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Conditional display and Gravity (two questions!)

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Level 2

Hi,

Question 1.

I am using LiveCycle Forms Designer to create forms for use as both paper copy and electronic forms. I need to produce for the FDA a form that is annotated with a variable name for each field.  While I can apply variable names to the fields, is there a way of either

a. displaying these names on a copy of the printed form, or

b. adding text objects as conditional content to the form so that I can choose either to show or hide them

I realise that I can set the visibility of individual elements, but there will be potentially hundreds of annotations in one document (one for each field), so ideally I'd like to be able to use something I can switch on and off across the whole document, rather than individually selecting each piece of text.

Question 2.

Is there a "gravity" type snap tool within LiveCycle where I can ask objects to snap to each other, rather than to the underlying grid?

Thanks everyone...Polly.

8 Replies

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Former Community Member

Question 1. The fields are addressed by their fieldNames and accessing a property called rawValue that will give you the contents of the field ....you are not neccessarily assigning variables to them. You can get a list of all fields on th eform by exportinga data file ..... that will create an XML file with all data fieldsNames as the node names in the XML and the value of the field as he value of each node. Maybe I am not understanding what you are asking.

Question 2. There are alignment tools that will help you position objects in relation to each other. Note that the last object chosen is used as the reference object. You can access these tools under the Layout/Align menu. There is also a toolbar that will expose these tools for easier access. lstly you can nudge the object by selecting it and using the arrow keys on your keyboard (useful for finer adjustments also you may want to turn snap to grid off for this as it will move it one grid mark per click).

Paul

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Level 2

Hi,

Thanks so much for your reply. What I really need for the first question is to be able to print a copy of the form with the field names visible on it. I have attached an example here, which may help to explain it better.

Thank you very much...Polly.

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Former Community Member

I still do not get it from the image you attached ......are you trying to show the fieldname but I see the  text in blue where SUTRT= Tobacco....that surely cannot be the fieldname.

paul

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Level 2

Hi,

Sorry, I guess that was a little confusing - basically what I need to be able to do is display / print / use the document without the blue annotations when I want to, but also create a copy WITH those blue annotations on.

They are mostly field names, but as you have noticed, some other information also.

Ideally I'd like to just add extra text fields, and switch their visibility on and off as a whole, rather than as individual fields (for example, in Framemaker you can choose to display by colour). Alternatively like in InDesign, where you can apply "layers" to a document that can be shown or hidden (in this case with the blue annotations on) - as if the form were a piece of paper and then an acetate laid over the top of it with the blue annotations added.

Hope that makes better sense...thanks for your continued help!

Kind regards...Polly.

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Former Community Member

The issue will be trying to do this without impacting performance. I woudl use Text Objects (not TextFields). Then you need some way for the user to indicate they want this mode on....a Button is usually good for this. On the click of the button you coudl write code that woudl adjust the Text to show what you want. There coudl be a lot of code depending on how many fields you have on the form.TheText woudl be invisible until the button was pressed the the text woudl be calculate and made visible accordingly. If you create a simple version (maybe just a part of the form and include what you want to appear, I can create a sample for you).

Does that make sense?

Paul

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Level 2

Hi Paul,

That would be great thank you - I'll send a sample through over the next day or two.

Thanks so much for all your help.

Kind regards...Polly.

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Level 2

Hi Paul,

Apologies for the delay - attached is an example of what I need to achieve.

Thanks again for all your help.

Kind regards...Polly.

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Former Community Member

Your form is an Acroform ...this is the wrong format for this forum. It can still be done but I woudl post on the Acrobat forum to get the script for acroforms. Just to show you it can be done I converted your samplew to an XFA form (using Designer) and added buttons to do what you asked. Have a look.

Paul