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1. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
Bill95722 Sep 7, 2010 9:42 AM (in response to tcharves)I'm having the same issues. Tab order keeps changing. Setting custom tab order does little good as it seems to change at will (not my will). Sure would be better if all new fields were placed at the bottom of the tab sequence, then we could set the order as necessary.
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2. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
tcharves Sep 7, 2010 10:03 AM (in response to Bill95722)Thanks for your reply... I was beginning to think that I was the only one having this problem! grrrr...
I agree... placing new fields at the end of the tab sequence (and not automatically rearrange the order of the fields in between!) would be very helpful. The way it works right now is very time consuming and quite frustrating... especially when you are dealing with hundreds of fields on a particular form. Hopefully Adobe finds a better way to set (and keep) their user's cutom tab order!
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3. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
boulderbobski Sep 23, 2010 8:03 PM (in response to tcharves)I have the same problem. It's frustrating as can be.
Basically I've got a calendar layout and I want a checkbox for each day. The form should tab through the calendar day-by-day, then skip to the next month. After about 2 hours of manually dragging fields around to get the right tab order (Why the heck can't I highlight a range of fields and move them at once??) all I have to do is adjust ONE field - I mean select it, and nudge it with the arrow key, and BAM! Everything is re-ordered! How stupid is that!?
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4. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 8, 2010 11:10 AM (in response to tcharves)I have the same problem with the tab order. I am working on forms for a client with more than 100 text and checkbox fields. They want to give me more of this kind of work, but I am losing so much time correcting the tab order every time I make an edit, that I don't know what to do. Have you found any help yet?
Thanks!
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5. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
boulderbobski Nov 8, 2010 11:18 AM (in response to maralevin)Nope, never did find a solution. The whole "feature" is a hack at best.
The tab ordering functionality in Acrobat 9 helped somewhat, in that it makes reordering slightly easier.
But DON'T TOUCH the boxes after that - it'll scramble the whole works
Bob
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6. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 8, 2010 11:29 AM (in response to boulderbobski)Thanks so much for the reply. It is very frustrating. We can't charge the clients for the lost time. I hope someone from Adobe will respond.
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7. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 8, 2010 11:31 AM (in response to boulderbobski)For those of you who care about this issue, please report it to Adobe as a bug. Adobe knows about it and have confirmed it, but it has not been fixed in all this time. I reported it with Acrobat 9 (and later). Maybe if enough people complain this bug will get fixed.
Report a Bug: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
In the mean time, I still use Acrobat 7 to set the tab order. I found the old method FAR more usable. The new method is helpful if you have overlying fields, but that's about it. If you file a bug report, please request that they bring back the old method that was available in Acrobat 3-8 (but not 6.0.0!) as well.
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8. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 8, 2010 11:53 AM (in response to George_Johnson)Hello George,
I took your advice and submitted a bug report. I just started making Forms, so I
am not familiar with how the Tab Order and other functions worked in versions
previous to 9 Pro. Meanwhile, not sure what to do. I don't want to turn down the
work from my clients, but they are always requesting edits, which is normal.
Thank you,
Mara
Mara E. Levin
Art Director
Access Design & Illustration
295 Vaughn Hill Road, Bolton, MA 01740
www.accessdesignnow.com, 978 779-9730 studio, 508 353-7878 cell
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9. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 8, 2010 12:08 PM (in response to maralevin)In previous versions it was more WYSIWYG. When you switched to tab order mode, the tab order number would be shown in each field and you could start wherever you wanted in the tab order to begin reordering by clicking on the fields in the order you want. I can easily beat anyone in a race to reorder a form to an arbitrary order using the old method if my opponent had to use the new. If I were in your position (and I am), I would find at least Acrobat 8 Pro, if only for this single feature.
The new method would be OK to have as well if not for its bugginess. Having the ordered list is helpful when you have overlying fields. If they could only fix the bugs and enhanced it to match what's available in LiveCycle Designer, it would be a huge improvement. But the ideal would be to have both methods available. There is no good reason not to have both available.
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10. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 8, 2010 12:27 PM (in response to George_Johnson)You mean the problem does not exist in Acrobat 8? I suppose I can reload 8 to
use for forms, but I'll have to check since it's my client's PC.
I am cross-platformed. If I send the PDF form to my Mac, do you know if I will
still have the problem in Acrobat 9 on the Mac? If you don't know, that's okay;
I'll test it. Many thanks.
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11. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
boulderbobski Nov 8, 2010 12:27 PM (in response to George_Johnson)Well, I agree with all of this.. *but* the original post was about the tab order rearranging itself at the drop of a hat. Yes, the re-ordering in Acrobat 9 is clunky, but survivable. It's the app's decision to reorder everything if you tweak any one box on the form that's the pain!
Thanks George for the bug ("wishes") URL - hopefully someone at Acrobat is trying to fix this
Bob
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12. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 8, 2010 12:34 PM (in response to boulderbobski)To clarify, my questions were all about the tab order re-ordering itself.
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13. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 8, 2010 12:35 PM (in response to maralevin)Sorry, I meant about the tab order re-ordering itself whenever I make the slightest edit to the form.
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14. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 8, 2010 12:40 PM (in response to maralevin)Yes, the same issue of the tab order getting messed up is the same on the Mac.
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15. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 8, 2010 12:42 PM (in response to boulderbobski)Bob,
I appreciate you reporting this. I believe it's the only way hope will become reality.
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16. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
boulderbobski Nov 8, 2010 12:44 PM (in response to maralevin)I believe it occurred both 8 & 9. I switched to 9 because the reordering process (with the separate panel) was easier (such as it is) to manage.
And I only use a Mac...
Bob
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17. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 8, 2010 12:47 PM (in response to George_Johnson)Sure thing. Glad to help a little.
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18. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 8, 2010 12:48 PM (in response to boulderbobski)bobscreename wrote:
I switched to 9 because the reordering process (with the separate panel) was easier (such as it is) to manage.
Bob,
I'm curious to know what you found more difficult with the previous method. You don't have to answer, but I'm always interested to know why people prefer the new to the old.
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19. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 8, 2010 12:58 PM (in response to maralevin)maralevin wrote:
You mean the problem does not exist in Acrobat 8? I suppose I can reload 8 to
use for forms, but I'll have to check since it's my client's PC.
Sorry, I missed this earlier. No, the tab reordering bug is not a problem with Acrobt 8, it uses the other method I've mentioned. On my Windows 7 Pro machine, I've set up a virtual XP installation using "XP Mode", and have Acrobat 7 installed on it so I can set the tab order of forms I create with Acrobat 9. You may be able to do the same if your client's machine is Windows 7 Pro or better.
I know a very experienced Acrobat forms developer who still uses Acrobat 5 Pro on the Mac to do a lot of forms authoring. Things have gotten worse in a number of ways for Acrobat forms developers over the years. This whole tab order issue is in my opinion the worst.
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20. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 8, 2010 1:16 PM (in response to George_Johnson)Using 8 sounds like a great workaround. I will call my client's tech support to see if they will set it up (they can load it remotely) for me to try. Thanks so much!
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21. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
boulderbobski Nov 8, 2010 1:35 PM (in response to George_Johnson)George - well, I actually can't remember! I have a document that has over a hundred fields and reordering them was a big pain.
In 9, you can drag the items around in the navigation panel. While it's still a pain, I remember it being much easier than whatever I was doing in 8.
Sorry - it was a while ago
B
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22. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 8, 2010 1:49 PM (in response to boulderbobski)No problem. Something folks complained about with the previous version was that you had to start at the beginning of the tab order and re-click every field if all you wanted to change was the order of some fields in the middle or near the end. The trouble was, this wasn't the case and you could start renumbering at an arbitrary position in the tab order. You had to first go into tab order mode, hold down the CTRL key (Commmand on Mac), and click the field right before the one you wanted to start with, and click away.
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23. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
Melio123 Nov 15, 2010 12:40 PM (in response to tcharves)I've had the same problem and thought it was my computer!! This is hair-tearing, maddening stuff and totally wrong. I too filed a bug report. Now fingers are crossed that Adobe listens to all of us who paid HUNDREDS of dollars to get a product that is fully functional for the Mac!
Thanks George!
Melissa Morse
UMass Boston
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24. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 15, 2010 12:49 PM (in response to Melio123)Melissa, thanks a lot for reporting this.
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25. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 15, 2010 6:53 PM (in response to George_Johnson)I called the Acrobat Support line about the tab order re-ordering itself last week. The tech support person I talked with said he would research the problem and get back to me with a solution this week. He even went to this thread and read our posts and talked to me about them. I'll let you know what happens.
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26. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 15, 2010 7:22 PM (in response to maralevin)Good job!
Let's hope the result of the research isn't full of baloney as was one response I received. Other responses have correctly acknowledged the bug, but we're still awaiting a fix...
Here's yet another report of this bug posted here earlier today: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/752564
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27. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 17, 2010 10:35 AM (in response to George_Johnson)Yesterday I spent another 2 hours with Acrobat tech support about this issue. He was sure the problem was resolved in version 10. (I have been using 9.) He installed a trial version of 10 on one of my computers that had no Acrobat on it previously, but 10 did not solve the problem. He said he would call again this morning, but did not.
I called tech support again today and got new information. (My problem had been bumped up to a higher level, to someone in Massachusetts.) I was told there is a bug in the software and they are working on a fix that will appear in a new version, 10.2, which will be out in about 15 days. Hooray!
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28. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
maralevin Nov 17, 2010 11:19 AM (in response to maralevin)Just got a call from Adobe. They cannot commit to having it fixed in version 10.2, but have given it an official bug #: 2733415. Sigh.
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29. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 17, 2010 11:28 AM (in response to maralevin)Thanks for the updates and your persistence. I and others (including Adobe themselves) reported it (again) during the Acrobat 10 prerelease, and they said maybe there will be a fix in the next version (11?). Sigh indeed. But it is very good to hear that it may be pushed up before that, thanks to all of us squeaky wheels.
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30. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
Grub Tech Nov 8, 2011 6:27 PM (in response to George_Johnson)I'm running Adobe Acrobat 10.1.1 and have this very problem. Has it been fixed in later versions? What's the latest version out there right now?
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31. Re: Acrobat 9 - Tab Order Constantly Re-orders Itself
George_Johnson Nov 8, 2011 6:30 PM (in response to Grub Tech)You're using the latest version. Please submit a bug report: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3844126


