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Can LiveCycle Designer do this?

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Former Community Member
I am a very new previewer of LiveCycle Designer ES and despite reading much documentation and many forum posts, I cannot figure out if this program will definitely meet our organization's one need.



We need to be able to create forms which have expanding text boxes that expand as the user types in them (as opposed to expanding to fit merged data). These text boxes must then expand to show and print out whatever the user has typed, not cut off the input.



I need to be sure that this program will indeed do what we require before we invest significant time and money into it.
41 Replies

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Level 2

I think you replied to the wrong person. I'm still not able to get this

working.

(Embedded image moved to file: pic16202.jpg)

From: Bntrong <forums@adobe.com>

To: Claire Herstein <cherstein@nautilus-ins.com>

Date: 01/23/2010 10:06 PM

Subject: Can LiveCycle Designer do this?

I've got an issue that i've been banging my head on for quite 5 hours..

I've being working with livecycle and have the fields expanding and

everything worksl like a champ.  My issue is say between page 2 (untitled

subform)(page2) and page 3 (untitled subform)(page 3) when the field

expands and lets say it goes on the next page the form leaves the rest of

the page blank more than half and then the next page contains the next

subform.

My question is how do you get the subform from the third page to start

right after the last one on the second page regardless of how much text is

put in by the user essentially eliminating all the dead space.

Everything is under form1 with 10 subforms each with their own page.

PLEASE HELP i will be forever grateful.

Avatar

Level 2

Cherstein, it's probably this -

You need to select your relevant page subform, have it flowed and in the pagination pallette alter to 'follow previous'. I'm guessing it is still 'Top of Next Page' - that's the default.

Hopefully this will be of some help.

Barum

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Level 2

I guess I am too new to understand this - I am trying to use the options

within the object library, and I don't see the commands you mention. I'll

attach the form and I hope you can help me to understand.

(Embedded image moved to file: pic15255.jpg)

From: Barum55 <forums@adobe.com>

To: Claire Herstein <cherstein@nautilus-ins.com>

Date: 01/25/2010 07:37 AM

Subject: Can LiveCycle Designer do this?

Cherstein, it's probably this -

You need to select your relevant page subform, have it flowed and in the

pagination pallette alter to 'follow previous'. I'm guessing it is still

'Top of Next Page' - that's the default.

Hopefully this will be of some help.

Barum

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Level 2

OK, Barum - here is what I have so far. I don't understand why I am finding this so difficult.  On Page 2 of this Dynamic form, I have 5 goal text sections that I have set to expand to fit and to allow multiple lines and page breaks within content.  I wrapped each in a subform and set content to flowed and to allow page breaks with content. The Pagination tab is greyed out. Finally I set the entire page to subform. This isn't the easiest software to use and understand. How do I do when a subform is done correctly?

No matter what I try, each section's content flows over to the next one.  Got any ideas.

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Level 1

From Bntrong:

I've got an issue that i've been banging my head on for quite 5 hours.. I've being working with livecycle and have the fields expanding and everything worksl like a champ.  My issue is say between page 2 (untitled subform)(page2) and page 3 (untitled subform)(page 3) when the field expands and lets say it goes on the next page the form leaves the rest of the page blank more than half and then the next page contains the next subform.

My question is how do you get the subform from the third page to start right after the last one on the second page regardless of how much text is put in by the user essentially eliminating all the dead space.

Everything is under form1 with 10 subforms each with their own page. 

PLEASE HELP i will be forever grateful.

Did you ever get an answer to this or figure this out? I'm in the exact same boat right now and it's driving me nuts! I would appreciate any help I can get from anyone.

Avatar

Former Community Member

My guess is that the next page (after the expanding bit is usally a page) is set to positioned and as such cannot fit in the space that is left so  a new page is created and the rest of th eprevious page is left balnk. If you make everything that follows that growable bit flowed then there will not be any blanck parts.

Paul

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Level 2

No, but I hadn't tried working on that project since. I think Paul

Guerett posted something. Let me know if it works for you.

Claire Herstein

HR - Project Manager

Direct: (480) 367-5306

Toll Free: (800) 842-8972

Email: cherstein@nautilus-ins.com

Website: www.nautilusagents.com

Nautilus Insurance Group

7233 East Butherus Drive

Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Celebrating 25 years of Superior Service, Partnership and Growth.

From:

chad_oglesbay <forums@adobe.com>

To:

Claire Herstein <cherstein@nautilus-ins.com>

Date:

06/25/2010 09:36 AM

Subject:

Can LiveCycle Designer do this?

Did you ever get an answer to this or figure this out? I'm in the exact

same boat right now and it's driving me nuts! I would appreciate any help

I can get from anyone.

Avatar

Former Community Member

Hi, in the Layout tab, be sure to click Expand to fit when you want your text field to expand.

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Former Community Member
I am fairly new to LiveCycle Designer ES as well and have created a interactive form with multiple input boxes. Is it possible to make it so once a specific box is populated with data other boxes become grayed out/inaccessible?

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Former Community Member
Michael,

You could put javascript on the fill event of the field (field1) you want to trigger the other fields (field2, field3) being inaccessible. The javascript for field1's full event would look as follows:



field2.access = "readOnly";

field3.access = "readOnly";



This will make the fields 2 & 3 read only, and the user will not be able to fill them in. If you wanted to change the background color of the field as well you could put the following javascript in field1's full event:



field2.border.fill.color.value = "x,x,x";



Where x,x,x is the color you wish the field to change to.

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Former Community Member
Kyle,



Thank you for the fast response, I am not even going to pretend I know how to find the fill event for any given object let alone how to alter it. Don't get me wrong I know how to view the XML source code and how to locate the section of code that pertains to any given object, but thats about it. I'll do some research and I am sure once I know more about javascript/LiveCycle Designer and follow your suggestion it will work great.



Thanks again,

Mike

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Former Community Member
Kyle,



You seem to be the form expert here. I have a similar problem to Chris with trying to create a form with expandable text boxes and keeping the spacing between the objects below. I have the text box set to expand to the text in the box but it superimposes on the objects below. I tried creating some sub forms as you suggested but I am a beginner and cant really follow the instructions successfully.



My form is a reporting form and here is how it is set up. A text box label over the expanding text box (label such as "status on current projects" and then under that I have the expandable text box. Then below that I have the label for the next box (label such as "action plan for next week") and then another expandable text box under that. I have several text box labels and expandable text boxes in the form and I want to keep the spacing the same between all the objects even after the text boxes expand. Do you have any other ideas or can you point me towards a resource that might speak down to my level, maybe a form for dummies :)



Thanks for any help you can provide,



Nathan

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Former Community Member
Nathan,

Thank you for the accolades. I still feel like I have a lot to learn about forms and process management, but am happy to help others with issues I've struggled with in the past. Just looking for some good karma I guess. Any way on to your problem. It sounds like the issue for you is with setting up the subforms to flow properly. You will need to set up a series of subForms. First, you need to group all of the non-expanding objects in their own subforms. Say you have the following structure in your hierarchy:



page1

Non-expanding_field1

Non-expanding_field2

Non-expanding_field3

Expanding_field1

Non-expanding_field4

Non-expanding_field5

Expanding_field2

Non-expanding_field6

Non-expanding_field7

Expanding_field3

Non-expanding_field9

Non-expanding_field8



You would want to group the non-expanding fields around the expanding ones. So in the above example you would create a subform for non-expanding_field1, non-expanding_field2, and non-expanding_field3. Then another subform for non-expanding_field4, and non-expanding_field5. Then another subform for non-expanding_field6, and non-expanding_field7. Finally one for non-expanding_field8, and non-expanding_field9. All of these subforms should have a content selection from the subform tab on the object palette of Positioned. This will keep each of these fields in the same position you already have them in on your form. You do not need to give these subforms names, as they are for display purposes only. Next the page that these fields all fall under needs to be set to flowed. The page itself is a subForm. Click the page (usually page1 by default) from your hierarchy tab. In your Object palette for the page select the Subform tab. Set the Content to flowed, and the flow direction to either western text or top to bottom depending on the way you wish for your form to be laid out. When you do this you are telling the form that every object under the page1 subform should flow. When you set up those first subforms for your non-expanding fields the flowed nature of your page1 subform will see each of those individual subforms as their own object. Even though the page is set to flowed the individual objects will remain in their same position within the individual subform they are in. The subform itself is what will flow within page1. The last step is to set the expandable fields to be able to grow based on the user entered data, or data that prepopulates the field in some other fashion. To do this simply select the expandable field, go to the Layout palette and check the auto-fit check box for either height or width depending on if you wan the field to expand left to right or up and down. Finally on the Object palette's field tab you need to check the allow multiple lines check box. Your form should now be set to flow and expand properly, and keep your non-expanding fields in the place you wish for them to stay. Let me know if you are still having trouble with setting all this up. I wouldn't mind taking a look at your form either if you are still not able to get the flow to work properly.

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Former Community Member
Thanks Kyle!



Your advice above was very easy for me to understand, I got the form to work. The expanding text boxes no longer overlap onto the text below. Thank you very much. One thing that did happen is when I changed my sub form for page 1 to be flowed, it altered the way I had my text boxes laid out. On both top to bottom and western text layout, it forced my expanding text boxes all the way to the left, and I previously had them centered with about 1.5 inches spacing from the edge of the page on each side. It will let me expand the border of the box to the right but it wont let me move the box or move the left side border away from the edge. I can send you a copy of the form if you would like to take a look at it. If not no big deal, you have been extremely helpful and I appreciate the insightful reply. Thanks again.



Nathan

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Former Community Member
Check out http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c05f3db/3



You can also wrap your form in a Position subform, within a flowed page. See nt example on Message 4. Perhaps it will help.

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Former Community Member
Nathan,

Sorry I assumed that your expandable fields were spanning across your entire form. You can go through and set up a series of positioned and flowed subforms to resolve the placement of your expandable fields, or you can put in some blank text objects in the flowed subforms to act as spacers. I usually end up placing an empty text object to the left of my expanding fields and setting the subform to western text flowed. This way your flowing subform will place the expanding text field object to the right of your blank text object. Giving you the look of a positioned field/subform.

Hope this helps.

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Level 2

Hi again Cherstein. I've attached an edited version of your form. Several points:- Put your footer on the master page - very important.

If your form is going to be interactive with expanding boxes etc, save your form as dynamic and also check your form properties in the toolbar - it needs to be dynamic and interactive. Name your subforms as you go along. It's preferable to name all your objects - a pain but!!

Also I noticed you've added rectangles around your text boxes - just use the 'border' pallette and select your lines - much easier. Re. page subforms - if you want your layout to flow directly after the last subform, make your page subform 'follow previous' - you'll see in my example.

Good luck, I hope I've been of assistance.

Barum

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Level 2

Barum, thanks for you help. The reason there are rectangles around the

text boxes is that it was a pdf form converted from a word document in

Adobe Acrobat 9. It detected the fields. Is that a problem? I didn't

create the form directly in LiveCycle.

(Embedded image moved to file: pic02154.jpg)

From: Barum55 <forums@adobe.com>

To: Claire Herstein <cherstein@nautilus-ins.com>

Date: 01/25/2010 09:50 AM

Subject: Can LiveCycle Designer do this?

Hi again Cherstein. I've attached an edited version of your form. Several

points:- Put your footer on the master page - very important.

If your form is going to be interactive with expanding boxes etc, save your

form as dynamic and also check your form properties in the toolbar - it

needs to be dynamic and interactive. Name your subforms as you go along.

It's preferable to name all your objects - a pain but!!

Also I noticed you've added rectangles around your text boxes - just use

the 'border' pallette and select your lines - much easier. Re. page

subforms - if you want your layout to flow directly after the last subform,

make your page subform 'follow previous' - you'll see in my example.

Good luck, I hope I've been of assistance.

Barum

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Level 2

Hi again cherstein. The problem with the rectangles is that they won't 'grow' with your expanding boxes hence it would be better to delete them and incorporate borders with the relevant text boxes.

Good luck

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Level 1

OK, so I have a text field, with options allow multiple lines and expand to fit selected, and the form saved as Dynamic xml, but the darn thing will not expand

vertically - it always gives me a scroll bar instead of expanding.  What else could I be forgetting?  I've tried wrapping the field in a subform, with no result.

Thanks,

Keith    

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Level 2

I'm also having a difficult time with this. But try wrapping the page in a subform. Good luck.