Are There Expandable Text Fields?

[CarlVL123]

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Actual Question:

Okay,  am new to Acrobat and LiveCycle.  I have gone through about 9 hours of videos and still can not find an answer to what I know I should be able to do.  Is there a way on a form to create a text field which has the ability to expand its size versus creating a scroll bar so when you print the form it is not chopped off and missing?      This is a 2 page form so a text box has the possibiltiy it could split between 2 pages.

[JT01]

Kind of difficult to explain thats why I gave an example, load the example into designer and check out how I set it up.

Basically I set the group I want to have expand into its own subform.  Make sure the subform height is set as expand to fit and that all of the text fields are set as expand to fit for height as well.

If you have any specific questions let me know.  The general one you asked should be able to be answered by reviewing the example.

~Josh

[leelooextreme]

Hey !

The explanations here are really great even for a dummy like me and I've done my first form, but bumped into the same problem as Nick had had. I have managed to get my form to work with the expandable fields expanding on the 2nd page, however, I have other fields below the expandable fields that should be directly below the expandable fields.  I have them on the second page and cannot move them directly below the expandable fields, it moves them to the 3rd page?

I've read Paul's explanation, but don't understand it ,...I don't know how to move the page numbering...I attached my form, if anybody could take a look, please?

THX,

Polona

P.S. The form is in Slovene, hope that doesn't matter.

[Former Community Member]

Simply unwrap the page level subforms .....you will need the Page1 level but do not create page level subforms beyond that for a flowed form. The product will create the pages as required and will place them accordingly. When you created page level subforms the product was tryiong to keep the objects on that page together so as soon as page 1 overflowed, then there woudl not be enough space for page 2 (in its as it was created) so it would add a new page and then for the overflow only.

Make sense?

Paul

[leelooextreme]

You're a life saver ! Once you put it like that it's really simple. Thanks a lot !

[PO_Secretary]

Hi~

I have been looking for the answer to this question for WEEKS now.  I used these instructions on a test page, and it worked Wonderfully.  However, when I went to my document, did the preview set up, my text underneath was covered up.  So, my question now is, do all my field boxes (text field, text, button, etc) need to be set as flowable?

Thanks for the help.

Tammie

[NLiles-]

They don't but it is much easier if they are.

[PO_Secretary]

Thanks for the answer.  I don't know what is wrong then because the flowable data

covers the data in the text box below it.

[NLiles-]

Not sure what to tell you... I have only created one form and had to have help too. All the best to you.

[PO_Secretary]

Sorry to be a bother.  My next question is do all objects need to be

wrapped in subform?

Thanks so much~

Tammie

[NLiles-]

I think the answer is yes.

[Former Community Member]

Tammie,

Can you post your form ...so much depends on teh structure that you set up.

Paul

[PO_Secretary]

Paul...thank you so much for offering to help...from what I have seen in forums...you are a God send!!!

Could I email you my form???

Thanks,

Tammie

[Former Community Member]

Sure ...send it to LiveCycle8@gmail.com and post back here when you have sent it.

Paul

[PO_Secretary]

Here it is...thanks so much!

[PO_Secretary]

I just emailed it to you Paul.  Thanks!!

[Former Community Member]

Are you sure you posted it to the correct address ....I have not recieved anything yet!

Paul

[PO_Secretary]

Paul,

I did send the first one to the wrong address.  I recent it to the correct address at approximately 1 PM EST.  I was just wondering if you did receive it.

Thanks,

Tammie

[PO_Secretary]

Hi~

I am still not understanding how to complete my form so that all the texts move down after using expandable boxes.  My page 2 works great thanks to Paul, however, now the rest of the document doesn't work properly.  And also, when my last expandable box is expanded onto the next page, the contents of that page move to another page, how do I keep the text directly under the expanded box??  I've come to the conclusion that I just can't understand this program.  I would Greatly appreciate any help on this.

Thanks,

Tammie

[Former Community Member]

I think the issue you are having has to do with the concept of flowed versus positioned subforms. If you were designing a static form where you knew where every piece of the form went and all objects had a fixed sized then you could use a positioned subform where each object has a fixed position relative to the boundaries of the subform. In this scenario you will know exactly what objects to place on what pages hence you coudl define what objects fit on what pages. Note that this is how your form is defined. In contrast what if you defined all of the objects on your form, but did not know (or care) on what pages they woudl appear. You woudl simply define the objects and what sequence they shoudl appear in. Then Designer woudl lay them out one after like they were on a roll of toilet  paper. There woudl be no page separations. Then after all of the obejcts are layed out you coudl apply a page concept to the roll of paper and separate the roll into individual sheets. This is th eocncept behind a flowed subform. You shouls eliminate all of your page subforms and have only 1 page (at the highest level). All objects woudl be children of this Page node. The page concept is still applied but you are letting the product decide where the page breaks shoudl go (the page is defined by the Master Page). If we do this then everything will be left justified and set top to bottom. There are cases where we want to have objects beside each other. In these case we woudl wrap the objects that go together in another subform and make it positioned. This allows us to move the contents of that subform any where we want will in the boundaries of the subform. This means that you should break your form structure into managemable parts (i.e. Header, Questions, Tables, Footers) to give a few examples. Each section woudl have its own positioned subform and you can decide whether you want to allow page breaks in these sections or not. It is a different way to define a form and takes some getting used to. There are a number of good examples that ship with the product that show this concept. My favorite is the Dynamic Interactive PO sample. You can find it in the install directory of Designer in this location:

EN\Samples\Forms\Purchase Order\Dynamic Interactive\Form

One last note. Build your sections first inside of a Positioned Page1 subform. Then when you have it layed out (making sure that all of your sections (positioned subforms)  are the width of the page, then make your Page subform flowed. As I mentioned earlier. It will try a left justify these positioned subforms so if they are the width of the page then they will not move.

This is alot to digest so take it slow and do little bits a time and test as you go. Hopefully you will find this helpful.

Paul

[MisterB_]

I have been working with LiveCycle 9 for a couple months now.  I have built this form and now I need all the test in the comment areas to be fully visible when the form is printed.  I cannot get the whole from to move as the text expands.  It just overlaps.  I have been researching and trying different things for a couple days now.  I understand the grouping in sub forms (got that to work), but it messes with my formatting and overlaps other objects.  I am probably missing something, or my form has too much going on?  I am not too sure.  Any help/suggestions are welcome.  I know how I build it is not optimal, but I want to see if I can make it work.

[Former Community Member]

The way you have built your form is limiting your ability to make it flow. I worked on the last page only to give you a feel for what you will need to do. The addition of the lines surrounding the boxes is not a good idea on a static form (unless you are only dealing with horizontal lines. The vertical lines will not grow or resize based on the size of a field. A better option is to use the border tab on the field object. This will grow according to field size and will give you the effect you desire. You have one big text field that is spaced appropriately for the captions of each field. The text box does not know anything about the isze of the field so this is not good either. I changed this to use the caption property of the field (setting the location for the caption on top) and this gives the same effiect but because it is tied to the field will react when field size is changed. Lastly the page subform needs to be set to flowed for the fields to be resized. In doing this all fields are left justified to the content area. I then added a top and left margin of .75 in to the Page subform to  get the position where you wanted it. On a multipage form this can become tricky as you woudl not define pages anymore .....simply letting the fields flow and letting the product decide where the page breaks go is what is required. You woudl only define Page1 and put everything on that page (at Design time).

This will be a lot of work to redo the form ....another option is to have the text resized to fit the box as the users type info into the field. I did this on page 3 in the comments fields. The issue here is that if they type in too much info the font becomes so small it is not readable. The advantage is that you do not have to redo the whole form. let me know if you want to do this and I will show you how it is done.

Paul