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Mouseover not working in Acrobat X

AcrobatCoffee
Registered: Aug 23 2011
Posts: 12

I want certain areas on each page of a PDF to have text appear when the user moves the mouse over the areas in question. I believe I'm following all of the correct steps for accomplishing this. Here's what I'm doing:
 
1) Click on "Tools" on upper righthand side (to show the Tools pane)
2) Click on Forms-->Edit
3) Acrobat responds "Currently there are no form fields in this PDF. Do you want Acronat to detect form fields for you?"; click No.
4) Cascading Task options appear on right; click on Create New Field --> Text Field
5) Use mouse to drag marquee around desired area of screen to make rectangle.
6) Assign field name in yellow dialog window
7) Right-click on rectangle and select Properties.
8) On General tab select Hidden under Common Properties
9) On Appearance tab select Border Color, Fill Color, etc.
10) On Options tab select Alignment:center; create text for box in Default Value field; check Multi-line checkbox; uncheck Check spelling checkbox.
11) On Actions tab Select Trigger: Mouse Enter; in Select Action: Show/hide a field; click [Add...] button; in Show/Hide dialog box select Name of field and select Show radio button; click OK; now "Mouse Enter -- Show/hide a field" appears in Actions window.
12) Again on Actions tab select Trigger: Mouse Exit; in Select Action: Show/hide a field; click [Add...] button; in Show/Hide dialog box select Name of field and select Hide radio button; click OK; now "Mouse Exit -- Show/hide a field" appear in Actions window.
13) No changes made to Format, Validate, or Calculate tabs
14) Click [Close] to exit Properties window.
15) Save document by pressing File->Save.
 
At this point the rectangle is greyed with the Field name displayed. So I close and reopen the PDF. When I move my cursor over the area that I edited, no text appears.
 
What step am I missing?
 
I'm using Acrobat X version 10.1.0.
 
Many thanks in advance for your help!

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 10.1, Windows
George_Johnson
Online
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1875
When attempting to mouse over the area, make sure the Hand tool is selected, as opposed to something like the Object Select tool. Also, it usually is better to use a button instead of a text field.
AcrobatCoffee
Registered: Aug 23 2011
Posts: 12
It doesn't matter which tool I have selected, the mouseover effect doesn't happen. When I have the hand tool selected, it doesn't work; when I have the standard cursor selected, it doesn't work. It should happen whenever any given cursor is placed over the area in question.

I'm happy to send you the PDF and correspond privately...I'm really desperate to get this to work!
George_Johnson
Online
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1875
Make sure the field is not read-only. If that doesn't work, I'd be happy to take a look at a sample document.
AcrobatCoffee
Registered: Aug 23 2011
Posts: 12
Setting the field to read-only or not isn't among the options in the editing procedure I followed, which I outlined above. I just clicked on the properties for the field and I see nothing about read-only status. Where would I check for that?

...and how can I send the PDF to you?
George_Johnson
Online
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1875
Sometimes the read-only status gets set to the default. You should see where to set it on the General tab of the field properties dialog.

You can email me at: acroscript at gmail dot com
AcrobatCoffee
Registered: Aug 23 2011
Posts: 12
I've found it and it's not checked, thus it's not read-only.

I've sent the PDF to your email; check for incoming yahoo mail from ivescharles.
maxwyss
Registered: Jul 25 2006
Posts: 255
From the description, it seems to me that there is something missing. The mechanism to show/hide fields when one moves over a field requires at least two fields: the "trigger" field (the one specifying the area you want the other field to show or hide) and the "target" field (the one you want to show and hide).

The procedure followed makes me believe that it is the trigger field, because that's the field which gets the show/hide commands. But then, it must be visible, otherwise, it can not be active. Therefore, in step 8, make it visible (or visible but does not print). Also, it is better to use a Button field as the trigger field because you can not write into a Button field. And you would set border color and fill color to "transparent". And, last but not least, in order to specify which fields to show and hide in the same procedure, the fields you will show and hide have to be defined already.

So, you will first add the field(s) which should show and hide (following the relevant steps in the procedure.


HOWEVER, if with "text to appear" you mean the mousetip text, then you need only one single field. But then, all you need to do is defining the field, set its appearance (as unobstructive as possible), and enter your text into the "short description" field in the General tab.


Hope this can help.

Max Wyss.