Deleting borders around text field

[Agway_Wendy]

I am creating a form in LiveCycle by importing an image and adding text fields to it. The text fields drop in with borders around them. How do I delete the borders? In the border window it says that borders are not allowed when working with an imported image.

[Kevin_Cavallo]

Can you post your form?

[Agway_Wendy]

Here's the file.  Thanks for your help.

[Kevin_Cavallo]

How did you create this?  And are you using Designer to edit it?

[Agway_Wendy]

I created the card in Illustrator and saved it as a PDF. When I started creating the interactive file in LiveCycle, I used the PDF card as a background image. Then I added text fields on to it. The borders are a default and I can't remove them.

[Kevin_Cavallo]

I'm not that familiar with Illustrator.  Can you save the individual images themselves, or can you export the whole thing as an image (.jpeg or something similar)?  Seems to me the best thing is to start with a blank card in Designer and insert the images as Image objects rather than using the wizard to import the pdf. Then drop your text fields on/around them.  That way you can also save the file as an interactive pdf or xdp.

[Agway_Wendy]

I did see that in the tutorial about adding images to the master pages. I'm trying to figure that out now. First off, how do I set up a 5 x 3 size file? The size of an index card.

Also, what is an xdp format?

[Kevin_Cavallo]

When you start a new form, it will automatically create a master page named Page1.  If you highlight that in the hierarchy view, on the object tab you'll see a sub-tab for Master Page.  On that sub-tab the Paper Type dropdown will allow you to select a page size.  There are a bunch of standard paper sizes that are pre-defined.  If your size does not appear, then choose "Custom" and it will enable the Height and Width text fields so that you can set them, as well as the orientation.

An xdp file is sort of a "template".  The file needs to be submitted to Adobe Forms Server, which will transform it into a .pdf for you, optionally merging it with data.  Forms Server is a separate product.  If you don't have Forms Server and are just planning on creating a .pdf that can be passed around and edited, save it as an interactive .pdf file.

[Agway_Wendy]

Thanks Kevin. This is very helpful. I am going through an online tutorial as well to learn more about LiveCycle. Since I know the rest of the Creative Suite I didn't think this would be as tricky.

The project consists of 1300 price cards. Each with a different photo, product name and description. I don't beleive I can streamline the procees with merging in Forms Server since there are images involved. If so, please let me know. I appreciate the help.

[Kevin_Cavallo]

Wendy, what Adobe components do you have available?  Knowing what you have installed will help us figure out your options. I'll have to review the Adobe license again, but I think this can be done with one form that connects to a database and dynamically creates the cards by pulling in data and loading images from disk/url.  Your form would have to be Reader-enabled to do this, and there are some licensing restrictions that require purchasing Reader Extensions once you pass a certain limit.

[Agway_Wendy]

Adobe components:

-Acrobat 8

-Acrobat Elements

-InDesign CS2

-Photoshop CS2

-Illustrator CS2

-Version Cue CS2  (?)

-GoLive CS2  (?)

-Adobe Bridge

I hope this helps. And what do you mean by "reader-enabled". That it can be used on systems with only Acrobat Reader? That would be a priority.

[Kevin_Cavallo]

Sorry I meant Reader Extensions enabled.  Normally a pdf opened in Reader cannot be saved or access a database.  You can use Acrobat to apply Reader Extensions which allow this, but as I said there are licensing limits that restrict how many copies of the form can be distributed, or how many users can use the form.

What's your grand plan for this?  Do you need to distribute this form for many people to use, or will it be used by one person to generate the cards?  Is there a database available with the information for each card, and a library of images in one place?  A little more info on the big picture will help.

[Agway_Wendy]

These cards will be available to all Agway dealers on our intranet so that they can enter their own pricing and print them out. That's quite a few users to say the least. I do have an Excel file listing the products, but not the description or image. I was going about this assuming that each price card would have to be created separately because of licensing limitations.

[Kevin_Cavallo]

I think the scope of what you want to do may be a little too large for the Adobe tools that you're using.  Were you planning on having the users generate the entire set of cards for all products and then edit them individually, or would they be able to select a product and then generate a single card for that product?  For the intranet, is this just a web-based system or is it like a file server, where users can browse files on the server?

[Kevin_Cavallo]

I'm probably overthinking what you want.  My thought was to have a single pdf template that can use a database (even an Excel file would work) where it could extract the image name, product name and description and dynamically create the finished pdf for the user to fill out.  That sort of thing is difficult without an enterprise-class product such as Adobe LiveCycle.  But, it would make your life easier since you would only have to modify the Excel file when a new product comes along.

However, you can absolutely create 1300 individual pdf files, and either stick them on a file server or build a web page that allows the user to select the desired one.  The file would pop up in Reader, and the user can fill in the text fields and print it out.  Unfortunately it will be very tedious for you to create each of those individual files. Anything that we can do to automate even part of the process will be beneficial.

[Agway_Wendy]

Hi Kevin,

I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner. Busy office after the holidays.

Your last reply described the project more accurately. Multiple cards in a database with users looking them up individually, adding their pricing and printing them using Acrobat Reader. What I need to figure out is the best way to produce these. If I enter all of the info into an Excel file, wouldn't that be the same amount of work as creating each card? I would have to add an image any way.

I was also thinking of using InDesign to set up the cards in multiple pages. Then if I exported individual cards as pdf files, is there a way to add text boxes for the pricing that can be edited in Reader?

[Kevin_Cavallo]

As I said, I'm not familiar with InDesign so I don't know how easy it is to mass-produce 1300 pages of cards.  The sticking point with this method is that when you export the cards as pdfs and then import the pdfs into Designer you'll be in the same boat as before: importing the pdf will produce a card with the pdf as a background image and you won't be able to get rid of the borders around the text boxes.

If you want to use Designer to do this, you can set up a basic card and then modify and save it for each specific card. 

Start by saving the lower Agway graphic a .jpg image.  I assume that you can do this from InDesign.

Then:  Begin a new form and set the size to 5x3 using the instructions I sent you earlier.  Lay out two image objects on the page, one for the lower graphic and one for the product image.  Point the lower one to the Agway graphic that you created earlier.  Make sure you check the "Embed Image Data" checkbox.  Drop in 3 text objects: one for the product name, one for the description and one for the product number at the lower right.  Set the font formatting for each.  Finally, drop two textfield objects onto the form: one for current price and one for regular price.  Format appropriately.  Save the whole thing as your blank template (save as an Adobe Dynamic XML Form).

To customize each card you'll have to point the product image to the correct graphic (and check the Embed Image Data checkbox), fill in the product name, description and product number, then Save As a unique filename.  Repeat 1300 times.

Unfortunately, without the Enterprise Suite software and a database of some sort that contains all of the information needed for each card, there is no easy way to automate this. If you had a database to work with you might be able to use some programming and a third-party PDF library to do it, but this is an Adobe forum so we won't talk about those libraries... 

[Agway_Wendy]

Thanks Kevin,

I will go in this direction. I had to laugh with "repeat 1300 times". But it's got to be done.

thanks again for your help, Wendy

[Kevin_Cavallo]

Your welcome.  I would think that a company of your size that supports a large number of stores would have an IT department that could deal with this in a more sophisticated way. Here's why: come April, some marketing person will decide it would be nice if the price tags say "Happy Spring" on them.  You won't be laughing at the "Repeat 1300 times" line any more.  Automating this sort of thing is really a good idea.  Anyway, good luck!

[Agway_Wendy]

Kevin,

I'm having no problem creating the file, but I am having trouble creating a text box that is interactive. I have followed your notes and looked for help in Designer itself. I've tried inserting a "text field" and just "text" since there are two options. I'm just not seeing how to make the text areas editable.

[Kevin_Cavallo]

You'll want to use a TextField; a plain Text box is just static text.  TextFields are by default interactive.

On the object tab for the text field, under the value subtab, make sure the Type dropdown is set to one of the "User Entered" settings.  Also, try saving the file as an Adobe Dynamic XML form (choose Save As from the File menu and pick it as the "Save as Type" selection) although I don't think that will make a difference.

If all else fails post the form and I'll take a look.