Work with form fields

In this hands-on tutorial, we’ll explore adding various types of form fields, setting form field properties, and adding security to create a high quality professional form. To follow along, download and open the file titled Questionnaire.pdf. In the Tools pane, select Add under the Prepare Form tool to include it in the right-hand pane for easy access. Notice how you can create a form from an existing document like a Word or PDF, which we are doing, directly from a scanner, or start from scratch. Make sure Form Field Auto Detection is on. And when you select Start, Adobe Sensei automatically detects potential fields in the document. Forms Edit Mode is automatically enabled, and the Forms panel will open on the right. You can toggle in and out of Forms Edit Mode using the keyboard shortcut A if you have the single key accelerators turned on in your preferences. Use the toolbar at the top to place different types of fields on your PDF, from text fields to digital signatures. When you add fields, you’re really placing a layer on top of the form and not touching what’s underneath. On the right are field alignment and sizing tools, as well as a listing of all the fields on your form. Acrobat names the form field using the text that’s adjacent to the field. Next to the name is a visual indicator of the type of field. Now we’ve got a great head start on placing the form fields, but you should review the results in detail. First thing I’m going to do is fix the typo, which I can easily do by selecting the Edit Text and Images tool. I can also resize the text box by dragging it to the left. We can switch back to Forms Edit Mode by choosing the Select tool. An extra field was added at the top, which we can remove by selecting and hitting the Delete key. The other fields look pretty good. We can double check by selecting Preview or using the keyboard accelerator P. Notice how the radio buttons act as a group, where you can select one and only one choice, which is what we want, and the opposite is true of the check boxes, which is also what we want. Instead of a text field for the headquarter location, we’ll add a list box. Adding specific list selections reduces the possibility of mistakes in the data you receive back. Use the toolbar at the top to add the list box field, or by right-clicking and choosing List Box. The cursor will change into a large shadowed crosshair with a box to help you accurately place the field. Next, select All Properties. The options in this dialog change depending on what type of field you have created. Move over to the Options tab to enter the drop-down choices. Add each item, and when you’re finished, select the one that you want to be the default. We’ll close this dialog and select another form field to match the size by holding down the Shift key and then selecting another field. The darker blue color denotes the anchor field, which is the field that our drop-down will resize to. We’ll match the height and width in the right-hand pane, and you can use the up arrow and down arrow to nudge the field to align with the line. Next, let’s delete the text fields for the project timeline. Instead, we’ll use date picker fields so it’s easier for anyone filling out the form. We’ll name the field Project Start, and when I select the properties, under the Format tab, choose the date format that you want to use. Once you choose the date format, you can preview what it will look like below. Hold down Ctrl-Shift or Command-Shift on the Mac to duplicate the field. We’ll need to give the new field a unique name, because if you don’t give each form field a unique name, any data that’s entered into the field will repeat in each field that has the same name. This can be useful, like when you don’t want whoever is filling out the form to constantly enter the same information, but it’s not what we need here. Then, we’ll match the height and width and align again. You can nudge up and down again using the arrow keys. To align both fields, just select the field above to align it with. Now finally at the bottom, double-click to select the Referral Code field to open the properties. Select the Options tab, and here we can change this field so that it precisely aligns each field entry using the Comb option. The Comb option is only available when no other checkbox is selected. We’ll choose 5 because I know that each Referral Code is only 5 digits. If you choose a color underneath the Appearance tab, each field will be separated with a line. Let’s close this dialog and use the keyboard accelerator P to preview. We’ll enter some data here. We’ll exit Preview Mode using the keyboard accelerator P. To remove the data, select Clear Form from the More dropdown in the right-hand pane.