How do you add a multiple entries at once to a drop-down list box?

[Dean_Gilbert_Sp]

I'm making a form for students to fill out and I want them to be able to pick from about 200 different courses. In the Field/List Items place, it would appear that you can only enter one item one at a time. I did this for 56 faculty,which took too much time, but for over 200 course titles, it would be much more convenient just to copy/paste them from an Excel spreadsheet, which is what I've tried doing. Any help or tips would be appreciated. I've attached a PDF of what I'm working on. The drop-down box is the one next to "Course." Thanks.

[djaknow]

If you just need users to be able to select more than one item from the list you can use a list box. You'll need to check the "Allow Multiple Selection" box on the object tab.

Did you create this form in Livecycle Designer? When I tried to open it I had to import it as if it was created in some other program. If you created this form in Acrobat you might be better off posting your question in the Acrobat forum.

[Dean_Gilbert_Sp]

Thanks for your response. Yes, it was created in Livecycle; I just made a PDF of it to show the form. My issue is not having users select more than one choice from a list, rather it is pre-populating the list with about 200 choices and not having to copy/paste these items 200 times; once time for each one, which now appears to be only option. I just want to paste the entire list of 200 items all at once. Can this be done?

Dean

[Dean_Gilbert_Sp]

Attached is the list I'm trying to put into the drop-down list box. I only want to add column C. I've also attached the Live Cycle form; note it saves as a PDF. The box is the right of "Course Number and Tile." Once this box in populated, I'll be copying it into many other forms we use. Thanks.

Dean

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi,

The next version of LiveCycle Designer ES2 will allow user to copy and paste a long list of items into a dropdown or list box at design time. But until then your choices are limited.

• Paste them one at a time;
• You could set up a global variable in the (File/Form Properties) with the 200 items in the one variable. Then it would depend if your users have Acrobat/Reader v9 or earlier versions of Acrobat/Reader. John Brinkman has (several) blogs on this topic: http://blogs.adobe.com/formfeed/2009/01/populating_list_boxes.html

If you are going with v9 then you can use the setItem script. However if you want your form to be compatible with earlier versions then you will need the addItem script.

Also check out a sample by Steve Walker. http://forums.adobe.com/message/1939873#1939873 and  http://forums.adobe.com/message/2038932#2038932  The first one dealt with adding user entered data onto a dropdown, which is not exactly what you are after, but it will give you direction in populating a dropdown from an array.

You would place the script in the docReady event of the dropdown, which would populate the dropdown every time the form is opened.

Good luck,

Niall

[Dean_Gilbert_Sp]

Thank you! I've opted and completed the copy/paste (254 courses) and look forward to getting the new version when it comes out. Your kind responses are appreciated.

Dean