These forums are now Read Only. If you have an Acrobat question, ask questions and get help from one of our experts.

Removing blue background from drop down list box

JamesGJ
Registered: Nov 13 2007
Posts: 8

Hi,

I have created a form in Acrobat Pro 8 with a number of list boxes.

Unfortunately all these drop down list boxes have an unwanted blue background that dont suit the design of the form and look terrible when printed.

I cant figure out how to remove this background colour.

Can anyone help me?

Cheers!

JJ

tedpadova
ExpertTeam
Registered: Dec 31 2005
Posts: 848
Open the field Properties dialog box and click the Appearance tab. You can change the border and background color by clicking the color swatches at the top of the Appearance tab.

After making the changes you want, you can change the default for the appearances of additional List Boxes by opening a context menu on a list box and choose Use Current Properties as New Defaults.

If for some reason your appearance settings are set different than what you see in your List Boxes and the above doesn't work for you, post another question and let us know all the things you've tried.

Best Wishes,

ted

The author of numerous books on Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator and the Adobe Creative Suite, and an international speaker on Adobe Acrobat, Ted Padova is a well-known PDF guru.

JamesGJ
Registered: Nov 13 2007
Posts: 8
Hi Ted,

Thanks for the reply. However I attempted to remove the highlight in the Appearance tab and it still remains. The Appearance tab can change the background colour of the list box however the highlight remains unaffected.

Any other suggestions?

Cheers.

JJ
Sharon Mindy
Registered: Mar 26 2010
Posts: 7
Did you ever get this resolved? I'm fighting the same issue and no one seems to have a clue how to get rid of it.
ekirsten
Registered: May 11 2010
Posts: 1
I have same problem, and haven't found a fix either. I encounter these kinds of problems and much worse all the time with Acrobat. Considering they invented it and thier program is supposed to be the Cadilac of .pdf programs, the makers of this program should be ashamed of themselves. They charge a fortune for this program and it sucks 60% of the time. I'm finding the much cheaper knockoffs work much better and are far more reliable.
maxwyss
Registered: Jul 25 2006
Posts: 255
So, it is about the highlights in listboxes…

I am not aware that this color can be changed; it may even come from the operating system.

A workaround would be, if it is for printing, to make the listbox non-printing and to pass the results to a (multiline (if you allow multiple selections)) text field, which is hidden on screen but prints. In print, you would see only the selected results. If you wanted to see all the options, you could do a trick with a multiline text field which has the richText option set, and use different fonts or styles or text colors for the selected and non-seleected options. This might be a bit of overkill, but if appearance goes über alles, you would have most control in this way.

To ekirsten: rant on, but for smart forms, any other PDF viewer fails miserably.

RyanD
Registered: Feb 25 2011
Posts: 1
To change the color of the default blue background:
- Open Acrobat's Preferences
- Click on Forms in the Categories list on the left
- Under the heading "Highlight Color" change the Fields Highlight Color box to the color that you prefer
DCG
Registered: Jun 13 2011
Posts: 1
or....just (select add items) and make a couple of "invisible space bar characters". Then declare the last "invisible" item as the default selection. I believe the blue background only shows for the "default" item.


RE: So, it is about the highlights in listboxes…

I am not aware that this color can be changed; it may even come from the operating system.

A workaround would be, if it is for printing, to make the listbox non-printing and to pass the results to a (multiline (if you allow multiple selections)) text field, which is hidden on screen but prints. In print, you would see only the selected results. If you wanted to see all the options, you could do a trick with a multiline text field which has the richText option set, and use different fonts or styles or text colors for the selected and non-seleected options. This might be a bit of overkill, but if appearance goes über alles, you would have most control in this way.

To ekirsten: rant on, but for smart forms, any other PDF viewer fails miserably.