Adobe Acrobat XI - Manual (Page 245)

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Forms
Last updated 1/14/2015
About form field properties
How a form field behaves is determined by settings in the Properties dialog box for that individual field. You can set
properties that apply formatting, determine how the form field information relates to other form fields, impose
limitations on what the user can enter in the form field, trigger custom scripts, and so forth.
You can set a variety of properties for an Acrobat form field, depending on the form field type. The properties for each
type of form field are selected on a series of tabs. When you change a property, it is applied as soon as you select another
property or press Enter.
All types of form fields have a General tab and an Actions tab. Other tabs appear only in specific types of form fields.
The Options tab appears for most form field types but the options available are unique to each type of form field.
Two items are available on every tab. If you select one on any tab, a check mark will appear, and the option will be
checked on all tabs. These are: LockedWhen selected, prevents any further changes to any form field
properties.CloseCloses the form field Properties dialog box. If you are changing the properties of multiple fields, you
can leave the Properties dialog box open. Click on each field to change its properties.
Note: If you select Locked on any tab, it locks all options for the field, not just the options on that tab.
Modify form field properties
You can access Acrobat form field properties only when you are in editing mode. You can change the properties for
multiple form fields at a time.
1 If you are not in form editing mode, choose Tools > Forms > Edit.
2 Open the Properties dialog box using one of the following methods:
• To edit a single form field, double-click it or right-click it and choose Properties.
• To edit multiple form fields, select the fields that you want to edit, right-click one of the selected fields, and
choose Properties.
3 Change the properties on each of the available tabs, as needed.
The property is changed as soon as you select another property or press Enter.
4 Click Close to close the Properties dialog box.
If you select form fields that have different property values, some options in the Properties dialog box are not available.
Otherwise, changes to the available options are applied to all selected form fields.
To avoid accidental changes to the form field, select Locked in the lower-left corner of the Properties dialog box before
you close it. To unlock, click the option again.
General tab for form field properties
The General tab appears for all types of form fields and includes the following options:
Name Specifies the unique name of the selected form field.
Tooltip Displays text that the hesitant user may find helpful in filling in the form field. Tooltips appear when the pointer
hovers briefly over the form field.
Form Field Specifies whether the form field can be seen, either on screen or in print. The choices are: Visible, Hidden,
Visible But Doesn’t Print, and Hidden But Printable.
Orientation Rotates the form field by 0, 90, 180, or 270 Degrees
Read Only Prevents the user from changing the form field content.