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Submit button does not show in Preview

Andrew Dalton
Registered: Aug 17 2009
Posts: 7
Answered

Hi all,

I've watched a video tutorial on how to create a Submit button (Lynda.com) but it's not working for me. The problem is that I'm not able to change the font size or font colour of the button label and when I enter Preview mode, there is no text showing at all.

To create the Submit button, I am doing these steps:
Add New Field > Button > enter the name of the button (Submit)
Go to the Appearance tab > change font size and font colour

I am able to change the background colour of the button and see a live preview, but font colour and size do not show in live preview or in Preview mode.

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Many thanks,
Andrew

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.1.2, Macintosh
suewhitehead
Registered: Jun 3 2008
Posts: 232
Once you have created the button, in Properties, go to Options tab, then in Layout choose Label Only. In the Label field, type in Submit (or whatever label you want to show up on your button). Close the Properties box. In Preview you should now see the button with the label of Submit.
Andrew Dalton
Registered: Aug 17 2009
Posts: 7
Many thanks, Sue, that nailed it!

There are few other minor things that I can't get to work. I've tried looking up the Help function but it doesn't cover it and nor do the video tutorials. Can you suggest a way to:

(1) align the text in the field to the baseline of the field (it always appears in the middle)
(2) align the field to the baseline of the text outside it (e.g Name). I have been using the Grid, but the text is always out of alignment when entering text in the finished form.
(3) make the field retain its border. At the moment, the border disappears when I click inside it.

I hope it's OK to ask questions about more than one subject in a post. I'm new to this forum and not sure of the etiquette.

Thanks again,
Andrew
suewhitehead
Registered: Jun 3 2008
Posts: 232
It's okay with me to ask me more questions, but technically you should probably start a new post in the future so that anyone using the forum will be able to tell that another topic is being covered. As you may have noticed, there is not a lot of resources available to those of us that are learning Acrobat and Livecycle forms. So this forum is a major tool in being able to learn. Starting a new post helps others in the future.
Now on to your questions. (3) You can add a border to a field that will be seen even after data is entered by going to PROPERTIES > APPEARANCE > BORDER COLOR. Click on the box beside it. You will now see a color picker. I like to use light gray for the border.(1) There is some information on the forum somewhere about setting the text to the bottom of the field. It is done in Acrobat, not on the Form palette. I have never gotten it to work right, so I am not the one to help you on this.
(2) Aligning the text in the field to other text outside the field -- I think you mean something like making the text in the field line up with, for example, the title of the form that may be on the underlying page beneath the fields. Well, again I have never gotten an easy method for this. I just have to eyeball it and adjust as needed. If on the other hand you mean you want the fields to align, you can do so by selecting all the fields that you want to align, making the last one clicked be the one that is the one you want to align all the others to. Then right-click that last field and go to ALIGN > ALIGN TOP or bottom, etc.
Andrew Dalton
Registered: Aug 17 2009
Posts: 7
Thank you once again, Sue. Actually, I had selected a border and fill colour for my fields in the Appearance tab, but when I view the form in Preview mode and in the completed form after distributing it, the border line and fill colour disappear when the cursor is placed in the field. It's not a huge problem, just throws you a bit when you go to type in the field.

I'll search the forum on the subejct of aligning text to the baseline within a field. As for aligning the field to the title of the field, yes, I suppose I'll just do what you do and use the ruler and my eyes.

I take your point about posting questions on different issues separately. This is a a very good forum and I hope I'll be in a position to answer questions soon rather than just ask 'em.

Thanks,
Andrew