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How does a user clear/delete a dropdown field if a choice from the list was made accidentally?

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Level 1

Hi!

I'm using LiveCycle ES v.8.2.1 to create a form that can be filled out using Adobe Reader only and then have the form data emailed to us in xml format that will be imported into our Access database.

I have a large number of dropdown lists on the form to restrict the data choices to my list only - users are not allowed to modify the list.  Some of the dropdown fields are required, others are optional for the user to fill in.

The form is 4 pages long and very complicated - as people tab along, they occasionally select an optional dropdown field that they didn't mean to. Also they may change their mind later about one of their earlier choices and want to change the dropdown back to its original unselected state.

Drop-down List Screen.jpg

In the image above, the primary Site Function is a required field but the 3 other Secondary Site Function fields are optional.  People can change their mind about how many Secondary Functions are appropriate, ie, they filled out all 3 Secondary Function fields and later decided that they should have only have filled out one of them.

In the above screen shot, I decided that there shouldn't be a Secondary field filled out at all, only the Primary Function.  However, when I try to delete the selection in the Secondary (a) field so that it is blank, I can't.  There is always one of the list choices shown in the field - in other words, I want it to look like the Secondary (b) field which wasn't ever selected.

Do I have to have a Null or blank choice in the dropdown list?  How is it properly done so that the "blank" choice isn't interpreted by my database as a populated field?

I am not a programmer so I'm hoping this is a simple process.  Thank you for your help! 

1 Reply

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Level 10

Adding a blank ' ' (empty single quotes with no-space) value in the drop-down would be an option. It will be interpretted as null value.

Another option is to have a reset button for each drop-down.

A sample PDF with these two options is uploaded in the following location:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B8KcjZtz1YzXNDU4M2YyNzgtMzEwYy00Y...

Nith