Text Form Field Automatic Rename / Numbering? Need help!

[ChayimB]

B"H

In Acrobat XI, using a pre-existing PDF made from tables within MS-Word, with hundreds of pages – and 50 or so answers per page (school workbook style Q&A lines and tables with just the bottom line visible for the answer).

I tried first with Live Cycle and it created some of the form fields - leaving me most to create myself.

As make one page and copy the fields from page to page, the field names are the same - therefore the data in the response is duplicated. Help tells me I need to rename each form field - how can I rename all the forms at once, or must I (please say no) rename them one at a time? There are thousands of unique answers and I need a way to automate the renaming - or a better solution. How do I automatically rename 1000’s of text fields?

Someone mentioned something about creating a Java script - about which I know nothing - but is that the solution? If yes – can someone tell me how to apply the script?

Also - if I get one PDF numbered, can I copy / paste form fields from one PDF to another? Assuming they are similar in size and shape etc. just to benefit from not having to number them all again.

OR:

As these files were first opened in LiveCyle from a PDF I made from a MS - Word doc - with thousands of tables  as - some were recognized in LiveCyle - and numbered OK -

Must I go back to Word - and redo the "answer" boxes in a way that Adobe will recognize it as a form?

If yes, what is the defining criteria of a form in a blank PDF?

Or - can LiveCyle make a PDF form from within a Word Doc?

Thank you!

  - Chayim B. Alevsky

[GeneveveX]

Let me shore this up a bit and see if I can make it cleaner while trying to answer all of your questions.

1) I am SO sorry, but I don't know of a way to rename the fields automatically from within designer. On all of my forms I have gone down the list and renamed each of the fields individually. The only way I have seen to automatically rename them is when you are using dynamic subforms and you can put a script on them to rename the fields on the RENDERED pdf form. Which doesn't help you right now. The quickest way I have learned to rename them is to click on the top most field in the hierarchy, press F2, type the new field name, press enter, then arrow down to the next field, rinse and repeat. If you or anyone finds a better way of doing this, I would be MOST glad to see the solution!

2) Yes. Once you have a field or multiple fields created and named in one form, you can copy and paste them into as many other different forms as you want. If you are using EXACTLY the same data every time, I would even suggest looking at using Fragments, as it will make your life a LOT easier.

3 & 4) Yes, you will probably have to redo the answer boxes. Converting froms from something else to Livecycle PDF is tricky and funky. It is possible to convert a Word Doc or almost anything else into a basic PDF form. The problems come in when you start looking at things like dynamic usability and managability when it comes to updates in the future. Sometimes the forms render as images with the fields on top. That certainly won't work if you want dynamic content or to make changes later; you can't change the text of the image. Other times it renders it... okay... but there might be a lot of cleanup work. Sometimes the cleanup work is so much or so time consuming that it would have been easier recreating the form from scratch anyway.

Ultimately, this is going to be a combination of your preference, and how the form will be used by your users as to how it NEEDS to be converted. Personally, I find it easier and quicker just recreating the form from scratch than trying to convert.

[Former Community Member]

Hi All,

I have created a dynamic form using livecycle ES2. I am dynamically adding textfields based on the rowcount. on form:docready event i.e. if rowcount has value 5, it will populate 5 textfields on runtime when the form is rendered in browser. When the user enters 5 different values to the dynamic textfields ,only one value is submitted. This is because i have named only one instance of textfield while designing.

Please suggest some ways asap to dynamically change the name of the textfield while we are creating a new instance of the textfield.

Thanks in advance.