Adding instructions to a PDF

Use the Form Tool bar in Acrobat 8.0 Pro.

Add a button (visible but does not print) and two text fields (both hidden).
One text field for the title ("helpTitle") of the instruction and the other for the content ("helpContents") of the instruction. Set properties for the content and select multi-line.

Set the field properties for the buttons Javascript action.

Add a JavaScript Action for the Mouse Enter mouse behavior and add the following code in the JavaScript Edit dialog box:

van f = this.getField("helpTitle");
var g = this.getField("he!pContents");
f.hidden = true;
g.hidden = true;

For the Mouse Exit behavior, the true statements are change to false.

van f = this.getField("he!pTitle");
var g = this.getField("helpContents");
f.hidden = false;
g.hidden = false;

The preceding scripts accomplish the job. However, one caveat in using these scripts is when a user opens the PDF document and views the instructions, then closes the document without making any changes, Acrobat prompts the user to Save changes. To eliminate the warning dialog box when no changes are made to the PDF form, rewrite the scripts as shown below:

var f = this.getField("helpTitle");
var g = this.getField("helpContents");
var bDirty = this.dirty;
f.hidden = false; //true for Mouse Exit script
g.hidden = false; //true for Mouse Exit script
this.dirty = bDirty;

This links to the example will expire in 3 days: [url=http://wl.filegenie.com/~pdfmaker/showHide.pdf]http://wl.filegenie.com/~pdfmaker/showHide.pdf[/url]