Header/Content Area/Footer tabbing order

[Former Community Member]

Hi All

My issue is that my xdp will not allow me to set the tab order of the content area to occur between my page header and footer. I am only able to have my PDF tabbing set to Header->Footer->Content Area (or) Footer->Header->Content Area. I do have my tabbing order correctly setup in the "Tab Order" panel. I also have my "Hierachy" setup correctly. Using the pdf reader the document reads through perfectly however when tabbing through it seems as if all "Content Area" content is defaulted to always tab through last. Is this a setting that can be edited? Otherwise does anyone have a solution to my problem?

Note:  Unfortunatly I am unable to post my XDP, but this problem should be easily replicated by creating a Subform named Header(with content) a Content Area(with content) and a Subform named Footer(with content). In its default state this will not tab through correctly in "Preview PDF" or after Rendering.

Thanks

Paul

[dcidev]

So are the Header and Footer subforms in the Masterpage?

Kyle

[Former Community Member]

Yes both are in the Masterpage

[dcidev]

Hmmm. Works for me. Although this issue does sound familiar. Could you make a simple form as an example and upload it? If you have nowhere to upload it to you can use my site:

http://www.fieldeffecttechnologies.com/pdfupload/

Kyle

[Former Community Member]

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for helping this link should get you an example XDP with the same issue

https://workspaces.acrobat.com/?d=iz58GPw-9Gx6cW8F2Wx31w

Paul

[dcidev]

There are just text objects in that form...

I set them all to field objects and it tabs properly from header to content area to footer.

What version of Designer are you using?

Kyle

[Former Community Member]

I have both ES2 and a trail version of ES4.

The text objects were just to fill the subforms with something to be able to tab through.

Paul

[Former Community Member]

I assumed by "field objects" you meant text field objects and by doing this I was unable to fix my issue.

Would you mind posting the example you had it working with as well as steps to achieve this?

Also what version of LiveCycle are you using to achieve this?

Thanks,

Paul

[Former Community Member]

Anyone else have any luck with this issue? The only way I can see being able to fix this issue would be to try to format the whole form into the contentarea.

[dcidev]

Here is the form you sent me and all I did was change the static text objects to text fields.

I am using Designer ES2 and Acrobat 10

Kyle

[Former Community Member]

Thanks Kyle

I see the confusion here the XDP I'm creating dynamically creates a static pdf so all fields take in xml data and populate depending on the current xml data. So my final pdf created is a readable pdf that requires correct read through tabbing order. If you view my form using "Preview PDF" click the first element and hold down the arrow key to scroll through the elements you will realize the cursor will jump from header to footer to content. My problem with tabbing is I would need to be able to tab through the text in each field using the "View>Read Out Load>Activate Read Out Loud" feature in adobe reader. For this feature you must click the first element in the tabbing order and arrow key tab through the document. This tabbing order issue can be mimicked by just generating a pdf with text. What I find interesting is I was able to tab through your example pdf perfectly however after the fields have been populated with information dynamically and a pdf has been generated from it I am unable to tab through my pdf in the correct order as your blank example shows. Maybe this is an issue with the rendering order of my pdf and since content area is always rendered last it becomes tabbed last. I am only able to fix my problem by making my footer part of the content area that way the footer is dynamically created with the content and therefore gets tabbed after the content. The only issue with that solution is the Footer's possition is relative to the content area and moves up and down the page by a line or two depending on the content area length. This is not a huge issue, however in my oppinion it doesn't look too professional and thats why I would prefer to use this style of XDP as it seems much more stable to me.

Any other ideas?

Thank you for your help!

-Paul

[Former Community Member]

I guess this order is considered reading order not tabbing order I apologize for my confusion