Hi,
  I hope someone can shed some light on a PDF form problem that I'm
experiencing.  My company is using PDF forms online where contractors
from different states can bring it up, fill out the editable fields
and save the form or print it out.  This can either be done online or
on their local machines after downloading them.  These forms are very
similar with the exception that forms for CA users would have
California in the form, Colorado for CO users, and so on...  Other
than that, the fields are the same.  The problem is when I bring up a
form for CO (Colorado) users, fills out the first field, tabs to the
next field, the content in the first field disappears.  If I tab back
to the first field, then the content is displayed as highlighted, and
disappears again when I tab out.  This happens for all fields.  Funny
thing is, the CA form works fine and shows the content of the fields
already filled out.  But the CO form does not.  The content doesn't
show when I print it out.  Whoever created these forms is no longer
with the company.  I'm using Acrobat Reader 4.0.  Any help on this
matter would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Ken.

A few possibilities.

You will need the full version of Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader) to do any of these.

The field could have been erroneously configured to do this. Check for any JavaScript that the field 
may contain. Certain Format, Keystroke, Calculation, or onBlur scripts can cause this sort of effect.

Perhaps another field is applying an effect on this problematic field. You would have to track down 
the script that is causing this effect and remove it.

The field may have become corrupted. A similar situation to this has happened to me a few times in 
the past. In most cases you need to delete the field from the document (always work on a copy of the 
form), and then do a Save As (not a Save), to force Acrobat to re-write the form. Then close the 
form and close Acrobat. Restart Acrobat, and re-open the form, then rebuild the field. DO NOT COPY 
AND PASTE THE FIELD FROM THE ORIGINAL FORM. This will only reproduce the corruption. Instead create 
the field from scratch, and try the form again. In one rare case it happened that my form was too 
corrupted and I had to trash it. Hopefully this won't happen to you.


Bryan





HT wrote:
> Hi,
>   I hope someone can shed some light on a PDF form problem that I'm
> experiencing.  My company is using PDF forms online where contractors
> from different states can bring it up, fill out the editable fields
> and save the form or print it out.  This can either be done online or
> on their local machines after downloading them.  These forms are very
> similar with the exception that forms for CA users would have
> California in the form, Colorado for CO users, and so on...  Other
> than that, the fields are the same.  The problem is when I bring up a
> form for CO (Colorado) users, fills out the first field, tabs to the
> next field, the content in the first field disappears.  If I tab back
> to the first field, then the content is displayed as highlighted, and
> disappears again when I tab out.  This happens for all fields.  Funny
> thing is, the CA form works fine and shows the content of the fields
> already filled out.  But the CO form does not.  The content doesn't
> show when I print it out.  Whoever created these forms is no longer
> with the company.  I'm using Acrobat Reader 4.0.  Any help on this
> matter would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
> 
> Ken.

I was using Acrobat Reader 4.0.  I installed 5.0.5 and tried it again,
and it works fine.  Wonder if it's a version compatibility issue.  In
either case, I'll look into your suggestion Bryan.  Thanks alot for
your help.

ThePDFExpert <bryang@sympatico.ca> wrote in message news:<40188C8C.8070405@sympatico.ca>...
> A few possibilities.
> 
> You will need the full version of Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader) to do any of these.
> 
> The field could have been erroneously configured to do this. Check for any JavaScript that the field 
> may contain. Certain Format, Keystroke, Calculation, or onBlur scripts can cause this sort of effect.
> 
> Perhaps another field is applying an effect on this problematic field. You would have to track down 
> the script that is causing this effect and remove it.
> 
> The field may have become corrupted. A similar situation to this has happened to me a few times in 
> the past. In most cases you need to delete the field from the document (always work on a copy of the 
> form), and then do a Save As (not a Save), to force Acrobat to re-write the form. Then close the 
> form and close Acrobat. Restart Acrobat, and re-open the form, then rebuild the field. DO NOT COPY 
> AND PASTE THE FIELD FROM THE ORIGINAL FORM. This will only reproduce the corruption. Instead create 
> the field from scratch, and try the form again. In one rare case it happened that my form was too 
> corrupted and I had to trash it. Hopefully this won't happen to you.
> 
> 
> Bryan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> HT wrote:
> > Hi,
> >   I hope someone can shed some light on a PDF form problem that I'm
> > experiencing.  My company is using PDF forms online where contractors
> > from different states can bring it up, fill out the editable fields
> > and save the form or print it out.  This can either be done online or
> > on their local machines after downloading them.  These forms are very
> > similar with the exception that forms for CA users would have
> > California in the form, Colorado for CO users, and so on...  Other
> > than that, the fields are the same.  The problem is when I bring up a
> > form for CO (Colorado) users, fills out the first field, tabs to the
> > next field, the content in the first field disappears.  If I tab back
> > to the first field, then the content is displayed as highlighted, and
> > disappears again when I tab out.  This happens for all fields.  Funny
> > thing is, the CA form works fine and shows the content of the fields
> > already filled out.  But the CO form does not.  The content doesn't
> > show when I print it out.  Whoever created these forms is no longer
> > with the company.  I'm using Acrobat Reader 4.0.  Any help on this
> > matter would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
> > 
> > Ken.

hhpt@hotmail.com (HT) wrote:

>I was using Acrobat Reader 4.0.  I installed 5.0.5 and tried it again,
>and it works fine.  Wonder if it's a version compatibility issue.  

If you want a form to work in Reader 4, you must use one of the base
fonts for every form field. That is the 12-14 font names that appear
above the line.  Otherwise you will see exactly the symptoms you
described, among others.
----------------------------------------
Aandi Inston  quite@dial.pipex.com http://www.quite.com
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