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Has that been noticed before? Combobox options not working when hidden

Forum Index > Forms: Acrobat > Has that been noticed before? Combobox options not working when hidden
2008-10-20 06:45:10
maxwyss
Registered: Jul 25 2006
Posts: 256
Answered

I am astonished, that this one seems to have been unnoticed since at least Acrobat 7: We have a combo box field. Workflow requires that this field is hidden by default. We now have to add an additional option, and remove one.

Easy, isn't it... We go to Select Object mode, select the field and open the properties. We select the option to remove... nothing happens; it gets selected, but its face value and return value are not displayed in the dialog.

Deleting and adding the values seems to work, but there is no feedback that it actually has been done. In order to confirm that the change has happened, we have to close and reopen the properties dialog...

Amazing...

Max.

(found on Intel Mac, OSX 10.4.11, Acrobat 7 and Acrobat 9).

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2008-10-20 14:36:45
#1
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
Hey Max,
I Just tried this on Acrobat 8, same issue. How odd that the functionality of the properties box would be affected by the visibility of the field. This is definately one of the many Legacy Bugs.

Cheers,
Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
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Thom Parker
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2008-10-20 15:31:20
#2
maxwyss
Registered: Jul 25 2006
Posts: 256
Thom,

thanks for the confirmation. And I bet if we go back, the last version which behaves properly is Acrobat 5 ... the best Acrobat ever...

Yeah, let's call it "legacy bug" ... but off the record, I know that we have other terms for that .Maybe it will eventually be fixed...

Max.
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2008-10-20 15:35:10
#3
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
Don't hold your breath;)

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

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2008-10-21 01:44:25
#4
maxwyss
Registered: Jul 25 2006
Posts: 256
> Don't hold your breathAgreed.

But things get even "funnier", and I am still amazed that this did not really get discovered and nobody makes a big fuss about it...

My newest finding is that if you are in Object Selection mode, and need to align/size/distribute fields, you select the fields you want to take into account, and the last one is the "reference" field. Now, if that "reference" field is hidden, and another field of the selection is visible, the field will be added to the selection, but not as Reference field.

In Acrobat 7, deselecting and selecting may eventually make the hidden field the reference field; in Acrobat 9, I have not yet been able to do that.

Bug report, I see you coming...

Max.
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