3 Replies Latest reply: Feb 11, 2014 12:05 PM by try67 RSS

    Drop down list / combo or list box properties that would be useful

    HUnknown1 Community Member

      Hi there,

      I teach a class at a local college on Creating PDF forms. I have been going to a few forums and there are a few things I think would be useful to add to the dropdown and list items for the next version of Acrobat Pro.

      1.) Adding a selection for Null or blank. In my list I have on top select an Item as default - should the value be 0 or left as blank? I would like something that would validate instead of leaving a blank area. I don't want to have to install a 3rd party plugin like form router.

      2.) Multi-line Selections for items at least 2 lines would be good.

      3.) Allow a way that I can copy and paste all my items and/or values in at once from excel or word. If I am doing countires I shouldn't have to type everything in again. I know this can be done in LC

      4.) A library in Acrobat to store some of my dropdown menue that I would use often to create forms. Month, Days of Week, Provinces or State.

      5.) Also a date callendar picker like in LC would be good as well for clients and speed up entry.

       

      Would be interested to know if Adobe is planning any of these upgrades in a future version since LifeCycle is not available for Mac or Creative Cloud?

        • 1. Re: Drop down list / combo or list box properties that would be useful
          try67 CommunityMVP

          Don't expect any answers as to what Adobe is planning on doing. The people posting here are 99% users, just like you, not Adobe employees. And those who do know will probably not say so, anyway...

           

          1) That's possible using a script. But you can always add a single space as the default value...

          2) Also possible with a script, but very buggy and not recommended.

          3) Also possible with a script.

          4) That one's easy. Use a blank PDF file where you create those menus, and then you could simply copy them over to your other files from there.

          5) There are currently two date pickers available for Acrobat forms: The one by FormRouter and a newer one by Max Wyss, which is not free but is quite good and uses a dialog object instead of form fields.

           

          You can request new features here, by the way:

          https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

          • 2. Re: Drop down list / combo or list box properties that would be useful
            HUnknown1 Community Member

            Thanks those are good points. I'm just at this point interested to hear suggestions on these topics, since I get students who ask these questions and I like to hear what others options are as well. And I do recomned for 4) using a blank page to store the files like a library, but I thought I'd like to hear some some ideas to see if I was thinking correctly.

            I've heard from other forums that 2) can be buggy so I did see some example on acrobatusers.com That I think would be good script workarounds, though not exactly what I want.

            I just think that in the adobe acrobat help menu. They should either have a tutorial on their site on how to build a script for this.

             

            Thanks again!

            • 3. Re: Drop down list / combo or list box properties that would be useful
              try67 CommunityMVP

              4) another option is, surprise surpise, to use a script for this one as well. Such a script would add new menu items to Acrobat that would insert a pre-defined field at a pre-defined location when clicked.