Dynamic Forms and Flowing subforms -- Need help/Advice

[Former Community Member]

Hello All -



I am creating a form for instructors at our college to complete. It has 3 pages, some static text, some required drop-down boxes, and three "comment" type areas which I would like to create so that they "flow" and display the entire contents when printed.



I've read everything I could find so far, but I think I am missing something quite basic.



I've created master pages, with a content subform on each one. I've placed all my content into subforms under that main content subform, named and ordered them the way they need to be. Most of it should appear as positioned. Only where there is one of the comment sections do I want/need the "flow content" option.



I tried following the directions I found in another thread. If I set the subform with the comment area to flow, then I never get the page break option (and it is needed) - it's always grayed out. When I try to set the underlying subform on the page to 'flow content', ALL of the content from all three pages ends up on one page, everything on top of each other.



What am I doing wrong?



Can anyone give me some tips as to where at least to start looking for what I've not done or done wrong?



Thanks in advance for any information -- it will be soooo appreciated!



Lauren

[Jared_Langdon]

Hi Lauren,



You only need one Master page, and there's no need to put anything on it unless you want a header/footer that repeats on each page.



If you want to have things flow from page to page, create one body page object, and set its content type to Flowed (the body page is itself a subform). In it you put subforms with text, fields, and so on in them. Since your form will spill from page to page based on how much text the instructors type into the expandable comments fields, break up the forms content into sections (subforms) such that the layout can break between the subforms without taking away from the readability. These subforms should have a content type of Position. Even though there's only one body page object in your design, since you have three pages worth of stuff, it will spill onto three pages.



Now for the comments fields, which you want to wrap and expand. Make sure that each of your comments fields is in its own subform. Set the field to allow multiple lines and, in the layout tab, click the box to Expand to Fit (height). For the subform that contains the comments field, set the height to auto-fit (layout tab). Also for the subforms that contain comments fields, experiment with the "Allow Page Breaks Within Content" checkbox on the Subform tab. If you expect an instructor to blab on for more than an entire page of text, you will have to select this box, but otherwise I suggest leaving it unselected so that the entire comment remains together.



Jared Langdon

www.jlangdon.ca

[Former Community Member]

Wow, thanks for the quick reply Jared. :-)



I already have everything set up in sections & subforms -- but it sounds, from what you say, that I need to get rid of those Master pages and just work with one Body page instead. I think that might be a c&p job at this point, starting with a brand new form.



I'll take it one step at a time and see what I can do -- thank you so much!



Lauren

[Former Community Member]

Is there a simple way of adding dynamic functionality to a form designed as a static pdf? I have a pre-existing form which is desired to have extra features put in. However, the original was never intended to have expandable fields, addInstance buttons, etc., so was never partitioned into subforms. I've worked with it a little, but when I try to wrap the sections I want to work with into subforms, it either puts all fields on the left margin (top to bottom) or it runs them to the right in a single long line (western). So, my question is, is it worth the trouble and time to alter the existing form, or is it better in the long run to start from scratch? Sorry for the long winded question, Thanks for any advice.

[Former Community Member]

David, I'm a real newbie when it comes to Designer forms, so my input may not be too helpful.



However -- in the case I had above, I had a pre-existing form (done in Microsoft Word) -- when I brought that into Designer, I ended up with all those Master pages and the problems I described. According to Jared, I should have had things on one Body page. I ended up *not* using the dynamic features and expandable fields -- it was taking up way more time than I could allow it right now. However, that's on for next semester's use -- and I'll be starting over from scratch, *not* using the existing form. I decided that in my case anyhow, it was easier (and less time-consuming) to simply re-design from scratch than to mess with what was already a mess ... ;-).



Good luck to you!

[Former Community Member]

Thanks for the input Lauren, and the quick response. I like many of the features Designer has built into it, but it does seem like altering a pre-existing form, even one created in Designer, is problematic to the point of frustration. If you, or anyone else, come across anything helpful in the future, please pass it along.



Thanks,

Dave