Tab Order in Fillable Form  SOLVED

Forum for the PDF-XChange Editor - Free and Licensed Versions

Moderators: TrackerSupp-Daniel, Tracker Support, Paul - Tracker Supp, Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team, Chris - Tracker Supp, Sean - Tracker, Ivan - Tracker Software, Tracker Supp-Stefan

Post Reply
cgolds
User
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2014 3:01 pm

Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by cgolds »

I have a fillable form created in Adobe Acrobat. Within the form, I set the tab order for the specific fields. However, when opening the form in PDF X-Change Editor, the tab order is gone. Is there any way to set the tab order in PDF X-Change Editor? Thank you.
User avatar
Patrick-Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 1645
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:14 pm
Location: Vancouver Island
Contact:

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Patrick-Tracker Supp »

Hello cgolds,

Thanks for the post. I believe the tab order should be set in the file itself. Could you please post the file so we can investigate further?

If the file contains sensitive information, you can send the file to support@pdf-xchange.com with a link back to this post.

Thank you!
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Cheers,

Patrick Charest
Tracker Support North America
cgolds
User
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2014 3:01 pm

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by cgolds »

I have attached the form. As I said, when I created it in Acrobat, I set the tab order by rows, beginning at the top, all through the document. Opened in PDF X-Change, it tabs randomly by columns. I understand that the tabbing is set in PDF X-Change when the form is created; however, what I hope to do is modify the tabbing order in this existing form. Thanks for your help.
Attachments
Time and Expense Report - Fillable.pdf
(185.39 KiB) Downloaded 246 times
Time and Expense Report - Fillable.pdf
(185.39 KiB) Downloaded 126 times
User avatar
Patrick-Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 1645
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:14 pm
Location: Vancouver Island
Contact:

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Patrick-Tracker Supp »

Hello cgolds,

Thank you for the post. Unfortunately we do not yet have the option to edit forms. I have send this file to the development team for investigation into why it is tabbing vertically in the Editor and horizontally in Adobe.

Thanks for your patience and understanding here!
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Cheers,

Patrick Charest
Tracker Support North America
briefigs
User
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 16, 2017 4:02 pm

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by briefigs »

Hello,
Did this issue get resolved? I am editing a fillable pdf that was created in Acrobat Pro and I need to know how to set the tab order in PDF Xchange Editor. Thanks.
User avatar
Patrick-Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 1645
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:14 pm
Location: Vancouver Island
Contact:

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Patrick-Tracker Supp »

Hello briefigs,

Thank you for the post. This has been resolved in the latest build. In fact we have also added the ability to edit and create fillable forms. You can download the latest installer here: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFXVE6.zip

Cheers!
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Cheers,

Patrick Charest
Tracker Support North America
briefigs
User
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 16, 2017 4:02 pm

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by briefigs »

Hi Patrick,
I'm using that version right now to edit the fillable form but I can't figure out where to set the tab order. I can turn the tab order tags on (they're visible as little numbers in the top left corner) but I can't change them. In the user manual it just says this is a function that doesn't exist yet.

Also, I'm trying to set a default text in my text boxes and I can't get that function to work either. I have saved the text in the "default values" line in the widget properties, but it doesn't show up in my document.

thanks!
Brie
User avatar
Tracker Supp-Stefan
Site Admin
Posts: 17818
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Brie,

Open a document with form fields, and then show the fields Pane (View -> Other panes -> Fields) - and then in the "Options" area for that pane select to show the fields by page.
You can now see the fields arranged in their tab order. You can now drag them up or down with the mouse to change that order:
fields_pane.png
If you want - you can also right click over a field on the page - and from it's context menu select "Show Tab numbers":
Show_tab_numbers.png
Show_tab_numbers.png (14.53 KiB) Viewed 4100 times
So that you can also visually see their order on the page.

Regards,
Stefan
Willy Van Nuffel
User
Posts: 2347
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:10 pm

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Answer for the second part of the question:

To make show up the default values, click Form > Reset Form.
Now close and save your form in this situation.

At re-open, you will see that the text-fields will show their default value.

Best regards.
User avatar
Patrick-Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 1645
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:14 pm
Location: Vancouver Island
Contact:

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Patrick-Tracker Supp »

Thanks for the assist, Willy :)
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Cheers,

Patrick Charest
Tracker Support North America
briefigs
User
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 16, 2017 4:02 pm

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form  SOLVED

Post by briefigs »

Thanks Patrick, Willy & Stefan - your suggestions worked and my form looks great ;)

One note to others with this problem: In the field pane, after ordering by page, you may not be able to move the fields into the desired tab order. It wouldn't work for me until I changed the settings in Options - Tab Order from "Manual" to "Order tabs by structure." After clicking on that, I could move the tabs by clicking, holding till an orange line appears, and dragging the tab.
Willy Van Nuffel
User
Posts: 2347
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:10 pm

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

A short reaction on Brie's remark...

I have the impression that this problem just occurs during the first time use of the 'tab order' feature.
I have also seen this behavior.

Now, I have tried to reproduce this, and I am not able to anymore.
Maybe it has to do with some registry settings that are not yet there when 'tab order' (fields) is being used the first time.

The only situation where Manually ordering does not work is when "Alphabetical order" has been selected.
At that time, the "Tab Order" entry is grayed out and it is not possible to order the fields via drag-and-drop.
The behavior in this situation is correct, in my opinion.

Question for Brie:
Are you still able to reproduce this at your side?
User avatar
Tracker Supp-Stefan
Site Admin
Posts: 17818
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Brie,

Glad to hear you managed to get it working eventually!

@Willy - the normal behaviour for the editor is to read the registry, and if a value is not set there - use the default - so it should not make this feature unresponsive in the first place, but I will ask my colleagues to take a look.

Regards,
Stefan
User avatar
Ivan - Tracker Software
Site Admin
Posts: 3549
Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:36 pm
Location: Vancouver Island - Canada
Contact:

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Ivan - Tracker Software »

The only situation where Manually ordering does not work is when "Alphabetical order" has been selected.
At that time, the "Tab Order" entry is grayed out and it is not possible to order the fields via drag-and-drop.
The behavior in this situation is correct, in my opinion.
In "Alphabetical Order" mode, the Fields pane shows fields in a hierarchical structure based on their names, ignoring pages where the fields (widgets) are located. Tab orders, on other hands, relevant only per page (at least for non-XFA forms).

So, it is possible to change tab order for fields in "Order by page" mode and only within their pages.
Tracker Software (Project Director)

When attaching files to any message - please ensure they are archived and posted as a .ZIP, .RAR or .7z format - or they will not be posted - thanks.
Willy Van Nuffel
User
Posts: 2347
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:10 pm

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Hello Stefan and Ivan,

In fact I had two remarks:
1) it seems like at the first time use it was not possible to drag-and-drop the items in the Fields pane
>> Still to investigate ?
2) drag-and-drop does not work when Alphabetical order is checked. This behavior is considered as correct.
>> Confirmed by Ivan.

Best regards.

:-)
User avatar
Tracker Supp-Stefan
Site Admin
Posts: 17818
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Tab Order in Fillable Form

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Thanks for following up Willy,

Indeed - the Alphabetical order behavious was logical and expected :)

I will check with Ivan again on the other issue for the first time use.

Regards,
Stefan
Post Reply