adding a calendar to a form field

Have you searched for a pop up calendar? See [url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/aucbb/viewtopic.php?id=22341]popup calendar options?[/url] for more links.

The calendar is in the Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 toolbox. However, when importing a word
document the only tools available are from your favorites. The date and time field do
not start in your favorites so when you right click on options in edit form fields for the
new word document the date field is not available. There does not seem to be an
appropriate means to bring the date fields, the buttons, the listboxes etc into the available
tools when you right click to bring up the fields to edit the new word document. Also, I am not
sure how to transfer that data from the pdf to a database. If you can't do that, you
could just keep the word document without the form fields?
thanks for your help, although my solution is not resolved at all

I think the manner that the question and answer podium is set up unfortunately
doesn't work! Answers to the questions many times don't answer the real questions
as the person from Adobe answering the questions think that the platform avails things
that it does not avail, such as in my case there is no way to get the date field into the
word form. You can, however, get a textfield into the word form from my environment.
all enviroments are different. It is like this I am on a trip. I call you and ask you where
the nearest restaurant is. The restaurant you know about is closed, but when you were
in this area is was open. so although your solutions might have worked at one time, they
don't work this time. Nobody's fault, just the fact that your system of helping people does
not always help people. I am not saying you never can help people, I am just saying that
the protocol you are proposing to help people is inadequate to give good solutions in all cases.

The name of this forum is Acrobat USERS. This is a user-to-user forum, not Adobe support. The people who post here do it in their own free time and voluntarily.
If you're not happy with the advice you're given here, feel free to contact Adobe directly...
I would suggest preparing your credit-card and a lot of patience waiting on the line.

Good luck, and good bye.

Yes, I agree! Actually we can give some simple suggestions we have ever come across,not be professional. And for this question, I thinks it is impossible to resolve just refer to Adobe Acrobat.

Well, I actually think most advice you'll get here IS professional. In fact, I'm willing to bet that most people who post here have more knowledge and experience with Acrobat than most first-line (and probably second-line) support agents who work for Adobe...

Hi: I don't mean to be a critical guy. Of course, each day we look at something we learn more. I looked into the Adobe help section and there is a statement that you can easily copy the calendars from one document to another. This copying activity does not work if you created the one document into a pdf from a word document. However, if you have created a pdf from a word document and you have your new pdf fields, you can do one thing to help you obtain at least a date field, but you can not add a calendar to my knowledge (but I could be outwitted I know). Go to properties and format and bring down the format of a date, and that format will work in your newly created pdf from a word document. That date format solution is better than nothing if you are preparing yourself later to send data to a table and you require the correct date format. I think that there are many very kind people supplying answers in this forum, and that is really cool! If nothing more, when a person views another person's ideas, it expands our ideas. Thanks for your help.

Hi kenswim,

Yes, you can have a Calendar Date Picker in an Acrobat PDF form- both AcroForms and LiveCycle Designer PDF forms. The calendar date picker is built-in in LiveCycle Designer but NOT in Acrobat. In Acrobat, since Adobe chose not to include a built-in one, there are developers who have independently created them using JavaScript.

Check out this set of Free tools by FormRouter- a calendar date picker for AcroForms is included-
http://www.formrouter.com/tools

Hope this helps,

Dimitri
WindJack Solutions
www.pdfscripting.com
www.windjack.com

You can convert a Word document to a PDF and then either add form fields with Acrobat forms tool or use LiveCycle Designer. LiveCycle Designer includes a date picker feature, but Acrobat does not.

Also LiveCycle Designer can import a Word document, convert the Word Doc to a PDF, and then run the field detection wizard. If the wizard did not detect the date field correctly, you can change it to a date field. And also in LiveCycle Designer you can add your custom format for editing, display, and validation.

If you are going to copy the Acrobat form date picker, then you need to copy a document level JavaScript, a number of hidden form fields that create the pop-up calendar and the control button. Then you will need to adjust some field names within the control button script to get the correct field updated. In Acrobat, you can select some date formats but if you want a custom format, you will need to write some JavaScript, and Acrobat or LiveCycle Designer does not provide any field usage cross referencing tools.

Copying a field is only a simple task if there are no scripts of any kind associated with that field. To copy a field with scripts or used by other fields or functions, will require careful editing of the scripts that access that field.

You have to realize that date calculations and manipulations is not a simple process and can require a lot of detailed coding.

If you are going to create more than a simple form, you will need to learn more about Acrobat and LiveCycle Designer. There are many tutorials, articles and eSeminars on demand at this site that can help you.

Hello

you wrote, "then you need to copy a document level JavaScript". How do you do this copy?

The javascript hidden fields sound like a solution!!!! I am using that designer in Acrobat Pro, as the designer is part of the Acrobat Pro.

Ken

Hi Kenswim,

I suggest again you give the Form Router free tools a try- it takes care of everything gkaiseril mentions for you behind the scenes for adding the date picker, including the Doc Level script. Pretty slick.
http://www.formrouter.com/tools


Hope this helps,

Dimitri
WindJack Solutions
www.pdfscripting.com
www.windjack.com

First there are big differences between Acrobat forms and LiveCycle Designer forms starting at the very low level structure of the PDF file. You have to realize that the PDF format is more of a display system than an authoring or creating system. Also LiveCycle Designer was not even designed by Acrobat, but by JetForms. JetForms was eventually purchased by Acrobat and inserted into Acrobat.

If you are creating your form in LiveCycle Designer, then just make the field a date field and LiveCycle Designer will automatically make the date picker option without any other special changes.

Yes, our free tools are only for the (lighter-weight) AcroForms (non-designer).

Jim Healy
FormRouter, Inc.
Check out our FREE Advanced Acroform Toolset:
http://www.formrouter.com/tools

Thanks: I was thinking I had to write my own calendar in javascript!!!

I'm able to select month and day on the FormRouter calendar -- Is it possible to select the YEAR on the FormRouter calendar?

Have you tried to change the year in the pop-up form field?

Move your mouse pointer over the year, erase the year and enter the year of your choice. The calendar will update and then you can select the date as usual. There could be a delay in the update as the JS for the form fields updates the calendar. The calendar is actually series for hidden form fields. The days are buttons, the months a drop down box and the year a text field.

George,
Thanks for your speedy response. Editing the year works just fine (didn't realize at first that it was editable).
Barbara

@Jim:

when i try to extract the javascript files to the suggested location i get a "password needed" warning on each of them. i don't know the password.

help?

~a

Are you logged is a the Administrator?
Do you have permission add files the the 'Program Folders'?

ahhhh....no.

that's a problem.

thank for the help George.

You could try your user applicaiton file for acrobat.

Hi folks, new to this, new to a mac and new to acrobat. Does the free tool on formrouter also work for Acrobat X for a mac? I want to try and add a drop down calendar to my forms and find it amazing the Adobe haven't released this in their new version despite all the previous queries. Any help really gratefully received.

Yes, it is entirely Acrobat JavaScript and is only accessible by the Acrobat application to add the pop-up calendar. Once added to the PDF and the form is saved, there is no other special coding for the end user.

I think this will add in the Tools well for Acrobat X.

Apologies, I know this isn't a tutorial forum, but just having my mac for a few weeks, I'm still getting used to it. I've downloaded the tool but am at a loss of where and how to install it. Any ideas?

From Free Toolbar for Acrobat:Installation Instrucitons:

1. Download and unzip the AdvancedAcroformToolset.zip
2. Copy all of the JavaScript files to your Acrobat Javascripts directory.

On most Windows machines, the Acrobat Javascripts directory is located at:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\Javascripts

On Mac open Applications> Adobe Acrobat 9> [Then right click on] Adobe Acrobat.app and select "Show Package Contents". In Contents> MacOS> JavaScripts.You need to use the "Finder" (like Windows Explorer) to navigate to the Application folder.

Thank you for a prompt reply, I am using Acrobat X, in the Contents folder, I found the MacOS folder, but there is no javascript folder inside. I have gone through the other folders in the hierarchy and cannot locate it. There are only 3 items AdodeAcrobat Unix file, Preference folder and Updater folder? Should I be looking elsewhere?

Many thanks for the pointers, whilst doing some diggin around I found the Javascripts folder, it was under the resources folder not the MacOS folder, how confusing. The menu bar is called "Plug In Add On Tools" and appears at the side of the screen.

Brilliant. A huge thank you. I'll try it now and no doubt be back with more trivial questions.

My mistake, putting the scripts into this folder only brings them up in the reader not in the editor... However, even here, the tab does not show correctly, it is only partially visible when called up. Any ideas gratefully received.

On my system with Acrobat 9, the user JavaScript folder location is:

/Macintosh HD/Users/george/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/9.0_x86/JavaScripts


For Reader 10, it's:

/Macintosh HD/Users/george/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/10.0/JavaScripts


so look for something similar on your system.

Thank you George, but still no cigar. I've added the scripts to this folder on my machine but the tool bar is still not showing up on the editor, the toolbar on the side of the reader is still only partially visible. I have deleted the scripts.

By editor, I am talking about when I try to create a form c.f when I just click on a pdf and it opens in Acrobat.

At least my competence in finding files and directories is benefitting. Any other suggestions?

Has anyone tried installing the tools onto AcrobatX??

Make sure that you've shut down Acrobat completely and then restart it. Also, though I can't test it at the moment, the toolbars items that are added will not display in the toolbar area, but rather in one of the Tools panes. I don't recall what it's called at the moment.

Thank you for your reply George.

Tried this but no luck, nothing under the tasks pane. When I am in the create form area I don't have the option to select a toolbar. If I put the code in the resources section as stated above, I can add a calendar to the sheet but then I have to save it and open it up again in the create form to edit it further, i am sure this is not how it is supposed to work. If I put the scripts in both the acrobat/10/javascript area and the resources area then i get an error, but the software continues to run.

Is there an easier way as this is such a powerful piece of kit but it seems redundant on my machine.

Is there any way I can show you screen shots or something so that I am clearer? It would be easy on a pc, this is so different.

Does anyone know how to use the LiveCycle date picker to limit the selection options to only month and year without having the user select a actual day? I am asking several questions where the end user may know the Month and Year but would likely not remember the actual day. Unfortunately, I do not see a way around how the date picker forces end users to select an actual day from the calendar. I really cannot switch to AcroForms at this point and need to find a LiveCycle solution.

I was able to edit the FormRouter calendar to add a drop down to select the year. I am a newbie script / Adobe form guy, so I am sure my solution is not as elegant as some of you can come up with. However, here’s what I did.

After examining the script, to see how that field was used, I simply created a new dropdown list field and named it “FR_00000_Calendar.CalendarYeara”. The year field in the original is named “FR_00000_Calendar.CalendarYear”. I added selections for 2011 through 2025 (You could add as many as you like.). Then matched all the properties to those of the original field.

Then renamed the original field to “FR_00000_Calendar.CalendarYearOld” and renamed my dropdown list field to “FR_00000_Calendar.CalendarYear”. Resized to match the original field and moved the old one out and the new one in to the calendar frame.

So far, it seems to be working like a charm. I hope this helps.

I downloaded the calendar addon from http://www.formrouter.com/tools and it installed just fine but when I try to add the calendar to my pdf, it won't let me. I wonder what I need to do? I'm using Acrobat 9 Pro on a Mac.