value of "dopacity" is immediately being changed from 1 back to the original value.

I don't know what Adobe did to the typewriter tool, but whatever it was made it uttery useless.  I would switch back to Acrobat 8, in which the typewriter tool worked fine, except my new computer is 64 bit and Acrobat 8 (according to Adobe) does not work properly with 64 bit systems.  I used the typewriter tool extensively at work (until now), so I am looking for pdf software from a different vendor that has a typewriter function that works properly.  If anyone knows of any, a recommendation will be appreciated   I have given up on Acrobat X.

It did NOT work.  The problem remains.  But in any event, I am on Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

Do you experience this issue in all your PDFs or just those scanned using OmniPage? The reason I ask is because the file you posted has a General File Format Issue when running a low-level syntax checker on the file. Have you tried doing a Save As on the file prior to adding text using the typewriter tool. I've seen a few of these issues before on PDFs created using non-Adobe tools such as OmniPage.

A link to a sample PDF would help us see exactly what is happening and what the properties of the problem item are.

Hi George - he did post us a link earlier in the thread. Here is the URL:

https://acrobat.com/#d=GFZNMdVxb-CH0sOtC9dHlg

This particular example lists the creation tool as OmniPage CSDK 15.0.

There are many programs that do not follow the Adobe "Stanadard" or there are differences caused by different OS or programing implementations on different OS.

I am having the same problem on my iMac (Lion). Very frustrating. Anyone?!

EDIT: I just discovered what may be a workaround:

Go to TOOLS on the far right hand side (upper corner next to COMMENT and SHARE).

Click the FORMS section.

Then MORE FORM OPTIONS.

Next click MANAGE FORM DATA and then EXPORT DATA.

You then save the file to a folder etc. and you get a "fdf" file. ("fdf" file?! Go figure.)

I opened that .fdf file  and this basically opens the .pdf file (as far as I can tell).

Then I I saved that file--nothing special, just went to the FILE menu and clicked SAVE.

This apparenty saved the original .pdf file with the text intact!

See if that works for you.

OK,  the problem is that the annotations, of which there are three, are using transparency in an odd way for Acrobat 4 compatibility. I know it's made by Acrobat X but stay with me if you want to workaround the issue. 

Whether that transparency was on purpose or not it really doesn't matter.  What you need to do to fix the file that you posted and probably any others that display this behavior is:

1.   Go to the "Print Production" panel.

2.  Select "Preflight"

3.  In the Preflight window, select "Compatible with Acrobat 4"

4.  Click the "Analyze and Fix" button

5.  Save the file to a new name

6.  Click the Save button.

Well, there's a lot going on here. Part of the confusion is the different terms that are being used, and where you posted. Although you've confirmed you aren't working on a form, you DID post in the Forms forum, so it isn't too surprising you got a lot of advice about forms.

I think I've discovered something by looking at your file and experimenting. You're adding text, probably the only way you've found so far. This is something rather old and creaky called the 'typewriter tool', which not so many use today. However, in Acrobat X it's easy to find under "Add or edit text box". What you add isn't like ordinary text on the page, it's really a kind of comment.

There are lots more kinds of comments under the Comment tab, including some much more powerful tools for adding text. You might find you prefer these, but let's look at the Typewriter problem.

Your problem is that your comments are less than 1% opaque. That is, pretty much transparent, and so they are invisible. How did it happen? Don't know, but I have a guess. Doesn't matter, I may have a fix. The problem is that this opacity thing is a real setting but with no tools for setting it. Now it's set, you have to get rid of it somehow.

1. You say, I think, you have a computer where all is well. On that computer, make a Typewriter text box. Save the PDF, and get it to the problem computer.

2. Open the good PDF on the problem computer.

3. Select the Comment tab. Look for the one you added under the comments list.

4. Double Click on the entry in the comments list and make sure it selects the right one. It must be the typewriter box.

5. Right click on the entry in the comments list and choose Properties.

6. Click on "Make Properties Default" and click OK.

If all is well, the good (100% opacity) setting will now apply to all future typewriter boxes.

Rats. Worked for me, to the extent I could fake up the problem. You seem to have something different.

I have two more suggestions.

1. Try using a different way to add text. Maybe the text box tool, first under Drawing Markups.

2. Give Adobe a chance to help you by contacting tech support. This will probably cost.

I'm pretty sure I'm having the same problem described, although the fix did not work. Recently, on my Win 7 machine, using Acrobat X Pro I started having trouble. Whenever I open a javascript interface window, type in the box, and either move my mouse into or out of the window, the white background turns grey and the text becomes invisible. This happens whether I'm using the Console, Document Javascripts, Edit All Javascripts, or the javascript window associated with a given textbox.

The text is still there, because if I select it all, it becomes visible momentarily, until I mouse of the window.

I have reinstalled Acrobat X Pro, and tried the compatability Analyze and Fix suggested above, but no conflicts were found.

Help would be appreciated!

RL

Can you see the text box comment listed in the Comments Pane > Comments List panel?

Hi Lori- the comments pane works fine.

The issue is only with the javascript interfaces. If I open a field's javascript window, or a document javascript, etc, the window acts funny. Initially, depending on my mouse position, the text either disappears when I mouse into or mouse out of the window.

With the text not showing, if I resize the window, the text becomes visible. If I then move the curser into the window, the text disappears, and the background of the window goes from white to grey.

So, my workaround has been to resize window to show, and then perform all navigation with the keyboard arrows.

Also, if I stretch the window "too" large, the entire program freezes, and I need to hard restart it.

-RL

Actually, this is not just a work-around. This is the answer!

I tried it and realized that the point seemed to be that I needed to verify that I trusted/wanted access to the data. Once I created the .fdf document, I got a bright yellow banner across the top where the purple one used to be and clicking on that to "access the data" gave me a properly filled out form. Not very intuitive, but I guess in the interest of verifying that I really wanted to access data from a downloaded file...I guess that was the solution?

Anyway, you are CORRECT! It worked. My form is now readable, printable, etc., just the way it was when it left the filler-outer's desktop and took off toward my computer.

While this is not directly responsive to the question above, here is the fix for Windows machines.

1.  Close all runnning instances of Acrobat

2.  Open regedit

3.  Navigate in regedit to HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\10.0\Annots\cAnnots

4.  Search for "opacity"

5.  You should find key with the name "dopacity" underneath something like "cFreeText_003aFreeTextTypewriter"

6.  Change the "dopacity" value to "100.000000" (that's six zeros after the decimal point)

7.  Restart Acrobat and it should work.

I found an easy answer...

Click into each text box > Select all text > Right Click > "Text Style" > Select "Clear Formatting" > Fixed, repeat for all textboxes.

Enjoy

A friend of mine found that adding a space after the text in each field fixed the problem for him.