Brad,

To my knowledge, this kind of information isn’t available via the scripting API.

If you’re trying to grow the field such that the text always fits, I would suggest you make the field’s width and/or height expandable using the Layout palette. This will ensure that the text always fits (and is always completely visible).

Brad,

I think I understand your problem a little better now. You may still have some options:

• Acrobat 8.0 Dynamic XML Forms: Using Designer 8.0, you can check the “Limit Length to Visible Area” box on the Field tab in the Object palette. This may also work using Designer 8.0 and saving the form as an “Acrobat 7 Dynamic XML Form” but it wouldn’t really be supported.
• Acrobat 7.x PDF Forms: If you’ve saved your form as an Acrobat 7.x PDF form, you can set the Acrobat Field Object‘s doNotScroll property to “true” in order to limit the value’s length to the field’s visible content area as follows, in JavaScript only:

  event.target.getField(GetFQSOMExp(this)).doNotScroll = true;

  Note that this must be done in the field’s Enter event (when the field receives focus). Doing it in the Initialize event is too soon and you won’t have access to the pertaining Acrobat Field Object in order to set the doNotScroll property.

In both cases, this will limit users from entering more text than can fit into the content (value) area of a field. It’s different from setting a maximum character length for the field in that it takes variable width fonts and kerning into consideration.

Esther,

If I understand correctly, the text field within the table row isn’t splitting in two parts with the beginning on page 1 and the remainder on page 2, for example. Instead, the entire table row gets moved onto page 2.

To make sure that the text field within the table row is split into two parts, the table must be placed within a flowed container (that is, a subform with its Content Type property set to “Flowed” — set this via the Subform tab in the Object palette) and the table and table row must both have the “Allow Page Breaks within Content” option checked (also set via the Object palette’s Table and Row tabs, respectively).

Esther,

A flowed container (subform or table) is required if you’re going to make something within it repeatable.

You should be able to select the default text object contained in the first column of a row and change its type (via the Object palette Field tab’s Type property) to a subform. This will give you a positioned subform as a table cell. At that point, if you want the subform within the cell to split across pages, I believe you’ll also have to make it flowed. You can always add a further level of nesting using positioned subforms in order to position fields within that subform at precise locations.

Brent,

Very good question! In order to understand why you can’t adjust the width of a column the same way you can adjust its height, you need to understand a bit about how tables work in XFA.

Tables are essentially <subform> structures where the table itself is a subform with a special “table” layout (which is basically a top-bottom flowed layout). It then contains subforms as its children which each represent a row. These subforms also have a special layout which is, you guessed it, “row” (basically a left-right flowed or western text flowed layout with some slight differences). Since these special subforms are flowed, you can use Instance Manager objects to add/remove instances of rows within a table and cells within rows — as you’ve done already.

Now to get to your question, the height of a row is determined by the tallest cell and all other cells are treated as being that height in the layout even if they aren’t the same height — hence why you can adjust the height of a row by setting the height of a cell.

The width of a cell, however, is set by the column widths defined on the table subform itself in a special attribute called “columnWidths”. It contains a space-delimited list of columns widths. These measurements override any individual cell widths. Therefore, in order to change the width of a cell, you have to change the width of the column it pertains to in the columnWidths attribute which you simply access as a property on the table subform:

MyTableSubform.columnWidths

A suggestion for easily editing this attribute’s value would be to use the JavaScript String object’s “split” method to convert the string list into an array of sizes which you can then manipulate. Although the units (“mm”) will also be part of those numbers, you may specify column widths using other units if you wish.

Last but not least, if the columns don’t appear to render correctly after you set the new column widths, it’s probably because you need to force the form to be re-rendered by using the following statement (this will apply to Acrobat/Reader 8.0 or earlier):

xfa.layout.relayout();

This is a similar bug to the one about adding/removing table columns. This issue is fixed in the Acrobat/Reader 8.1 update.

Thanks a lot Stefan! I would have never figured out that the column widths are stored in a space-delimited string. This is the first dynamic pdf file I have ever created and you and your site have helped me so much. Thanks again.

Hey Stefan,

I have 3 text fields on a page all set to expand and all set to be the same height. Getting the xfa.layout.h for one text field and setting the minH of the other 2 fields to this height. Now my question is when the text field expands over onto a second page the H does grow past the height of the first page. It tells me the height is 265 mm…when there’s another 100 mm on the second page. I do I get the full height when it’s over onto a second or third or more pages.

Tyler

Hi Stefan,

I have a few issues with my form that I am trying to create in Adobe Designer 7. First, I have two options using radio button, each options has descriptions/text fields that need to be filled in once checked. Is there a way that if one option is selected, only the selected description/text fields are visible and the other otpion/descriptions/tex fields will be hidden? Second, what is the script for automatically populate information from one field into another because the checkbox was checked? Third, expanding the field automatically, I have been trying everything that I’ve read from this page and it still does not work. I have the text field that will allow mutiple lines, what is it that I am missing in order for the form to grow when more texts are being added.

Hello Stefan,

I have two questions.

Question 1
I know how to make expandable flowing text fields on multiple pages. But the problem I encounter is when the expandable text field flows onto another page, it creates a new blank page with the expanded text on it. Is there a way to have the expanded text roll over on to the next page of the form, pushing the next pages content down to accomodate it.

Question 2
Is there a way to create a text field that has horizontal lines populated in it to accomodate the people that need to hand write in the form while the text perfectly matching up as if it was underlined for the users that electronically fill out the form?

Kyle,

In response to question 1: If the expandable text field is inside a flowed subform, all objects inside that subform that follow that text field as it expands in height will continue to flow on the next page just below the text field.

In response to question 2: I don’t know of a way to produce horizontal lines. The only thing I can think of that comes close is to specify a comb on the field but this only works for single-lined fields.

Figured it out. Thank you for your time Stefan. The problem was, under pagination, I needed to have the subforms that are created for my pages to be “following previous”, it was defaulted to “top of next page”.

Joey,

It sounds like you should be giving your text box a set width and an expandable height so that it doesn’t grow in width but just in height. Then you would need to put it in a flowed subform and make sure that the subform’s content can break across pages (both these settings can be found on the “Object palette > Subform tab”). Note that all subforms up to the page subform will need to be flowed in order for the text field to successfully break across the page.

Joey,

That’s the problem: When you import a form as “fixed pages” (as you have done with your InDesign document), you cannot use the subform object. Furthermore, you cannot use “dynamic” features such as “expand to fit” on a text field. This is because the PDF you end-up with, while staying true-to-form to your original document layout, is essentially a static PDF which doesn’t support any dynamic features (e.g. showing/hiding fields, growing/shrinking fields, adding/removing subform instances, etc.).

I’m afraid the only alternative is to import your form as “flowable layout” however I can’t guarantee that you’ll like the results.

Jacelyn,

The problem with the expandable field overlapping the other field beside it is that the fields aren’t in a flowable container (a subform with flowed content). Therefore the second field is fixed in position on the form. If both fields were in a flowed container and the first expanded, the second would automatically be shifted to the right or downwards (depending on the flow direction) to accommodate for the first field’s new width/height.

You should be able to select both fields and then right-click and choose “wrap in subform”. That will place both fields in a single subform. Then, with the subform selected, set “Object palette > Subform tab > Content” to “Flowed” and, if you want your fields to remain side-by-side, set “Flow Direction” to “Western Text” (which means “left-to-right, top-to-bottom”).

If you set the flow direction to “Western Text”, increasing the width of the first field such that the second can no longer fit next to it without going outside the form’s right hand margin should cause the second field to essentially wrap around end-up below the first field (on the “second line”).

Kelly,

The issue here is likely with the way you imported your Word document into Designer: When you import the form with “fixed pages” (a.k.a. as “artwork”), the result is an XFA form with the original PDF (or the Word document converted to a PDF) as its background. While the results are aesthetically precise (i.e. it preserves any kind of special layout you might have had in your original document), this type of form cannot be dynamic (e.g. fields in it can’t expand to fit, as you’ve observed, and you can’t have sections that expand or contract, amongst other things).

If you import your Word document using the “Interactive Form with Flowable Layout” option in Designer, then you’ll get a form that may not look exactly like your original document however you’ll be able to save it as a Dynamic PDF form and make fields and sections expandable.

Dear Stefan,

I just found your blog and must thank you for the information I have so far gathered. I am having the same problem as Esther above where my expandable text fields that are placed within a Table Cell don’t flow properly. Instead of information being on both the first and second page the whole table row jumps pages. This is a problem is someone inputs more information than one page can hold and Acrobat doesn’t know what to do anymore.

I have created text fields in subforms that expand properly no problem. I have also gone into the Object\Table, and Row properties and checked “Allow Page Breaks within Content.” Is there anything that you can think of that would be causing problems. If seeing the file would help I have posted it here

sbrof,

I think it’s the buttons (MoveUp, MoveDown, RemoveItem) inside the table row that are preventing the breaks within the Item_OT and Issue_OT text fields.

If you create a new table with a row containing only multi-line, height-expandable text fields as cells and allow page breaks within the content of the table and the row, the fields should break assuming there’s a common break point amongst the content in all fields/cells.

Also note that this will only work with Designer 8.2 and Acrobat 9.0 since those versions introduce the ability to break field content across page boundaries.

Sylvia,

I’m quite certain caption text in a checkbox will wrap if you size the caption area large enough to fit the text. If it doesn’t, I think you’ll have to set the checkbox’s “Layout palette > Caption > Placement property” to “None” and use a separate text object for the caption.

Anthony,

That’s right: Splitting text field values between pages is a new feature in Designer 8.2 and Acrobat/Reader 9.

duane,

I know what you mean. I wish it resized in real-time but that hasn’t changed in Acrobat/Reader 9.

Sorry, to add to that..the field keeps giving me a plus sign and doesn’t expand, even though its checked off as expand to fit. any ideas??

Hi Stefan,
I have a document with a fixed layout for the first page and possibly dynamic layout for the following pages.
I need a multi line text field on the first page that should behave as follows: If the amount of text exceeds the visible part, it should be replaced by something like “for details see last page…”, and then the complete text should appear there. So I think I need the following:
1. Determine if the field is full, without restricting the number of characters entered.
2. Create a new field on the last page

I haven’t tried number 2 yet because I did not succeede with number one. So any idea for queastion 1?

Thanks

I am using LiveCycle 8.2 and want an expandable text field, and the next items to move down to accommodate the text. I have it (along with some other items) in a subform that is “positioned” and the subform below it is also “positioned” but those two subforms are within another subform which is “flowed,” so as I understand it from the other responses, the subform below SHOULD move down to accommodate the expanded text. I have checked off the height as expand to fit, which it does, but it appears over the next set of items. I know this is possible; I have used a form with it, but unfortunately, that form is protected or I’d crib the scripts, etc. Oh, yeah, it is a dynamic form.
Thanks! This is a GREAT forum!!!!!!

Hi

Is it possible to make expandable form fields whereby the text box will expand to accommodate all the copy and flow the remaining fields down the document, using Acrobat Pro only?

Thanks

Hi Stefan,

Love your site! Question regarding this post. I have a textfield with a default value that is multiple lines entered in my field. The objective is if the user choses not to include this line or part of the line, they can highlight the text and remove it.

In the object field section I have “Allow multiple lines” checked and in the layout section I have “Expand to fit” selected as well.

I have the following in the exit under javascript

this.minH = “0”

This works to shrink the textfield to the necessary size however, if the user removes the entire text a space remains (which I am guessing is the minimum size for the font). This is not what I want.

I want if the user removes the entire text from the textfield it makes the text field the size of 0 (like a flowable subform does when it is empty).

I have tried to add validation script to make the subform it is in “hidden” if the minH – 0 and I have tried if the text field =null but neither work properly.

I am using LiveCycle ES 8.2

Any help or advise would be very helpful.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Thank you Stefan!

Update,

Stefan I now know what Im doing, form work awesome…on problem how does on add a header or footer to these dynamic documents. Going to document tab in pdf does not allow adding.

Please help

Stefan,

What can I say? You the man!!!

Thanks!

Kevin,

You would need to wrap your drop down list and text field into a subform and place that subform inside another subform that has flowed content (“Object palette > Subform tab > Content property” is set to “Flowed”). Then you would make the inner subform, that contains your two fields, repeatable by setting its “Object palette > Binding tab > Repeat Subform for Each Data Item property”.

Once this is done, you can use the Instance Manager in a script to add/remove instances of the subform containing the two fields. For example, say the inner subform was named “row”. You would do the following to add an instance in the Click event of a button:

// JavaScript
row.addInstance(0);

Pat,

Unfortunately, drop down lists do not support the “expand to fit” features (and neither do list boxes).

Emmanuel,

Just make sure your cell fields are set to expand to fit their value vertically (height-wise).

Note that only certain types of fields can expand to fit their value and when in a table, they can only expand vertically. Having non-expandable fields (e.g. drop down lists) in a row, however, will not preclude other expandable fields in the row (and the row itself) from expanding.

Campbell,

Text in listbox and drop down list items cannot be wrapped.

Laurie,

I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for you. When you import a Word document directly, the only option is to import with flowable layout so if the auto-expand attribute isn’t being retained, it must be because the import tool doesn’t support/recognize it.

hi
if we have oneTextField and its data size is increasing more than a page how get dispaly that textfield on the form so that data scroll bar should not come

how to find out line number in pdf

@Senthilkumar,

In what context or for what purpose are you trying to determine the line number?

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for your help. I have a few other questions which if you could tell me if they can be done and how, I would be greatly indebted to you.

1) is there a way to place an editable field, as a header, that the Controller of the form would fill out and then lock – so that the users could then fill out the form but not have access to the Controller information? The kind of information I am talking about would be Revision and Document numbers, Effective dates, and so on.

2) is there a way to add a “page number” to each ‘page’ – perhaps by adding some code after so many lines of code. And is there a quick way to turn on code count instead of me counting line by line?

I am using LiveCycle Designer ES 8.2 and have never used it before, and have not had any s/w coding experience.
I need to get these things done.
Thanks so much!

@marlaz,

“Lockable Editable Field”: Yes and no. You can control a field’s editability by setting the “access” attribute on a field to “readOnly”. You could then set this attribute in the field’s Initialize event if there some piece of data that’s filled-in that only a Controller would fill-in. For example, if the document number is filled, then you know you have the Controller’s information so you can “lock” the Controller’s fields to prevent the current user from editing them.

“Page number”: Yes, switch to “View > Master Page”, drag text object onto the master page (which is essentially the static background for all body pages in your form), type “Page “, then choose “Insert > Page Number”, then type ” of “, then choose “Insert > Number of Pages”. Make sure you place this text object outside the pink border which identifies the content area (this pink area is where body content will appear one every master page generated, one for each page).

“Table rows repeating in Reader”: That’s strange — especially if they only repeat in Reader and not in Acrobat. The only reason I can think of is that the PDF you’re opening in Reader has data for that table saved with it and the data is being loaded when the form is open, creating the row instances.

Hi Stefan,
thanks for all of your help! I was able to complete my forms and they work great!

I have a new form to begin. This time, the Form user will have attachments that they will want to somehow link into or attach to the Form that I create.

What is the way that users will be able to add their attachment(s) to my form? Will they need access to LCD? Can they do something like this in Adobe Reader, as I will have given them the extended permissions?

I bought the book Creating Dynamic Forms wtih Adobe LDC by J.P. Terry but it doesn’t address this or several other issues that would have been nice to know.

Thanks for your anticipated answers!

@Tanya,

Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to do this. Text doesn’t “flow” from one text field to another without some cleaver coding (not exactly what you want, but the principle is the same).

@marlaz (June 15, 2010),

You can for a master page to be used only on the last page of a form by using XFA’s Simplex/Duplex feature which you can activate by selecting a pageSet (named “(Master Pages)” in the Hierarchy palette) then setting the “Object palette > Page Set tab > Printing property” to something other than “Page Occurrence”. Then select a master page and set its “Object palette > Pagination tab > Master Page Applies To > Placement property” to “Last Page (in Page Set)”. Then you can set the table’s pagination to place it on that special master page, thereby ensuring that the table ends-up on the last page.

But even simpler is just to make your body pages flow and put your table inside a subform that is as tall as a page, doesn’t allow page breaks in its content and is located after all other content in the form. This will also ensure that the table ends-up on the last page (and on a page of its own).

@Chris,

You call the field on the master page a “floating field”. To me, that means a field that you inserted into a text object by clicking in a text object and choosing the “Insert > Floating Field”. Is that really what you mean?

The page number is a floating field as well, but it gets its value programmatically, not from data.

Your other field likely has a data binding. What kind of data are you wanting to merge into this field and what is the desired result? Is it one value per page?

Hi Stefan,

I’m fairly new to LiveCycle too, and was wondering if there’s any way to set the Master Page height dynamically based on the height of the subform that contains my input fields?

My forms aren’t intended to be printed, so what I’m trying to do is eliminate any pagination that is caused as the various fields are made visible/hidden.

I started to solve the problem by manually setting the Paper Type (in the master page tab) to ‘custom’, then choosing a height that would acommodate all the fields if they were visible, but this meant there was often a lot of white space at the bottom of the form. So next I tried to set the master page height to the same as the subform that contains the fields – and that’s where I’ve got stuck. I’ve tried manually setting the paper type to custom, then changing the master page height using:

form1.#subform[0].Button1::click – (JavaScript, client)
var newHeight = xfa.layout.h(xfa.resolveNode(“form1.#subform”), “in”);
xfa.form.form1.Page1.h = newHeight + “in”;

…but I’m having no luck and I’d be grateful for any help!

Thanks in advance

Ben

@Ben,

Unfortunately, I don’t believe it’s possible to alter the height of master pages (and even the content areas that they contain) at runtime. The implications to the layout engine would be large.

You can, however, change what page a subform is placed on at runtime. That means you would have to have some preset master pages and you would choose the one that is the best fit.

To change the page on which a body page subform is placed, you can do this:

// JavaScript:
BodyPage.resolveNode("#breakBefore").target = "Page2";
xfa.layout.relayout();

The script above assumes that you have configured the BodyPage subform to be initially placed on a specific page (e.g. a default page) otherwise it won’t work because the < element won’t exist for the BodyPage subform. You can place a subform on a page by setting the “Object palette > Pagination tab > Place property” to “On Page {X}”.