Problem with Flowable Form not "flowing"

[Eric_RP]

I'm having issues with making a form flowable in Designer ES...

Using Windows 7, Acrobat 9 Pro Extended and LifeCycle Designer ES 8.2

I am a noobie to using LifeCycle Designer ES and usually only use Acrobat Pro Extended to create PDF files from other formats.

I’m trying to help a non-profit group with a scholarship application form. I was given a form that was originally created in Word. I converted it to an Acrobat form in Acrobat 9 Pro Extended without issue (that I know of anyway). However, the problem with the Acrobat form was the answer boxes for questions would create a scroll bar when the answers were longer than the box size and the text beyond the viewable box does not show when printed. I have read other threads in this forum and viewed tutorials on making the form flowable using LifeCycle Designer ES by checking Allow Multiple Lines, Expand To Fit under Y:/Height, and saving as a Dynamic XML Form.  This makes the text field expand as needed, but the text then overlays the text below on the form. I need the entire form to expand as needed based on the length of the answers to the questions. I know others have had this problem, but I can't seem to get it set up correctly based on what I have read when others have reported this problem. BTW - the form has a header with page number on the second page that would need to be repeated if the form extends to three pages, etc. and a signiture block that needs to remain at the bottom of the form when complete. I haven't been able to make the form flowable to test or work with these other potential issues.

I am getting frustrated with this problem and would appreciate some help. I have uploaded a copy of the sanitized form to see if anyone can take a look and see what I’m doing wrong or missing.

http://www.box.net/shared/9a0bf9v8l8nn97slxchh

Thanks much for your assistance,

Eric

[Niall_O_Donovan · Accepted solution]

Hi Eric,

Here is your form back to you, I have done some work on page2 to get you out of the box. https://acrobat.com/#d=0Dm*XIrtAFi4Y49nwWXBWQ.

What I would say is that you have a bit of work to do. I have amended the content area on the Master Page (purple dotted area). This should be inside the page area, giving you a margin. This is especially important when working with flowed layouts.

You should place all objects that are static inside a Positioned subform and then objects that grow in height inside a Flowed subform. The page also then needs to be set to flowed.

There are some forms here that you should have a good look at:

Exploring positioned and flowed subforms: http://assure.ly/eSGQMt.

Expanding objects in flowed layouts: http://assure.ly/e2jR0C.

Making fields dynamic: http://assure.ly/g80MVY.

Building dynamic tables (has screenshots): http://assure.ly/gk8Q7a.

Hope that helps,

Niall

[Eric_RP]

Thanks much Niall for the response and the help. I was able to work with the file you modified for me and see how it needed to be done. The links you provided with the examples also helped a great deal.

Now I just have to figure out and work on the header to create it and make it repeat when the form goes beyond 2 pages.

Thanks again for your help - I now at least have a working flowable form - currently without a header, but I can continue to work on that  

Thanks,

Eric

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi Eric,

If you want to post the current versin, we can have another look at it.

Niall