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Tab order shows correctly, but doesn't work in PDF

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Level 2

Does anyone else have the problem, or know how to solve it, where you go through and set up the tab order correctly numbers for each page, but then when you tab through the preview pdf or the saved pdf, it will jump between pages instead of going through the tab order you just setup?  I'm completely frustrated, as it seems to work with some perfectly, barely work with some, and sometimes if i take a working form and add even just one text box, it blows the entire tab order out.

13 Replies

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Level 10

It can be a real pain...tab order still has a way to go in LiveCycle...

Anyway, you need to go into the xml source and search and delete the following tag structures:

<traversal>
  <traverse operation="first" ref="FieldName"/>
</traversal>

I do a search on "first" (with the quotes) and then manually delete. Someone smarter than me might be able to come up with a way of doing it easier.

You will need to do this quite often. Once these tags start to appear there seems to be no way to get rid of them except with constant editing.

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Level 2

So I always want to delete that entire <traversal> with the first inside of it?

Designer ES is way better than whatever it was called that came with Acrobat 7, but you're right, a LONG ways to go for tab order, as well as for converting other formats into usable forms.  Hope they keep improving this.

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Level 10

Yeah, you want to delete all three lines.

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Level 2

and every instance of those three lines, or do i want to keep some?

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Level 10

That's what I do!

Your mileage may vary, but it works for me.

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Level 2

thanks for the tip, i'll try it out.  anything has got to be better than starting from scratch on a ten page form!!

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Level 2

Looks like they just keep coming back and it keeps jumping to the same spot.  anywhere else i should look in the xml that would cause this?

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Level 10

That always seems to do it for me.

I set tab order and test it out - if I get any stupid jumps I go into the source and nuke those statements and then save.

They seem to get buggered up again if you touch the tab order again.

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Former Community Member

You should also ensure that the fields are in the correct order in the hierarchy. For example the first field on the form should above the second in the hierarchy - and so on. That, coupled with Jono's solution normally sorts out my tabbing issues.

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Level 10

Hi,

In addition you should look at this MAX session (http://2009.max.adobe.com/online/session/302). One thing it sets out is how the x/y coordinates affect tabbing order. In an object on the right hand side is a fraction higher than one on the left it will get focus first on tab.

A good tip is to use subforms to group objects for tabbing. Because the tabbing will go through all objects in the subform before going out to the next object.

The whole session is good and the x/y issue is mentioned in a few places. In the main you should look at the demo above the tab order chapter.

Good luck,

Niall

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Level 2

Thanks everybody.  I went through and checked the aligning of the hundreds of checkboxes i have.  I also had to end up giving names to some of my pages and

subforms to help fix the issue.  honestly i can't tell what fixed it but i think a combination of all them helped.  maybe it was too confused with so many unnamed subforms, checkboxes, etc.

I think it'd be a huge win for Adobe if for the next version they could just fix the bugs and try automating/making things easier.  it took forever to design this and with a high learning curve.

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Level 10

Naming objects properly is quite important, it really helps in the long run.

Using the Snap to Grid is quite important too for lining things up on the Y axis - I always have it on unless I need to nudge something. Even then sometimes the Y axis can get a little out, you can't see it you have to select a row of objects and see if they're all the same. Nice thing with the snap to grid is that your nudge keys match whatever your grid is set to so you can nudge something up/down and it will sit where it's supposed to.

I use Points/Picas for my grid (allows for quite fine control with 72pt to the inch) set at 4/pc which is a grid snap every 3 points (24/inch). I then lay everything out according to that grid: fields are 30pt high with 12pt reserved for caption (above) leaving 18pt (.25") for data (for single fields).

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Level 2

Thanks for the tips.  Still not sure why it didn't work right when they were all not named when the tab order was correctly set, kinda crazy.  Knowing what I know now I would have went about building these a lot differently.

Maybe if I get time I'll go back and rebuild them eventually.