Bringing an overlapping field to the front

This can be done, by carefully controlling the tab order.

Note: the tab order and the stacking order of fields are identical.

Note 2: Since Acrobat 9, it became very difficult to properly control the tab order; it is worthwile to have Acrobat 7 at hand.

This may sound like a lame solution, and it may not fit your circumstance, but I've had some success by simply cutting the underlying field and repasting it on top.

Thanks to both who answered my inquiry. I have found maintaining tab order a rapidly moving target. It seems like the program changes tab order on its own in response to a number of editing actions and it is very frustrating. I've learned it is basically a waste of time to re-order the tab order until one of the very last things in the process of creating a form. I did not know the stacking order and tab order were identical, but that's a valuable piece of information.

I've tried the cutting and repasting solution with mixed results and never could figure out what made it work when it did work.

David,

The tab order bug you mentioned is longstanding and continued (it's still present in Acrobat 10) and is my #1 pet peeve with forms authoring in Acrobat. I urge folks to report it as a bug whenever this comes up, even though Adobe is well aware of it. I hold out hope that more reports will result in some movement on eventually fixing this bug.

You report it here: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

And here: http://forums.adobe.com/community/acrobat/acrobat_feature_request

Will do.