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Newbie question on pre-filling fields in a document

Forum Index > Forms: Acrobat > Newbie question on pre-filling fields in a document
2008-11-21 09:27:58
thelemur
Registered: Nov 21 2008
Posts: 9

I'm pretty new to Acrobat. I have Acrobat Professional 7 on my Mac, and a friend has asked me to assist him with creating a document.

We have a 20 page Word document that has repetitive fields throughout the document. The document gets completed for a new purpose frequently, and we'd like a way to enter each field once and then have it pre-fill all the fields in the document that are of the same value. E.g. if we enter a NAME it should fill in all fields in the document where the persons NAME is required, which could be a dozen times.

Ideally, there would be a new 1st page in the document with 5-10 of these common values (Name, address, etc..) and the person using the document could just fill in the front page and then print the 20 page document. I hope this makes sense! :)

Is this possible?

Thanks!

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 7.0, Macintosh
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2008-11-21 10:18:52
#1
George_Johnson
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
Yes, all you need to do is give each field the same field name.

George
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2008-11-21 10:59:20
#2
thelemur
Registered: Nov 21 2008
Posts: 9
George_Johnson wrote:
Yes, all you need to do is give each field the same field name.George
I don't how to create fields yet though. I'm at a very beginner level. How do you create a screen where you enter the data for the fields? I've tried searching online, but I can't find anything relevant to what I'm trying to accomplish.
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2008-11-21 11:09:46
#3
rpeterson
Registered: Oct 7 2008
Posts: 72
But what about on dynamic forms? I have one that has 2 fields identically named but on page 1 and page 2, and the one on page 2 does not automatically fill with the information entered on page 1. Is there any other way?

thanks, rp

rpeterson

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2008-11-21 11:16:24
#4
George_Johnson
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
Lemur,

To create a form, you'd first create a PDF document. You've probably already done this with Acrobat. You'd then open the PDF in Acrobat and use the various forms tools to add the interactive form fields. After you've added the fields you want, they are available for use by anyone who opens the PDF.

There is some information on creating forms in the Acrobat Help file, and a lot of information in various articles here.

George
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2008-11-21 11:23:09
#5
George_Johnson
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
RP,

Livecycle Designer (XFA) forms are very different. To get the behavior you want, the fields need to be named the same AND the "Default Binding" has to be set to Global, as opposed to Normal.

George
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2008-11-21 11:32:26
#6
rpeterson
Registered: Oct 7 2008
Posts: 72
Thanks!! That did the trick.

RP

rpeterson

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2008-11-21 19:09:53
#7
thelemur
Registered: Nov 21 2008
Posts: 9
George_Johnson wrote:
Lemur,To create a form, you'd first create a PDF document. You've probably already done this with Acrobat. You'd then open the PDF in Acrobat and use the various forms tools to add the interactive form fields. After you've added the fields you want, they are available for use by anyone who opens the PDF.

There is some information on creating forms in the Acrobat Help file, and a lot of information in various articles here.

George
George, can you point me towards some of those articles here? I'm not familiar with this site.

Also, how do I create a one single screen for the fields to be entered? My objective is to not have to go through all 20 pages filling in fields, but to be able to enter "ADDRESS" once and have that address populate 20 times. Is that feasible?

Thanks!
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2008-11-21 20:15:01
#8
George_Johnson
Expert
Registered: Jul 6 2008
Posts: 1876
If you go to the top of this page you'll see a red menu bar. Click on HOWTO and then select TUTORIALS. In the "Advanced Search" section select "Forms" from the first drop-down (areas of interest) and click the "Go" button. You will see a number of available tutorials, articles, and other content, from basic to advanced. Enough to keep you busy for some time, but start with what looks like the more basic ones. Stay away from anything to do with LiveCycle Designer for now. :^)

What you want to do is quite feasible. By giving the fields that you want to repeat the same name, you will not have to go through all twenty pages. Just make an entry on any of the repeating fields and the value will be the same for all like named fields. You could place the first fields on the first page if you like.

George
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2008-11-22 05:33:46
#9
thelemur
Registered: Nov 21 2008
Posts: 9
George_Johnson wrote:
If you go to the top of this page you'll see a red menu bar. Click on HOWTO and then select TUTORIALS. In the "Advanced Search" section select "Forms" from the first drop-down (areas of interest) and click the "Go" button. You will see a number of available tutorials, articles, and other content, from basic to advanced. Enough to keep you busy for some time, but start with what looks like the more basic ones. Stay away from anything to do with LiveCycle Designer for now. :^)What you want to do is quite feasible. By giving the fields that you want to repeat the same name, you will not have to go through all twenty pages. Just make an entry on any of the repeating fields and the value will be the same for all like named fields. You could place the first fields on the first page if you like.

George
Thanks George, this helps a lot. I'll let you know how it works out!
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