I'd like to create a PDF document that looks like the preprinted labels for our Ink Drums. When It prints, I would like only for the data fields I created in Designer to print--that way we can continue to use the preprinted forms we have in stock.
I successfully imported the form and created the fields in Designer. You can view the form, and it looks exactly like the label of course. The problem is, I can't get the graphics to NOT print out when printing the label. I could of course just copy the position of the the input fields to a blank form, but then the Secretary who prints the label would not be able to see the form she's printing out.
You can mark buttons as visible on the form, but not print out, but how can you mark the graphics and stuff in the same way?
I placed a transparent text field that covered the whole page or at least the art I wanted to eventually cover up. I also set this field to be read only so it wouldn't interfere with any other fields on the page. I then used the Will Print and Did Print document actions to give the field a white fill and then change it back to transparent. What this did was when the document was sent to the printer the text field was given a white fill color and after it was finished being sent to the printer the fill color was set to transparent again.
The main problem with this may be the cover up field is awkward to work with. You have to make sure all the other fields that need to be filled out are on top of it.
Here is another wacky idea that I have thought about playing around with. Make an oversize button that will cover the whole page of the document and instead of giving it a fill color and border and a caption make it have an icon face only and import an image of the art and turn off any interactivity so it can't be clicked on. Since it is a field you can easily set it up to be visible on screen but not print. Then you drop the real interactive fields on top of it.
I just recently had a form that needed to be printed out for filling out by hand as well as be interactive for those who would want to fill it out on the computer. The form designer had added rule lines in some of the areas of the form that gave users the option to write in multiple items and the client wanted to keep those rules just in case some one would want to fill in the form by hand. So I added multi line text fields with a white fill color to cover up the rules and with some JavaScripts in the Will Print and Did Print Document Actions I set the fields up so that if there was any data put in the fields the form could be printed with no rules showing. However if there was no data in any of those fields then the form would print with the rules showing.
I hope I explained that right. Anyway I have been using Acrobat 8 to do most of this but it seems like Acrobat 7 should be able to accomplish any of these.
StevenD
StevenD