Hi,
I'm using Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 and its LiveCycle Designer to create forms. I have been able to get some of my text boxes to expand to fit the amount of text that a user enters, but not all of them. I'm having trouble noticing any differences between the settings associated with the text boxes that expand properly and those that don't expand. To make the text boxes expand I followed the below instructions.
If you have an idea about this, please let me know. Also, if that doesn't work, I'd like to send someone my form so they can take a look at what the problem might be.
Thanks so much!
(Instructions followed are below.)
(Some of the below was taken from http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c0561d8)
You need to wrap your text fields in a flowed subform (if both fields are not right next to one another on your form set each field up in its own subform), and have each text field you want to expand set to expand to fit length. Also make sure that your form is saved as a dynamic one and not static. If your form isn't saved as a dynamic form, or your text fields are not wrapped within a flowed subform, the text fields will not grow as you desire, based on user entry.
You will need to set up a structure of subforms to handle this. First wrap the fields below your expanding text fields in a subform. Keep this form set to positioned rather than flowed. Do the same for your fields above the expanding field. Next wrap all of these subforms in their own subform (this should be a subform that includes all of your form elements at this point), and set that subform to flowed. What this does is keep the fields above and below your expanding text field in the same position you have them set to on your form (the two positioned subforms). The subform that then encapsulates all of your subforms then allows the form to expand and contract based on the amount of text entered in the expanding fields. The positioned subforms will move within the flowed subform based on the expansion of the expanding text field.
To save a form as dynamic you must do a "save as", and change the type to dynamic instead of the default static. None of the expansion will work properly without the form being saved as a dynamic form.
Have you confirmed that BOTH your text field and the subform that it is wrapped in are set to expand? You'll need to check:
For your text field: that Object>Field>Allow Multiple Lines is checked.
Layout>Y:/Height Column is checked "Expand to Fit".For your text field's subform: that Object>Subform Content is Flowed. (If it's Positioned, it needs to have in the Layout tab, the Y:/Height Column checked "Auto-Fit".)Those are the requirements needed for expansion. And yes, just as you noted from a forum above, you MUST have your form saved as dynamic to allow for expansion.